Steve Rashid ’79 part of interactive online theater experience depicting Roaring ’20s

Steve Rashid ’79 of Evanston, Illinois, and his family were featured in a review/article published March 10 in the Chicago Tribune.

Studio 5, a performing arts center of which Rashid is co-founder and artistic director, is offering livestreaming performances of “Into the Mist.” The final three performances will be held April 16, April 23 and April 30. Details and ticket information is available at intothemist.net.

The show is a unique, immersive and interactive experience where viewers can interact with the performers in real time via a chat room. Viewers are taken back to the Jazz Age of 1927 to visit gamblers, drinkers, flappers, musicians and other interesting types. They can wander freely through the world of that raucous decade, hang out in a speakeasy, attend a rent party, play blackjack against a shady dealer, watch some fancy footwork in a dance hall, converse with literary figures of the day, glimpse a fashion show, go to the cinema … and then gather with your friends in a club to hear a hot band.

There are 25 “stages” in the form of rooms or hallways to enter and stay for as long as each viewer likes. The experience is “part game, part puzzle, part interaction, part entertainment,” Rashid told the newspaper.

Rashid majored in music and philosophy at Ripon and received the Distinguished Alumni Citation in 2004. He is an Emmy Award-winning composer, a performer, producer and recording engineer.