{"id":2409,"date":"2022-11-07T09:08:02","date_gmt":"2022-11-07T14:08:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.alumni.ncsu.edu\/?p=2409"},"modified":"2022-11-07T09:08:02","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T14:08:02","slug":"making-up-for-lost-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/2022\/making-up-for-lost-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Making up for Lost Time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The website<\/a> looked real, just like an NC State website. \u201cThe Institute for Temporal Observation and Application\u201d gave a Broughton Hall address and even included the slogan: \u201cThink and Do\u2009. . .\u2009the Impossible.\u201d In a grainy welcoming video on the site, the Institute\u2019s founder, Dr. Alistair Beldon, makes an oblique reference to time travel\u2009\u2014\u2009and invites students to volunteer for a research project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all looked so\u2009\u2014\u2009well, real\u2009\u2014\u2009that NC State\u2019s Physics Department even had to ask for a disclaimer on the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, NC State was not studying time travel. This was an illusion\u2009\u2014\u2009an elaborate one that took several hundred participants into a genre-defying theatrical production spread out over several months of the 2022 spring semester. The action took place in multiple locations across campus, immersing participants in a story in which they would help create the outcome. And all along, it was shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creators\u2009\u2014\u2009although many participants weren\u2019t aware of it until well into the semester\u2009\u2014\u2009were the folks at University Theatre. Jayme Mellema, the theater\u2019s resident scenic designer for 10 years, normally spends his time in Thompson Hall creating the scenes and stagecraft that bring a performance to life. When Mellema and his colleagues realized there would be no live theater in the fall of 2020, \u201cWe were thinking, \u2018What can we do?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bit of a science fiction buff, Mellema was working on a script about time travel. An idea took root\u2009\u2014\u2009a time-travel-themed production with scenes taking place over the course of a semester, where visitors could come in small groups, uncover a series of puzzles and engage with an ongoing story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Above, Device No. 1, which contained negative energy density material, allowing time travel. Below left, The adventure was advertised with low-tech flyers placed around campus. Below right, a lapel pin with The Institute\u2019s logo was given to participants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

It ended up being part scavenger hunt, part escape room, or as Mellema describes it, \u201ca live-action video game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot was this: NC State had been secretly studying time travel at \u201cThe Institute,\u201d housed in Broughton Hall, since the 1960s. The audience initially signed up to participate in research, but soon learned something was amiss: Three NC State students had gone missing and were presumed to be lost in time. The audience became part of a group called \u201cthe Cadre\u201d that was trying to find the students and learn more about The Institute and Beldon, its evil founder. (And in a Back to the Future<\/em> twist, one of the lost-in-time students met their parents before they were married.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dr. Beldon speaks on a screen in the observatory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An unused third-floor lab in Broughton Hall became the recruiting office for The Institute, the first stop for the audience. Later scenes took place all over campus. A Ford F-150 pickup truck belonging to one of the missing students was parked in the Reynolds Coliseum lot in a space marked \u201cThe Institute\u2009\u2014\u2009Enforced 24\/7\u201d with clues, such as a note with a phone number, visible on the dashboard. A third-floor room in 111 Lampe Drive was turned into a hideout where Emma, one of the students stuck in the 1970s, lived. Period details included women\u2019s lib posters on the wall, an electric typewriter and a WKNC DJ announcing that Pink Floyd had just hit the top of the charts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mellema and his theater colleagues had to do a massive amount of collaboration with officials across campus. The university architect\u2019s office helped find unused space. Campus police discussed safety protocols. University Transportation gave The Institute a parking space. The University Surplus office provided materials to build the sets. (\u201cWe told them, \u2018We need all the weird scientific equipment you are about to throw out,\u2019 \u201d Mellema says.) Even the University Communications office was advised\u2009\u2014\u2009just in case anyone thought NC State was really studying time travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mike White, left, and Jayme Mellema, right, in front of the observatory\u2019s console, made of painted wood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was logistically challenging,\u201d Mellema says. Along with Mike White, assistant technical director, he spent the fall of 2020 and part of 2021 on all the logistics\u2009\u2014\u2009writing scripts, building sets and scouting locations. In late 2021, the project launched with no fanfare\u2009\u2014\u2009just nondescript flyers placed around campus. The wording was purposefully oblique: \u201cJoin us for unique research opportunities in Transdimensional Science,\u201d it said. A QR code on the flyer led to the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katherine Saul, an aerospace and mechanical engineering professor, and her husband, physics professor Matt Green, saw one of the flyers. \u201cWe love escape rooms,\u201d she says, \u201cand we guessed it was something like that.\u201d They logged on and signed up. \u201cAt the first event, as we are signing forms and watching orientation videos, we started to get messages, that these people weren\u2019t who they seemed to be and to keep our eyes open,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every few weeks they would get an email to sign up for another session. Saul and her husband were hooked. As the story progressed, the audience learned more about the three students\u2009\u2014\u2009Taylor, Emma and Jessica\u2009\u2014\u2009from recorded voicemails and a journal shelved in the Hill Library stacks with its own Dewey Decimal number. \u201cThis was more than a puzzle,\u201d Saul says. \u201cThere was an element of immersion. It was a continuing live story. We were like, \u2018What\u2019s going to happen to Jessica?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Above, a panoramic view of Dr. Beldon\u2019s office. Below left, Emma Beldon was Dr. Beldon\u2019s granddaughter and one of the missing students. Below right, students watch a seance from 1922 through a looking glass. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

