So do you need special date plans for Valentine’s Day or revealing Valentine’s Day gift? Last month, I interviewed  JFI Productions‘ Daniel Montgomery (in-house writer) and head of production Stephanie Turks about “The Willows” an immersive theatrical production which is a two-hour  intimate gathering for  faux friends at a local mansion.

Turks said, “I  feel like ‘The Willows’ would be a great date for a long-term couple, a couple that wants to shake things up and have a fun night and then have the most incredible conversation piece.” Yet she added, ” But it could also be a really great date early on because you really get to see someone in this very vulnerable performative sort of experience. You can really get to know someone in a really unique way. ”

“he tickets are pricey so too early in a relationship could feel like love-bombing, but if you’re brave and can afford it, this is a really unique experience that challenges your own creativity and might push your comfort zone.

The production company takes its inspiration from outside of Los Angeles.  Turks explained, “We were very inspired by productions like “Sleep No More” in New York City.

“Sleep No More” was  an interactive film noir-inspired Macbeth experience at a five-story 1930s hotel (The McKittrick Hotel)  in New York City.  According to Wikipedia, the New York show run was from 7 March 2011 to 5 January 2025 and the production was written by and produced by Punchdrunk.

Los Angeles has had immersive theater before such as the  1981 John Krizanc play “Tamara” about painter Tamara de Lempicka. Lempicka had hoped to be commissioned by the aristocratic Gabriele D’Annunzio to paint his portrait and visited him at his villa. Although the play premiered in Toronto, Canada, it opened in Los Angeles at the Art Deco-style American Legion Hall Post 43 on Highland Ave. in Hollywood in May 1984 and ran for nine years.  In that production, audience members had choices on which character to follow or could wait in a room to see what happens.

But, Turks related that the JFI Productions company which  started by in 2015 , “wanted to create something immersive and something that no one had really tried in Los Angeles yet and Los Angeles is a city of Halloween enthusiasts and people who just love to get spooked. We kind of used that to our advantage and we tricked people into coming to a theatrical theater disguised as a haunted house.”

The 2015 haunted house was their first immersive experience. That was “Creep LA” the first Los Angeles production that I attended but by that time (2024), the company were already well experienced and the results were impressive. They even collaborated with CBS “Ghosts” in their welcoming pre-experience reception and spread.

Montgomery related that first year (2015) wasn’t easy. ” It was trial by fire. We tried things. We gauged reactions. We adjusted and we got addicted to it.” And the next year, it was bigger, better and larger. “The experience was twice as long and the cast was twice as big and we’ve curated and fine tuned as we went along.” Montgomery mentioned their haunted house followed in another LA company’s footsteps:  The theatrical production “Delusion,” which is an interactive horror experience inspired by Dante’s Inferno that was created, written and directed by Jon Braver. According to Montgomery, that show relies heavily on physical performance and stunts. The JFI Productions team know people who have been involved with the production and the writer/director himself, but JFI productions likes to concentrate on story, character, atmosphere and surprise. “Our version of scare is not necessarily the jump out and scare you chainsaw gore. That’s not our typical way of working. We instead love a psychological lowborn, a surprise. We like to excite all senses while telling an impactful, moving story.”

Turks credited Justin Fix, who, she related, was going through an emotionally difficult period in his life and he was tired of waiting for opportunities to come his way.  So they “threw spaghetti at the wall, maxed out credit cards” and in a very guerrilla-style, plunged into immersive theater. “We created miracles that year.”

Turks added, “The thing that sets us apart, because of our ten years of experience through trying every single format, whether that be this, the open world, the sandbox, the conga, the room-by-room, we’ve done every single type, every single group size, every single ticketed entry time version.” And after a decade, “every single time, everything that we do, we’ve learned.”  Her secret advice to those thinking about doing immersive theater: “Don’t (try it) or it’ll take you ten years to learn all the things you’re supposed to know.” Learning what the audience wants is the first thing and for this team, “We just continue to give the audience what we would want to attend or what we would want to see and what we would want to see more of in Los Angeles.”

What does it take to perform in immersive theater? Montgomery said, “You have to be an incredible actor. You have to be able truly committed to staying in character. ” Both Montgomery and Turks perform in the shows as well. “We don’t break character. You have to have a deep commitment to staying in character.”

Yet there are other important aspects, Montgomery noted, the actors “have to be good with people and have to have a lot of guest management skills.” That means a “recognition of hospitality” because the “guest comes first.”  Montgomery warns, “You can be the best actor in the world, but if you don’t like people, this isn’t for you.”  Moreover, it really “takes a lot of awareness”  along with “malleability and flexibility.” As I witnessed, anything can happen.

Montgomery said, “It’s a wild balance of facing  what’s in front of you honestly in character and then finding a way to bring it back to the script.” So that’s both improv and knowing your character really well.

Montgomery said when people are right up in your face, “They can sniff out if you don’t know every or any answer to any question. So we really have a very dense script that I write and we come up with together to make sure all the questions are answered.” But the answer should not only be in character, but help further the story and that “takes a lot of rehearsal and a lot of commitment.”

When they find those people who “have that special sauce of incredible actor and great with people and great managing and physical moving and guiding people and keep  making them feel safe, we hold on to them for dear life and use  them over and over.” When Montgomery wrote “The Willows” in 2017, he had already worked with a few of the actors so some of the roles were written specifically for those actors “because we knew they had that special sauce.”  While they love adding new people to their cast, the ones they know have not only the special sauce, but an awareness, a shorthand and a trust factor.

To make it all work, the production has “little mice behind the scenes” who help run the show. Behind the scenes, cast members might pass on information about a guest who might be a bit overwhelmed or is talking a lot. That could mean a cast member tries to befriend them quickly. After a decade of doing “The Willows” they have seen it all, the good and the bad. So they’ve developed a protocol of how to handle those situations. Montgomery said, “Sometimes people really want to engage, really want to disrupt, and we get excited about those people because that means they’ve invested.”  And yet, while “they want to be part of it, but we have to balance as performers not only taking care of those people but those people that also like to sit back and not interact as much.” The interacters and observers are both important.

There have been some glitches. In the ten years, people have been so scared they literally peed in their pants, thus the warning at the top of the show to make sure guests all visit the restroom at the beginning. Also, because scared people can be unpredictable, the characters state and re-state the rules of the house at the beginning.

Each individual’s experience will be different and no one audience member will see it all. Montgomery said, “We always look for one-on-one moments. Where’s a spot where we can pull someone away, two people, three people, one person away to have an intimate moment that’s just for them.”

The production has a 5-10 rule. Montgomery said, “If a guest is within five feet of you, you say something to them, You give them eye contact. If they’re ten feet away from you, you still acknowledge them.”

Montgomery further related, “One of the first years…our performer who was so great forgot to take the guest out of the closet. that guest was in the timeout close for about an hour and the show ended. we were done and the door creaks open and he he said, ‘Hello?'”  Still because of the way the house and performance is set up, that guest could hear what was going on.

Turks said, “We just want the entertainment industry in its entirety to flourish out there because there’s so many amazing performers and so many amazing creators in Los Angeles that don’t necessarily have the platform there that people in New York do.”

If you’re interested in getting in to see “The Willows,” visit the JFI Productions website. This weekend seems to be sold out, but still ask. There are tickets available for March.