CREATOR | PRODUCER | WRITER | PERFORMER
HOME OF ENCHANTMENTS
THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
WORLD PREMIERE AT OVERLOOK FILM FESTIVAL
The Overlook Film Festival presents the World premiere of Home of Enchantments "Belle's experience" from immersive veteran Alba Albanese set in the world of her very own supernatural series, where what you see is never what you get.
You are called upon to help the spiritually gifted, yet troubled Belle, her memory blurred between the material and spiritual realms. You must help her discover her true path, but are you willing to risk your own?
BY PERRI NEMIROFF | JUNE 4, 2019
Here’s where we get into the immersive programming. I was absolutely floored by Ava Lee Scott’s work in “Home of Enchantments.” It’s a one-on-one experience where Scott plays a character named Belle, a spiritually gifted yet troubled individual who calls upon you to help her through an especially dark, trying situation. It’s an extensive tale that requires a powerhouse performance from Scott that not only hits the beats of the story crafted, but also comes with interactive emotional elements that feel deeply personal. It’s a beautiful mix of making the participant feel vulnerable and on edge while also sending you on your way with a surprisingly full heart. (And the fact that Scott conducted one of these shows after the next at Overlook is absolutely astounding.)
BY NOAH J NELSON | JUNE 20, 2019
Creator-performer Ava Lee Scott’s Home of Enchantments introduces us to Belle, a woman at the end of her rope. Belle’s been running away from the past that defined her, and in the process has fallen into a dark place aided by drink and drugs. She’s turned to you — a stranger — to help rid her of these demons. Literally.
Because tonight you’re going to perform an exorcism.
Somehow, in just about a half-hour, Scott single-handedly crafted a full character arc in a piece that moved from the lobby of the Olivier to Belle’s room — lit by candlelight and featuring a large magical circle of protection drawn on the brick (!) floor. Yet it wasn’t only the space that felt otherworldly, as Scott’s performance dove deep into dark places before slingshotting back into the light. (That she managed to do this show after show for hours on end is a feat in and of itself.)
This manifestation of Home of Enchantments is intended as a kind of immersive preview of a world that Scott is developing as a scripted television series and immersive performance piece that takes place in the same world. Her theme is that “fucked up people are magical too,” and Belle’s story equates the addiction with active spiritual malaise, given form by Scott as entities that “ride” her in the exorcism’s possession sequence.
Like all truly great immersive pieces, this short plunges the participant into a role that you’re probably loosely familiar with but never imagined you’d get to take up. Even in an abbreviated form, there’s something thrilling about taking up the tools of an exorcist and coming face to face with forces beyond mortal comprehension.
None of which would work if Scott couldn’t sell it, which she does: covering wide swaths of the emotional spectrum in a way that becomes a psychic workout for the participant as much as it surely was for her. Here’s hoping that this Home reappears on the material plane before too long.