Who: emersion theater company with DaniWay Productions and Edwin Salas
What: The Happiness System is an interactive performance experience in which participants must work together to create a system of living that suits them. They will navigate obstacles and make discoveries as they explore what it would feel like to live in a just world.
emersion is a series of immersive performance art installations produced by Grayson Morris. Audience members journey through the installations, interface with performers, and have interactive visual, auditory, sensory, and emotional experiences in each space. emersion collaborates with different performers for each installation--this year the show was co-designed with Daniele Martin and Edwin Salas.
Where: Revolve Gallery at The RAMP Studios. 821 Riverside Dr. Asheville, 28801
Why: Immersive theater experiences have been growing in popularity worldwide in recent years. This new genre of experiential art is developing in unexpected and delightful ways—blending techniques from traditional theater, live action role playing, visual art installations, performance art, video game logic, and escape rooms. The immersive theater boom has proven that audiences are hungry to interact with the show.
Bios: Grayson Morris is a multi-disciplinary artist and performer from Asheville, NC, currently based in based in Los Angeles. Her original work has appeared at Black Mountain College Museum's ReHAPPENING and numerous Fringe Festivals across America. Her immersive performance art series, emersion, which was originally produced in the rooms of her own house, is currently in its fourth year and has expanded to other locations around Asheville. Grayson is also a stand-up comedian and has opened for Maria Bamford and Louis C.K. and appeared on AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live.
Daniele Martin is a yoga teacher, storyteller, equity activist, animal lover and healer dedicated to transforming individual and collective racial trauma through strategic partnerships. Specifically, Daniele specializes in working with health and wellness organizations, conferences, and festivals committed to decolonizing their spaces. She’s been acting on and off for 20 years, but has really enjoyed being a part of Asheville Creative Arts for the last three and doing sophisticated and thought provoking theater for children. In her career, she has been part of many film and television projects as part of the Director’s team.
Edwin Salas is an acclaimed international performer who for the last 19 years has performed in Italy, France, Spain, Switzerland, Poland, Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador, Belize, Guatemala, United States and Taiwan. In 2017 he created and performed a duet with Taketeru Kudo, one of the most renowned Butoh artists in Japan, in their piece "From the Love to the Horror." That year he also moved to the U.S. and began to collaborate with Asheville Contemporary Dance Theatre in The Nutcracker and in his 2018 solo piece, "To the Dragon with Love.” His most recent productions have been “Frijolito Against the Orange Monster” and “Seven Deadly Sins in the Border” which he brought to the Puppeteers of America Festival this summer.
