A Love Story was set in 1950’s Los Angeles, with a narrative inspired by West Side Story and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Featuring musical numbers, characters created for the guests, a penthouse to explore, brunch the next day with a second mystery and a dash of magic, A Love Story took guests on a whimsical and nostalgic journey, ending with a scavenger hunt mystery game at a 1950’s sock-hop, complete with a live swing band and surprise dance numbers.
A big component of this overnight experience was its high immersive nature: guests were dressed in era-appropriate clothing, ate and drank with characters and interacted with them, belonging to the same world for an entire evening (and into the next day for overnight guests). With A Love Story, we took The Hotel Who immersion further, by giving guests their own characters with side missions to complete while they were in the experience.
Guests began the night in different areas of the hotel. coming together for a dinner packed with family drama, awkward introductions and surprising encounters. Once dinner finished, the party found themselves at the groom-to-be’s family penthouse, where strange happenings, side missions and unexpected secrets came to light.Just when the party seemed to be in full swing, the groom-to-be mysteriously drinks a love potion, causing the anger, heartbreak and tears.
To reverse the effects of the love potion and restore the bride and groom’s love back to what it was, guests were swept away to the only place where they could find a love potion antidote: the underworld of lust. Within the underworld of lust (a 1950’s sock-hop) guests embarked on a mystery scavenger hunt game to collect the antidote ingredients and competed against each other to break the love spell before the clock struck twelve.
As the co-creator and director of A Love Story, I created the structure of the experience’s flow along with creating the structure for the guests’ varied experiences, created the game structure for solving the mystery, wrote the script and helped cast the show. I co-choreographed the dance and musical theater moments, oversaw the flow and direction of the experience as a whole and worked with the entire cast on the improvisation techniques needed for an experience with long-duration immersion.
On the marketing side, I oversaw the brand development and managed branding across all touch points.