Q&A with Jacob Leaf – Candle House Collective

Candle House Collective are a “NYC/ Chicago-based experimental theatre company specializing in remote immersive experiences”. Jacob Leaf is the Managing Producer of Candle House Collective and the Co-Director of their new production ‘Lennox Mutual‘ which we reviewed here. We got the chance to ask him some questions about their work. You can see the results below…

Can you tell me a little about how the company began?

Evan Neiden founded CHC in 2018 with a five-month long durational theatre piece called Last Candle ARX. It was created out of a desire to bring connective theatre to anyone, anywhere. Most of the time we exit our realities to see shows, Candle House Collective was created with the intention of bringing the theatre to you, to bring the fantasy reality to yours. What we ended up discovering was that the stories that we created embedded themselves in the lives of the participants, and it is that unique sensation that has continued to allow CHC to grow and flourish.

Last Candle ARX was a test, in many ways, to see if there was an audience that would respond to this thesis. Luckily there was enough interest from potential participants and performers alike to bring Candle House online. The Collective has been developing new work ever since, and we are extremely proud to not just be a member of the dedicated immersive community but also one dedicated to single participant experience.

Your company has a fairly unique style. What other theatre makers/ performers influenced your work?

The Twilight Zone is definitely the biggest influence (the original of course). Evan, as Artistic Director, would also add Tales from the Crypt, Outer Limits, Lucas Hnath, Warhol’s Factory, Basquiat, Keith Haring, Ed Hopper, and M.C. Escher. As Managing Producer and Co-Director for Lennox Mutual, I think it’s worth saying that we are constantly learning from our peers in the immersive community; Meowwolf, Darkfield, Emursive, and Third Rail Projects, are some larger companies that certainly set a bar of excellence in immersive that we try to emulate. More fringe creators, however, often teach us more about the form than the larger players. Parker Sela’s I Do Adore You is a great example. Our team tries to experience as much as possible so we can learn and improve what we offer as much as possible — that work is never done!

I first encountered your work during lockdowns for the Covid pandemic. A lot of theatre makers moved to online productions during this time. Did you get a lot of attention worldwide during this time?

The Covid pandemic was certainly a moment in time in which our work gained a certain degree of legitimacy because so many other theatremakers were finding themselves exploring our medium out of necessity. What we had already been doing for years was something that the world now needed, and we did see a small boost in attention for our work during that time.

From what I’ve heard of your work, there is a dark humorous style to what you create. Is that the intention and will it continue?

Absolutely. There is a Candle House sensibility that I wouldn’t want to name, but it is carefully curated. Will it continue? For the time being. But who knows… we are always trying new things.

The economics of theatre of this style are fascinating, with a one-to-one ratio of actor to performer. Is it difficult for a company to grow with this model?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is we have created a sustainable theatre model that we believe is just as creative and revolutionary as our chosen medium, but creating growth is challenging when we demand such excellence from our performers. There is nothing to hide behind, and there is a lot of training involved in acting for CHC. We invest very seriously in every one of our performers, so it is time-consuming and challenging to bring on new people. Every one of our actors, for instance, is rehearsed continuously throughout the process, given personal attention by the director(s) of the show, and included in company-wide workshop and development programming. I have never experienced anything like what we do, and that is very special — I’m forever grateful for our team and all the work they put in to make this show excellent, and it is, in my humble opinion, excellent.

Is there an intention to ever move the company away from the remote show at any stage?

Yes.

What’s next for Candle House Collective? Can you tell us a little about what new works you have in store?

I can say that we have a multitude of new works in process as well as new content for Lennox Mutual. That’s all I can reveal for now, but if you or anyone else is interested to know more, be sure to follow us on Instagram and turn notifications on.