ART IS PRISON
Written by Maggie Smith, Rebecca Walker, Kateri Halbleib, and Will Gerretsen | Directed by Maggie Smith
Produced by Loyola Theatre Podcasts
Episode Art Created by Miranda Betancourt
Poster Created by Grey Smith
ART IS PRISON is an immersive podcast written to take you on a tour of Loyola University Chicago's lakeshore campus. Your tour guides, Space and Time, are ecstatic to show you around, and introduce you to the gods that inhabit the campus, each trapped in a statue. You have the unique opportunity of learning each god's story of their downfall, and choose which one to free.
This podcast was created in cooperation with Loyola Chicago's THTR 395: Immersive Theatre course. ART IS PRISON was directed by Maggie Smith, written by Maggie Smith, Rebecca Walker, Kateri Halbleib, and Will Gerretsen. The podcast featured cover art by Grey Smith.
Each episode of the podcast began with an image directing the listener to the location in which the episode takes place. All episode art was created by Miranda Betancourt, and based on photos taken throughout the campus.
A reference image taken by Rebecca Walker
The final image drawn by Miranda Betancourt
The process of creating this podcast took a month to develop the plot and characters, host improvisation sessions with the performers, and write and edit the script. Outside of sessions with the entire production team, members would work on individual jobs such as taking reference photos of the campus, creating the artwork for the podcast, and editing episodes.
Art for Episode 1 (Miranda Betancourt)
Art for Episode 4 (Miranda Betancourt)
Art for Episode 5 (Miranda Betancourt)
The process of creating each character was based in short improvisational scenes based on various relationships in the characters' lives. After improvising scenes, the writing team used the dialogue as inspiration for the script, as well as encouraged the ensemble to incorporate moments of improvisation into the script. Each episode was recorded remotely due to the COVID-19 Pandemic over Zoom.