New Immersive Show Cryptic Blends Technology and Theater in RiNo

Live theater, particularly immersive work, is going through a period of contraction. At the national level, Broadway attendance remains lower than pre-pandemic levels, and all but three new musicals that have debuted since 2021 have failed to recoup their investments. Closer to home, the Denver Center’s Off-Center program announced last October that it would no longer produce original immersive works due to “budget challenges and economic uncertainty.”

Rising costs, changing audience habits, and uncertain funding models are putting pressure on theater companies to prioritize stability over experimentation. While others worry about what comes next, Parker Murphy, co-founder of OddKnock Productions, a Denver-based immersive dance and theater company, posits that the industry’s precariousness can be used to spur innovation.

“It’s really easy right now to get down in the dumps about the future of the arts; I think the trends and the conversations are not the most uplifting,” he says. “But I also think something that gives me hope is that I think in times of great uncertainty, there can be great innovation. Even though I don’t know what immersive theater will look like in ten years, I am confident that it will innovate in such a way that it will remain relevant. I don’t have anything tangible, but that’s my North Star. It’s our company’s ethos and the basis for our upcoming collaboration.”

That spirit of innovation is helping drive Cryptic, OddKnock’s upcoming collaboration with Fictive, a creative technology company founded by artist and technologist Cody Borst, which aims to test both an artistically adventurous storytelling model and a more sustainable approach to immersive production. Opening this spring at 1421 26th Street in Denver’s RiNo art district, Cryptic is a one-performer timed experience that invites small audiences of about ten people to follow a lone character through a dynamic setting.

“It’s an on-rails performance that takes you through a mysterious environment,” Borst says. “It’s a storytelling piece that involves interactivity between the audience, the performer and the environment, and that environment is just filled with cool technology pieces. So, lots of lights, sound, video projection, lasers and fog — we’re really just kind of going to the extreme of what we can do with all of these fun tools that help tell a really compelling story.”

That environment, he explains, is packed with technical tools that are designed not as spectacle but as storytelling partners. “The entire world comes to life through technology,” Borst says. “That is something that the performer can play off of and interact with and be curious about and have conflict with.”

For OddKnock’s Zach Martens, Brendan Duggan and Murphy, the collaboration grows out of an earlier partnership with Borst on the 2022 immersive production From On High, which won “Best Immersive Theater Production” in Westword’s Best of Denver 2023. While building out an interactive computer system for that show, Martens remembers wishing the technology could respond to audiences in real time.

“We had this idea that we had a computer system as part of this thing and we were like, ‘I just wish it had some sentience and could feel like it was talking to the audience,” Martens says. A mutual collaborator introduced them to Borst, who built an interactive terminal for the production. The two groups stayed in touch and eventually reunited when OddKnock secured residency in a RiNo space through EDENS, a local commercial real estate agency, at the same time Borst was looking for a home to test new ideas for Fictive.

“I wanted to find a way to test a new workflow for technical integration with performance,” Borst says. “The people that I consider to be the best in the business in terms of immersive performance happen to be OddKnock, and they were coming back to town and got a space when I was also looking for a space at the same time. So it was an excellent opportunity for us to collaborate and leverage their space and world-class performance expertise with my experimental technology and production value for Cryptic.”

What emerged is something Duggan describes as a hybrid between a theme park ride and an intimate immersive performance in the vein of Third Rail Projects’ Sleep No More, with the technology embedded into the scenic world rather than bolted onto it.

“You can’t see where the switches are on some of the projectors,” Duggan says. “The technology is really woven into the narrative that we’re putting together.”

Martens says the story begins at a roadside attraction built around an ancient, mysterious object that evokes Stonehenge or Easter Island. As audiences explore the site, the technology begins to intrude on the lo-fi mythology of the place until the environment itself starts behaving like a character with its own agenda.

“We want to make something where you can feel the conversation between the performer and the technology,” Martens says, “so that the technology and the space itself are a huge driver of story, friction and narrative purpose.”

That impulse toward experimentation arrives at a transitional moment for immersive work in Denver. In October 2025, the Denver Center’s Off-Center division announced that it would cease producing original immersive productions, a significant loss for the immersive community. Since then, however, new initiatives have begun to fill the gap. Denver Immersive Repertory Theatre has confirmed plans to open in its LoDo space in spring 2026, while Audacious Immersive is launching its own year-round venue this month inside a renovated coffee shop at First Baptist Church of Denver.

Murphy says collaborations like Cryptic are part of a broader effort to keep pushing the field forward, even as traditional funding models become less stable.

“We’re in such an uncertain time in the industry,” Murphy says. “We’re really trying to push against doing what is proven or what is known and try to find ways to innovate within the live performing arts.”

For Borst, the bet is also economic. As audiences become fatigued by algorithmic media and AI-generated content, he believes location-based entertainment may gain value precisely because it is analog and shared.

“The tangible in-person type of entertainment is going to start to have higher value for people,” Borst says. “It’s just going to feel better to have that type of entertainment.”

Cryptic rehearsals will continue for the next few weeks, with an opening date set for Friday, March 27. Tickets go on sale Saturday, February 28. If the team’s iterative approach holds, the show may continue evolving based on audience feedback throughout its initial run. Borst says that kind of ongoing refinement is central to his vision for Fictive’s long-term work.

“I really want to work with the community, talk with audiences about what they think of the show and hear what feedback they have for us,” he says. “Then we will incorporate that feedback into the show so that, by the time we have our tenth or twentieth show, it is actually significantly improved.”

In a theater landscape that has spent the past few months asking what immersive work in Denver might look like without Off-Center’s institutional backing, Cryptic offers one possible answer: smaller, scrappier productions that emphasize collaborations between local creatives.

“I think there’s a hunger for immersive work and we’re hoping that we can be a part of that conversation, to create a space here in Denver where immersive theater can get the resources and time and collaboration,” Duggan says. “Our goals are to find a permanent home in Denver, to continue developing new work and to pursue more collaborations with people like Cody and others who are interested in experiences that are not necessarily theatrical but have a story element. I believe the future of immersive is still in-person, live performances, but we’re excited to keep experimenting to figure out how to create immersive magic in a sustainable way.”

Cryptic is slated to open Friday, March 27, at 1421 26th Street. Tickets will go on sale Saturday, February 28. Sign up for the show’s email list on its website to receive the latest news, updates and ticket information at crypticdenver.com.