Open a neon portal to a new universe, don a mask and wander through a fairy folklore or solve a murder mystery before the final reveal. Decades before immersive art started trending, Denver artists were already experimenting with light, sound and audience interaction. That early push to blur the line between performer and participant still shapes the city’s creative landscape. Today, actors pull guests into the plot, digital projections react in real time and entire buildings turn into walk-through worlds. So, step into the scene and lose yourself, if only for a few hours, in one of these immersive art experiences in the Mile High City.
Adam’s Mystery Playhouse
Operating out of a former mortuary since 2006, Adam’s Mystery Playhouse is Denver’s only full-time murder mystery dinner theater and a forerunner of the city’s immersive art boom. You’ll mingle with suspicious characters during cocktail hour, staying alert for dropped clues in conversation, as you and the rest of the audience works together to solve the “whodunit” during and after dinner. Silly and campy, it’s a night of fun and side-splitting laughter along with a tasty meal and freshly shaken cocktails.
Spectra Art Space
This woman-owned gallery and immersive studio is a local favorite for technicolored, interactive exhibits where sensory exploration of the art is encouraged. Stepping off South Broadway and into Spectra, you’d never guess that this unassuming storefront is actually a portal into another world. Don’t let its smaller size dissuade you; the labyrinth of indoor and outdoor installations is packed wall-(and ceiling and floor)-to-wall with surreal local art, technology and story. Affable actors in full-body costumes may follow along with your group or even ask you to dance. And if a piece of art catches your eye, there’s a good chance it’s for sale, so you can return home with a keepsake of the experience.
Meow Wolf Denver's Convergence Station
If you haven’t heard of Meow Wolf, let us cue you in. It’s one of the world’s most famous immersive art experiences (period). Originating in Santa Fe, New Mexico, their Denver iteration spans a massive 90,000 square feet over four floors, housing 300 artists’ work, more than 100 of those being Colorado artists. By nature, the Meow Wolf experience is impossible to describe succinctly, but if we had to describe it in a few words: otherworldly; trippy; story-rich. You’ll travel through subterranean passageways and blacklight portals to alien bodegas and shifting soundscapes. (We told you — tough to explain!) As Instagram-friendly as these luminous installations may be, there is also a full story that unfolds as you explore if you’re willing to look a little closer.
Audacious Immersive
True to its name, Audacious Immersive creates interactive events that move around to a variety of unconventional venues — like breweries, botanical gardens and comic stores — and engage all your senses (including taste and smell!). A team of painters, illustrators, video artists, graphic designers, musicians, actors, dancers and even puppeteers join forces to meld their crafts and create a world that surrounds you. As an audience member, you get to play along and shape the story, from Grimms’ fairy tales to true crime to the supernatural, in playful, participatory performances.
Denver Immersive Repertory Theater (D.I.R.T.)
Upon entering D.I.R.T.’s 10,000-square-foot theater, you’re handed a mask and asked to relinquish your phone as you become part of the show itself. It’s a choose-your-own-adventure where you control the narrative as you move between various rooms and plotlines. Co-founded by Tony-nominated producer Blair Russell and playwright/director Steve Wargo, the action, atmosphere and writing are all top-tier here. You will get lost in the story and language just as much as the dynamic performances.
Lumonics Immersed
You could say Lumonics is the OG of immersive art in Denver. (It’s also been called “a yoga retreat on acid.”) Created in 1969 by Mel and Dorothy Tanner, and established in Denver in 2008, the idea first came to Mel during a mystical personal experience. Afterward, he and Dorothy transformed their art studio into a performance space with psychedelic music, pulsating plexiglass light sculptures and video art projection — all with the intention of helping viewers connect with the subconscious and refresh the mind, body and spirit. Now, every Friday and Saturday night, hundreds of artworks and light sculptures are presented during live performances in their studio warehouse.
Cryptic
Live theater meets futuristic technology at Cryptic, an experimental pop-up in Denver’s River North Art District. You’ll follow along as a character embarks on a mysterious adventure, weaving your way through big, warehouse-style rooms filled with moody lighting, fog and sound. One of the seriously cool aspects of Cryptic’s productions is their innovative use of “projection mapping,” an augmented-reality technology that warps surfaces into dynamic 3D illusions that pull you into another world. If it sounds strange… it is!
OddKnock Productions
A clear local leader in immersive theater, OddKnock is the creative brainchild of Brendan Duggan, Zach Martens and Parker Murphy — three professional actors who met in New York before making Denver their project launchpad. Their growing production company’s experimental performances emphasize human connection and sensory-heavy storytelling, building worlds through lighting, design and sound. You will be encouraged to make decisions on where to go and who to engage with while the narrative unfolds before you.
The Catamounts
The Catamounts is not your typical theater company. Imagine an outdoor production timed to coincide with a meteor shower, or the power intentionally (unbeknownst to the audience) going out mid-performance to create a show within a show. Founded in 2010 by Amanda and Ben Berg Wilson, these two creatives sought to bring the innovative Chicago theater scene to Colorado’s Front Range through what they call “theater for the adventurous.” You never know what you’re going to get with this boundary-pushing company — music, movement, food, drink and performances that could run anywhere from 10 minutes to four hours.