The finale came in May, several months after the quest had begun. The audience\u2009\u2014\u2009at that point about 100 participants\u2009\u2014\u2009gathered in Thompson Theatre where a time travel aperture that they had encountered in an earlier scene was on stage. The three missing students appeared\u2009\u2014\u2009to thunderous applause\u2009\u2014\u2009and, along with the actors playing other characters, held a Q&A session with the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Baker, an aerospace engineering major who has appeared in University Theatre productions, helped work on the script and character development in the project\u2019s early stages. She also voiced the character of Emma, one of the missing students. But she didn\u2019t know the entire plot or the puzzles and riddles, so she went with a friend through the entire production as a participant. \u201cIt was great to see the other side of what I\u2019d been working on,\u201d Baker says. She found herself in awe of the sets and the production quality. In the last scene before the finale, participants hear a disembodied, distorted AI voice. \u201cThe way it interacted with you, it felt real,\u201d Baker says. \u201cI mean, it genuinely creeped me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way it interacted with you, it felt real. I mean, it genuinely creeped me out.\u201d \u00a0
\u2013Julie Baker, aerospace engineering major and University Theatre participant<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The production was designed for more than just fun. The creators wanted people on campus to develop connections with new people and create a sense of community. Another objective was to form a deeper connection to NC State and its history. For instance, participants went on a walking tour of campus where they learned that Winslow Hall was once the site of the campus infirmary, where 13 students died in the influenza pandemic of 1918.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua Reaves, director of University Theatre, says the creators also wanted to engage students who would not typically go to a play. Mellema and White are both gamers who are intrigued by alternative reality games and saw parallels with the theater world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to engage some of those people,\u201d Reaves says, \u201cpeople who might say, \u2018I\u2019m not going to this Shakespeare thing.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was one reason why the marketing of the program was only flyers around campus and word of mouth. \u201cJayme was very adamant that we not advertise it or tell people what we were doing,\u201d Reaves says. \u201cThe narrative they created, the story itself, was built to be secretive.\u201d A survey of participants afterward found that 90 percent had never been to a University Theatre production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaves, who gave the OK to the project, says the finale gave the creators a huge sense of accomplishment. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing theater for a long time, and yeah, a standing ovation is great,\u201d he says. \u201cIn this case, everyone in that audience was so engaged, so excited to be there.\u201d Even after the Q&A session was over, he says, people stayed around to talk to the actors and the creative team\u2009\u2014\u2009and talk with each other about their own experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had created that community,\u201d Reaves says.<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n

