'Love Game' is an interactive play that unfolds inside an L.A. bar — and you're Cupid

On a caller weekday evening, I recovered myself successful a romanticist presumption for which I person had zero training: a dating coach. Yet determination I was, astatine an East Hollywood bar, listening to and analyzing a speech betwixt 2 prospective partners. The brace had already debated section hiking spots, yet erstwhile 1 said she leaned homebody and the different favored nights out, our trainees needed help.

A abrupt lull successful the chat caused a panic, and a manager for the different squad called for a pause. “Time for a sidebar,” she said, arsenic we each huddled astir our dating cadets for a speedy appraisal and to supply tips to steer the people of the conversation.

The timepiece was ticking. This was a speed-dating setup, and our apprentices had lone a fewer minutes to get to immoderate important conversations. Dating with volition and committedness was important to the singleton that I and different were tasked to manage, truthful we decided to get consecutive to big-picture goals. It worked — benignant of. Asking questions astir the aboriginal caused the different enactment to waver and stumble. A reddish flag?

This is “Love Game,” a caller interactive play from the Last Call Theatre institution staged astatine the Virgil, a barroom and live-music abstraction adjacent the country of Santa Monica Boulevard and Virgil Avenue. We arsenic assemblage members play matchmaker successful this 21-and-older show. And successful our role, we’re moving for a researcher who believes they person cracked the look for love.

The bulk of the actors play wannabe daters. The stakes gradually ramp up passim the production. With lone a fistful of singles available, the tendency to brace up my assigned histrion accrued arsenic the amusement progressed. I didn’t privation to neglect them by having the amusement extremity with them being dateless.

Expect curveballs — immoderate whitethorn transportation polyamory, causing a near-existential situation successful a azygous who longs for a fairy-tale romance with 1 individual. And get acceptable for debates arsenic to what makes for the champion semipermanent concern — wherever bash we compromise, and is it adjacent steadfast to yearn for romance supra each other successful life? Does emotion erupt acknowledgment to immoderate undefinable equation that conscionable benignant of happens, oregon tin we attack dating similar a science, mixing and matching property traits until we’ve created a foolproof pairing?

The superior taxable of “Love Game,” says manager Michael DiNardo, is self-improvement.

“I deliberation erstwhile a batch of radical are going retired to day oregon looking for a lifelong partner, they’re looking for a batch of affirmation and validation from extracurricular sources,” DiNardo, 29, says. “But each of these characters, the ones who are dating successful the amusement and are extracurricular of the dating experimentation of the show, person aspects astir themselves that request self-reflection.”

“Love Game” is Last Call’s eighth amusement successful astir 3 years, a comparatively brisk accumulation gait that has helped found the young troupe arsenic superior players connected the L.A. immersive theatre scene. At immoderate Last Call performance, storylines are heavy improvised, determination are aggregate endings and assemblage members tin expect to interact with actors successful exaggerated settings. The squad has successful the past created shows influenced by an Ikea-like setting, 2023’s “The Showroom,” and connected a pirate ship, past year’s “Pirates Wanted,” which was staged astatine San Pedro’s Los Angeles Maritime Institute.

“We enactment the powerfulness successful the hands of the audience,” says Ashley Busenlener, Last Call’s enforcement director.

“They person the bureau to impact and alteration the story,” Busenlener continues. “If determination was nary audience, determination would beryllium nary show. The actions they instrumentality and however they interact with the characters alteration it each night. You tin alteration 1 character’s caput astir something. You tin alteration the full crippled of the show. There’s a operation and there’s antithetic endings, but the assemblage is the protagonist of the story.”

Maria Sole Quintili arsenic Noemi successful “Love Game” arsenic the histrion chats with assemblage members.

(Charly Charney Cohen)

Created by a squad raised connected video and tabletop games, Last Call’s shows unfold similar games, truthful overmuch truthful that the troupe has a inclination to notation to its actors arsenic “NPCs,” oregon non-player characters, a word from the gaming satellite that identifies those personas not controlled by the player. Busenlener, 27, is an avid “Dungeons & Dragons” player, and the phantasy role-playing crippled has influenced Last Call productions, specifically successful the instauration of elaborate quality sheets that outline for the histrion someone’s interests, inheritance and motivation.

“Individual backstories and world-building is thing that happens successful the rehearsal process with the actors,” Busenlener says. “That’s thing I’ve gotten a batch of signifier with [in] ‘D&D.’ We constitute journals successful quality and antithetic exercises similar letters and things. When you’re successful these shows, an assemblage subordinate tin truly inquire you anything, and you person to person an reply for it. Like, ‘How is your narration with your mother?’ And you’re like, ‘I cognize the reply due to the fact that successful our 2nd rehearsal I wrote a missive to my mother.’”

Yet what genuinely sets Last Call isolated is its tendency to experimentation with amusement themes and topics successful the immersive space. The seeds of the institution spell backmost to erstwhile Busenlener and DiNardo were students astatine USC. Both fell successful emotion with the immersive format for its interactivity — Busenlener aft seeing a accumulation of “The Great Gatsby: The Immersive Show” portion studying overseas successful London, and DiNardo aft experiencing a fistful of local, intimate shows that allowed for actors to converse with the guests.

In Los Angeles successful particular, the immersive country tends to beryllium astir progressive successful September and October near Halloween season. Shows are often constructed astir a enigma oregon the exploration of a haunted environment. A accumulation similar “Love Game,” a romanticist drama timed for Valentine’s Day and arsenic influenced by world tv and dating-simulator video games, is comparatively rare.

Peyton Wray, left, Kylie Buckles-Hall and Caitlyn Gorman arsenic Austin, Lenora and Brooklyn successful “Love Game,” a gamelike theatrical accumulation themed astir romance.

(Charly Charney Cohen)

“What we get to bash is interaction connected each the antithetic genres and realms of worlds wherever you tin play, whether that’s been sci-fi oregon postapocalyptic, oregon phantasy with pirates, oregon much modern realistic with ‘Love Game,’” DiNardo says. “There’s a mode for america to delve and spot however this format works successful immoderate genre. That mode we tin unfastened up opportunities for assemblage members who mightiness beryllium large sci-fi fans but person friends who are much into world TV shows.”

Adds Busenlener: “I emotion Halloween play successful L.A. due to the fact that there’s truthful galore chill things going on, but I besides emotion being capable to spell to amusive immersive worldly extracurricular of that season.”

And now, with “Love Game,” L.A. has a amusement for Valentine’s Day season.

Let’s conscionable accidental I wasn’t the astir palmy of matchmakers, but “Love Game” offers galore quests — we tin effort to summation the flirtation among actors by mounting up karaoke sessions oregon tin opt alternatively to chat with an in-show bartender, receiving a little technological emotion analysis. At 1 point, I recovered myself attempting to bargain probe documents successful a bid to get much accusation connected the singles successful the show.

All of that equals different Last Call trait, that is, to expect a consciousness of humor. “With this benignant of structure, erstwhile you bring successful specified a ample chartless of the audience, and who knows what ideas they’ll bring successful and however they’ll privation to play successful the space, you person to inherently judge a small spot of campiness,” DiNardo says. “I americium each connected committee and successful favour of it.”

And what, aft all, would beryllium a bid of archetypal dates without a small exaggeration?