After doing a couple of stories on the Adirondack Theatre Festival's reconception of live theater — In the Box Entertainment, formulated especially for pandemics and other disasters — I decided I wanted to experience it for myself. Thursday night, I did that, along with my wife and one of our daughters in our house, gathered around our computer — and, because I sent them tickets for Christmas, my nephew in his house in Virginia, my daughter and her husband in Boston and another daughter and her boyfriend in Kingston.Â
First, it was great fun — challenging mentally (don't have a cocktail before the show!) and entertaining, too.Â
Second, it was impressively professional, considering this is a brand new medium (invented by ATF creative artistic director Chad Rabinovitz and his crew), put together on the fly in a matter of months after COVID-19 shut everything down last spring.
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After you buy your ticket, ATF sends you a Zoom link. On the night of the show, after downloading the Zoom app, you click the link. You're watching the show on a screen, but it is live theater, taking place as you watch, and interactive, too. Before the show, you get a box in the mail that contains an assortment of items you use to take part in the show.
This show is called "Manhunt," and it's a murder-mystery. During the show, prompted by the star, you have to figure out various puzzles, the solutions to which drive the plot.Â
You'd think, with a new medium and scores of participants, all going at their own pace, the show would proceed too slowly or too fast, or the puzzles would prove too easy or hard, but the ATF brain trust anticipated these challenges. The puzzles are a mix of easy and hard, and you're given plenty of time — in several cases, more time than you need — to finish them. Also, there are hints.
But if you finish quickly, you won't get bored because you can turn your attention to the two very hard bonus puzzles also in the box — neither of which my group could solve, despite devoting several minutes to each.Â
The show is pure fun, and the best part for people who have been cooped up for months with their television sets is the interactive aspect. You can see the other folks working on their puzzles, and you type in your answers on a chat function, so you're a participant, not a passive observer. Plus, if you're watching with people in your household, you get to interact with them in a fresh way.
The show continues tonight (Friday) and tomorrow, and Thursday through Saturday next week, although tickets with boxes are sold out for all the remaining shows. If you buy tickets now, for $25, you get "digital boxes," which means the puzzles are sent to you via email.Â
The next show, the last in the In the Box series, is "Painting for One," in which ticket-holders take part in a "learn to paint" class where a personal drama, as well as an art class, is unfolding. That runs Feb. 9-11 (the first weekend's shows are sold out) and Feb. 16-20. Tickets are $45 ($35 with an ATF discount) and should be ordered soon to make sure you get your box before the show.Â
Will Doolittle is projects editor at The Post-Star. He may be reached at will@poststar.com and followed on his blog, I think not, and on Twitter at
@trafficstatic.