The website<\/a> looked real, just like an NC State website. \u201cThe Institute for Temporal Observation and Application\u201d gave a Broughton Hall address and even included the slogan: \u201cThink and Do\u2009. . .\u2009the Impossible.\u201d In a grainy welcoming video on the site, the Institute\u2019s founder, Dr. Alistair Beldon, makes an oblique reference to time travel\u2009\u2014\u2009and invites students to volunteer for a research project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all looked so\u2009\u2014\u2009well, real\u2009\u2014\u2009that NC State\u2019s Physics Department even had to ask for a disclaimer on the site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, NC State was not studying time travel. This was an illusion\u2009\u2014\u2009an elaborate one that took several hundred participants into a genre-defying theatrical production spread out over several months of the 2022 spring semester. The action took place in multiple locations across campus, immersing participants in a story in which they would help create the outcome. And all along, it was shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The creators\u2009\u2014\u2009although many participants weren\u2019t aware of it until well into the semester\u2009\u2014\u2009were the folks at University Theatre. Jayme Mellema, the theater\u2019s resident scenic designer for 10 years, normally spends his time in Thompson Hall creating the scenes and stagecraft that bring a performance to life. When Mellema and his colleagues realized there would be no live theater in the fall of 2020, \u201cWe were thinking, \u2018What can we do?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A bit of a science fiction buff, Mellema was working on a script about time travel. An idea took root\u2009\u2014\u2009a time-travel-themed production with scenes taking place over the course of a semester, where visitors could come in small groups, uncover a series of puzzles and engage with an ongoing story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Above, Device No. 1, which contained negative energy density material, allowing time travel. Below left, The adventure was advertised with low-tech flyers placed around campus. Below right, a lapel pin with The Institute\u2019s logo was given to participants.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

It ended up being part scavenger hunt, part escape room, or as Mellema describes it, \u201ca live-action video game.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The plot was this: NC State had been secretly studying time travel at \u201cThe Institute,\u201d housed in Broughton Hall, since the 1960s. The audience initially signed up to participate in research, but soon learned something was amiss: Three NC State students had gone missing and were presumed to be lost in time. The audience became part of a group called \u201cthe Cadre\u201d that was trying to find the students and learn more about The Institute and Beldon, its evil founder. (And in a Back to the Future<\/em> twist, one of the lost-in-time students met their parents before they were married.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dr. Beldon speaks on a screen in the observatory.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

An unused third-floor lab in Broughton Hall became the recruiting office for The Institute, the first stop for the audience. Later scenes took place all over campus. A Ford F-150 pickup truck belonging to one of the missing students was parked in the Reynolds Coliseum lot in a space marked \u201cThe Institute\u2009\u2014\u2009Enforced 24\/7\u201d with clues, such as a note with a phone number, visible on the dashboard. A third-floor room in 111 Lampe Drive was turned into a hideout where Emma, one of the students stuck in the 1970s, lived. Period details included women\u2019s lib posters on the wall, an electric typewriter and a WKNC DJ announcing that Pink Floyd had just hit the top of the charts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mellema and his theater colleagues had to do a massive amount of collaboration with officials across campus. The university architect\u2019s office helped find unused space. Campus police discussed safety protocols. University Transportation gave The Institute a parking space. The University Surplus office provided materials to build the sets. (\u201cWe told them, \u2018We need all the weird scientific equipment you are about to throw out,\u2019 \u201d Mellema says.) Even the University Communications office was advised\u2009\u2014\u2009just in case anyone thought NC State was really studying time travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Mike White, left, and Jayme Mellema, right, in front of the observatory\u2019s console, made of painted wood.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was logistically challenging,\u201d Mellema says. Along with Mike White, assistant technical director, he spent the fall of 2020 and part of 2021 on all the logistics\u2009\u2014\u2009writing scripts, building sets and scouting locations. In late 2021, the project launched with no fanfare\u2009\u2014\u2009just nondescript flyers placed around campus. The wording was purposefully oblique: \u201cJoin us for unique research opportunities in Transdimensional Science,\u201d it said. A QR code on the flyer led to the website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katherine Saul, an aerospace and mechanical engineering professor, and her husband, physics professor Matt Green, saw one of the flyers. \u201cWe love escape rooms,\u201d she says, \u201cand we guessed it was something like that.\u201d They logged on and signed up. \u201cAt the first event, as we are signing forms and watching orientation videos, we started to get messages, that these people weren\u2019t who they seemed to be and to keep our eyes open,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every few weeks they would get an email to sign up for another session. Saul and her husband were hooked. As the story progressed, the audience learned more about the three students\u2009\u2014\u2009Taylor, Emma and Jessica\u2009\u2014\u2009from recorded voicemails and a journal shelved in the Hill Library stacks with its own Dewey Decimal number. \u201cThis was more than a puzzle,\u201d Saul says. \u201cThere was an element of immersion. It was a continuing live story. We were like, \u2018What\u2019s going to happen to Jessica?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Above, a panoramic view of Dr. Beldon\u2019s office. Below left, Emma Beldon was Dr. Beldon\u2019s granddaughter and one of the missing students. Below right, students watch a seance from 1922 through a looking glass. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/section>\n<\/section>\n\n\n\n

