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The Whispering Society for White Night Melbourne

Written by Sayraphim

Some exciting news, we’ve just been commissioned to develop a brand new game for White Night Melbourne next February!

In the alleys and the echoing dark, in the halls and forgotten corridors, in the haunted places of the city you will find The Whispering Society. Searchers into the paranormal, The Whispering Society listens for the memories of places, gathering to hear the stories of the long forgotten. But lately the spirits have grown agitated, their whispering more urgent, more insistent and much louder. You can click here for more details…

Between Fresh Air and The Whispering Society, February is shaping up to be a busy month! Stay tuned for more details…

Festival games, Fresh Air, The Whispering Society, White Night Melbourne, , ,

Playtest 1 for Fresh Air

Written by Sayraphim

We all trooped off to Fed Square last weekend for our first playtest of games for Fresh Air, our outdoor games festival in Feb 2013.

We warmed up with a few games of Grandma’s Footsteps (traditional) then we trialed Atmosphere Industries’ Mont Trottoir and finished it off with our own piratey adventure game, Bury Yer Treasure.

Thanks to everyone who came and played! Next Playtest is in the city, Sunday 9th Dec from 11.00 – 4.00. Would you like to come play? Email us at
rabbithole at popupplayground.com.au to let us know if you’re coming and we’ll let you know where to meet us

Festival games, Fresh Air, playtests, , ,

The Curse

Written by Sayraphim

In the shadows, behind the tents, a fortune telling machine beckons. “Cross my palm with silver” reads a cracked and painted banner. But these things are ne’er straightforward. Will it simply tell you your future? Or will there be some kind of trouble…

The Curse is a new game for The Village festival which will be played on Friday the 2nd and Saturday the 3rd of November, 2012, with two sessions each night at 8 and 10 PM. The game lasts up to an hour.

Search out the Pop Up Players’ Tent Boss and his team of showies, fortune tellers and clowns, and cross their palms with silver (or at least a $5 note) for a magical brush with fate you’ll never forget.

Image by Awesome Joolie, used with permission

Festival games, Games, The Curse, The Village, , ,

Freeplay 2012

Written by Sayraphim

Yesterday, Rob and Sayraphim ran a Games and Theatre workshop at Freeplay 2012. In it, we looked at where games and theatre collide. We looked at pervasive and social games, some of our main interests, and playful engagements. We took along one of our favourite playful engagements to do while we chatted, The Cabinet of Dr Madazpants. Read More

Freeplay festival, workshop,

Spy Catcher @ The Melbourne Fringe Festival Club

Written by Sayraphim

We’re all spies here – but double agents are murdering our top assets. Your mentor stands accused. Are they guilty? Can you find out before it’s too late?

Join Pop Up Playground for Spy Catcher, a interactive game of inquisition, misdirection and accusation.

Hosted by Ben McKenzie, and featuring a line-up of suspicious spies from all over the Fringe Festival, this game is presented as a free event for the Festival Club games day – followed by Late Night Letters and Numbers.

Watch this space for more details of our line-up!

Look us up in the Fringe program here: http://www.melbournefringe.com.au/fringe-festival/show/sunday-games-day-spy-catcher/

 

Games, Melbourne Fringe Festival, News, Spy Catcher,

This is This Is A Door – new video uploaded

Written by Sayraphim

We’ve just uploaded a video of This Is A Door… Check it out!

This is this is a Door from popupplayers on Vimeo.

This Is A Door, videos,

Opening the door to an old, fun filled favourite (The Age review)

Written by Sayraphim

This is a Door

Reviewed by Cameron Woodhead

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Pop Up Playground
Theatreworks, season ended

AROUND the turn of the millennium, computer games killed a thriving scene of face-to-face social gaming. We used to have conventions that hosted everything from live role-playing to elaborate strategy; much of that has now migrated online.

Fashion is cyclical, though, and the international games carnival This is a Door at Theatreworks this past weekend was an opportunity for nostalgia as well as an innovative look at new possibilities for interactive play. It wasn’t theatre. It wasn’t even art. But it was spirited, anarchic fun.Read More

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This Is A Door (Beat interview)

Written by Sayraphim

“Games are just agreed sets of temporary behaviour out of which sequences of individual choices and lived experience emerge and become stories of tragic loss and heroic triumph,” says Robert Reid, co-founder of Pop Up Playground. Together with Theatre Works, Pop Up Playground is staging a “social, reactive and immersive” new production this coming weekend – one that harnesses the power of games to help the audience learn something about themselves.Read More

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Review: This is a Door (player Hespa review)

Written by Sayraphim

Review: This is a Door

So, I did make it to the previously described This is a Door, and it was awesome fun. Pop Up Playground came up with a really interesting and varied set of games, some easier than others to pick up quickly, but all well suited to engaging a bunch of people with each other and with the task. The set-up felt like a really well-organised version of a games day with friends: there were always two or three games going at once, but with short single-person or two-player activities set up to the side, to entertain people who had gone out in whatever game they were playing – or just didn’t like the current options – and were waiting for another big game to open up.Read More
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This is a Door | Pop Up Playground (Australian Stage review)

Written by Sayraphim

This is a Door | Pop Up Playground

Written by Nick Spunde
Sunday, 29 July 2012 12:20

For the next two weeks, when someone mentions the word “games”, you know they’ll be talking about all the faster, higher, stronger stuff going on in London. The games that have been happening at Theatreworks this weekend however have been an altogether different affair. For starters, the audience have got to play too.

This Is A Door is the work of Pop Up Playground, a collaboration between comedian Ben McKenzie (Dungeon Crawl), fringe theatre maker Robert Reid (Theatre in Decay) and artist Sayraphim Lothian. It takes its inspiration from the New Games Movement, a 70s counter-culturalist drive to involve people in entertainment that was active and participatory, rather than placing them in the passive role of spectators.Read More

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