Breakthrough Genre of Storytelling

If you are a lover of immersive and interactive shows, you know the concept of "one-on-one" - a part of a show where an actor chooses you from the crowd and makes you the centre of a scene. It makes you feel special and allows you to contribute or change the course of action. However, this only happens to a few lucky participants per show. With The Waiting Room, we create a whole new genre, where you get a personalized "chosen" experience each time through the use of a Generative AI. Every story is based on your input, tailored to you, and is about you! Think of it as an audiobook that you become an inspiration for. 

What makes it more fun is that you can explore it in an impressive space with other people, living their own stories and navigating through this thoughtfully crafted environment and objects with hidden meanings within. 

Story

At first glance, The Waiting Room is a clerical space frozen in time. It features an outdated electronic system calling numbers and a silent warden distributing mysterious packages to ten waiting individuals. Yet it’s only so on the surface. Behind each story is a powerful AI and a story related to it, that will make you reflect on your values and the state of humanity in the context of progress. Technology heightens our mundane environments and prompts us to think of who we are in this moment of history, in this moment of waiting... The waiting experience changes us. It gives us opportunities to experience self-reflection, patience, dependency, boredom, frustration and bond with others over seemingly simple interactions.

 Once stepping into The Waiting Room, you won't walk out the same person.

Writer, Director: Natalia Yandyganova
Producer: Joyce Lao
Co-producers: Sabrina Morabito, Anna Bredikhina, Jin Huang
Developer: David Gaynor  

We would like to thank these sponsors for supporting the first iteration of The Waiting Room Series "SOULMATES (NOT) FOUND" at Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023!