The finale came in May, several months after the quest had begun. The audience\u2009\u2014\u2009at that point about 100 participants\u2009\u2014\u2009gathered in Thompson Theatre where a time travel aperture that they had encountered in an earlier scene was on stage. The three missing students appeared\u2009\u2014\u2009to thunderous applause\u2009\u2014\u2009and, along with the actors playing other characters, held a Q&A session with the audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Julie Baker, an aerospace engineering major who has appeared in University Theatre productions, helped work on the script and character development in the project\u2019s early stages. She also voiced the character of Emma, one of the missing students. But she didn\u2019t know the entire plot or the puzzles and riddles, so she went with a friend through the entire production as a participant. \u201cIt was great to see the other side of what I\u2019d been working on,\u201d Baker says. She found herself in awe of the sets and the production quality. In the last scene before the finale, participants hear a disembodied, distorted AI voice. \u201cThe way it interacted with you, it felt real,\u201d Baker says. \u201cI mean, it genuinely creeped me out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe way it interacted with you, it felt real. I mean, it genuinely creeped me out.\u201d \u00a0
\u2013Julie Baker, aerospace engineering major and University Theatre participant<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The production was designed for more than just fun. The creators wanted people on campus to develop connections with new people and create a sense of community. Another objective was to form a deeper connection to NC State and its history. For instance, participants went on a walking tour of campus where they learned that Winslow Hall was once the site of the campus infirmary, where 13 students died in the influenza pandemic of 1918.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joshua Reaves, director of University Theatre, says the creators also wanted to engage students who would not typically go to a play. Mellema and White are both gamers who are intrigued by alternative reality games and saw parallels with the theater world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted to engage some of those people,\u201d Reaves says, \u201cpeople who might say, \u2018I\u2019m not going to this Shakespeare thing.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was one reason why the marketing of the program was only flyers around campus and word of mouth. \u201cJayme was very adamant that we not advertise it or tell people what we were doing,\u201d Reaves says. \u201cThe narrative they created, the story itself, was built to be secretive.\u201d A survey of participants afterward found that 90 percent had never been to a University Theatre production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reaves, who gave the OK to the project, says the finale gave the creators a huge sense of accomplishment. \u201cI\u2019ve been doing theater for a long time, and yeah, a standing ovation is great,\u201d he says. \u201cIn this case, everyone in that audience was so engaged, so excited to be there.\u201d Even after the Q&A session was over, he says, people stayed around to talk to the actors and the creative team\u2009\u2014\u2009and talk with each other about their own experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had created that community,\u201d Reaves says.<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

With crime scenes, time travel and an on-campus scavenger hunt, University Theatre staged a mystery while reviving campus amid the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":2413,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"backgroundColor\":\"indigo_400\",\"subtitle\":\"With crime scenes, time travel and an on-campus scavenger hunt, University Theatre staged a mystery while reviving campus amid the pandemic. Photography by Marc Hall \u201920 MA, NC State.\",\"displayCategoryID\":5,\"caption\":\"\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[368,404,579,622,626,639,802,1142,1149,1150,1212],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"displayCategory":{"term_id":5,"name":"Best Bets","slug":"best-bets","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":5,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":39,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2409\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2409"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=2409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}