Beyond the skate, find a world a play with epic fun to fill your day.

What you just heard was the moment excited fans were welcomed to Super Nintendo World at Universal Orlando,

one of five new worlds that are part of its new theme park, Epic Universe.

Hello, and welcome to the excerpt.

I'm Dana Taylor.

Today is Sunday, August 3, 2025.

This is just one example of a growing focus on immersive entertainment experiences across

the country.

Here to share more about what goes into creating an immersive experience and why they're

having a moment for audiences is Noah Nelson, a publisher of No. Presidium, a community of writers that follow all things immersive.

Noah is also a co-founder of the nonprofit, the Immersive Experience Institute.

Thanks for being on the excerpt, Noah.

Thanks for having me, Dana.

First, tell us what defines an immersive experience,

what qualities are required for something to fit into this category.

And briefly, what's the history of this art form?

We have a pretty broad definition over at no proscenium,

in part because there's so many things in the category.

It's pretty simple. If you put the audience on the same plane as the action of the experience, so they're not on the outside looking in, but they're inside of it. It's all around them. They're a part of it. They're pulled in. They're taking part.

Then it's immersive. And as far as what the history of it is, it's been going on for some time.

There are immersive theater experiences you can find in the late 1970s and in the 80s.

There were shows in Los Angeles and New York that were running for a decade back then.

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