Returning to Denver: Third Rail Projects on creating ‘Sweet & Lucky: Echo’

The latest Denver Center Off-Center immersive production may sound familiar, but it's a whole-new iteration of the original.

Nine years after their groundbreaking immersive production Sweet & Lucky captivated Denver audiences, Third Rail Projects is returning to the Mile High City with Sweet & Lucky: Echo — a companion story that promises to transform the way we experience collective memory and community storytelling.

The original Sweet & Lucky was a milestone for Denver's immersive theatre scene when it premiered in 2016, leaving lasting impressions on audiences and helping establish DCPA Off-Center as a destination for boundary-pushing theatrical experiences. Now, as Off-Center celebrates its 15th anniversary, the award-winning New York-based company returns to explore familiar themes through an entirely new lens.

Sweet & Lucky: Echo will unfold this August through October in the 15,000 square-foot DCPA Off-Center space at Broadway Park, where audiences will journey through a warehouse of memories, witnessing vignettes of a couple's life materialize around them. But this isn't simply a sequel or prequel — it's something altogether different: a story of collective remembrance that places the entire audience at the center of the experience.

We caught up with Associate Directors Edward Rice and Rebekah Morin about returning to Denver, reimagining beloved source material and creating something new in Off-Center's unique performance space.

What drew you back to the Sweet & Lucky universe after nine years, and how has your perspective on the original story evolved since 2016?

We had always wanted Sweet & Lucky to have an ongoing life. Leading up to this production, we realized that there was an opportunity to re-imagine this work to focus on a collective community experience. To accomplish that, we have been thinking about the themes and source material as if they have been refracted through a prism. The story itself isn't changing, but how we are telling it has evolved.

Can you describe what makes Echo a "companion story" rather than a sequel or prequel? How does it relate to the original production thematically and narratively?

Echo is neither a prequel nor a sequel because it is dealing with similar events and themes as Sweet & Lucky from a different lens. In Sweet & Lucky the dramatic content was focused primarily on the life of a couple. Echo is a similar story but refracted into many different points of view, including those of each person in the audience. This piece really centers a collective experience, contemplating how we navigate the wakes and ripples left behind.

The original Sweet & Lucky was groundbreaking for Denver's immersive theatre scene. What new theatrical techniques or innovations are you bringing to Echo that audiences haven't experienced before?

The space itself transforms around the audience. The space moves around you rather than you moving through the space. The elements of the environment are deceptively simple and are designed to transform in complex ways. Often, the structure of Third Rail Projects' work is invisible to the audience to be able to facilitate a sense of intimacy. The structure of this work is visible to the audience, allowing a feeling of collective experience even though audience members will see different combinations of scenes.

Rehearsing 'Sweet & Lucky: Echo' are Sam Urdang and Amanda Berg Wilson and at right Tiffany Ogburn and Brendan Duggan. | Photos: Amanda Tipton Photography

How are you utilizing the 15,000 square-foot DCPA Off-Center space? What unique opportunities does this venue present for the new production?

The show happens in one large open space as opposed to a collection of sprawling individual spaces. The scenic design allows the space to grow and shrink magically around us. There are times when the audience can feel the whole space at once; and at times the audience experiences smaller spaces with more intimate groups.

You mentioned the "lasting impression" the original left on Denver audiences. How are you balancing the expectations of returning fans with the need to create something fresh for newcomers?

Since this is an entirely new show, all the information the audience needs is contained within it. Returning fans will get the satisfaction of recognizing some elements from Sweet & Lucky, but they will appear in a different context, adding layers to the previous work.

The press release describes audiences helping to "unpack the chapters" of the characters' lives. How interactive is this experience, and what role do audience members play in shaping the narrative?

The audience members are necessary to the action of the show. Sometimes that means being an active participant, and sometimes that means being an essential witness. While the arc of the show will be the same, each performance, every audience group will shape and color specific aspects of the performance based on their individual and collective engagements with the work.

What's been the most challenging aspect of creating a companion piece to such a beloved production? How do you avoid simply recreating what worked before?

Creating a companion piece actually freed us to revisit themes and explore new ideas that are artistically interesting to us in this moment that would not have been possible with a restaging of Sweet & Lucky. Rather than recreating what worked before we are excited for returning audiences to experience these themes in new ways.

Third Rail Projects is known for intimate, transformative experiences. How do you maintain that intimacy in a large warehouse space while accommodating multiple audience members?

While developing this work, we have been thinking about the kind of transformation that is possible only inside a community. Through that inquiry, we decided we wanted to lift up an intimacy found by going through an experience together in a large group, that is different from being in small groups, but no less profound. In Echo, you will experience both.

How has the immersive theatre landscape changed since 2016, and how does Sweet & Lucky: Echo reflect or respond to those changes?

The immersive theatre landscape has greatly expanded in the last decade, overlapping with multiple performance practices: live-action role-play, escape room, murder mystery dinner party, haunted houses and 360 visual installations, etc. This expansiveness allows for and demands more specificity from creators in order to stand out. Third Rail Projects' work has consistently asked questions about how specific the role and experience of the audience can be, and answered them differently for each work. In Echo, the role of the audience is as a member of the community in the act of remembrance, and we think it is unique.

Looking ahead, does Echo complete the Sweet & Lucky story, or could there be more chapters to explore in this universe?

The possibilities are infinite.

Sweet & Lucky: Echo runs August 13 – October 5 at DCPA Off-Center (407 S. Broadway). Tickets and information