Colorado State University’s School of Music, Theatre and Dance is rehearsing “Cherryfield Toy Company,” using immersive storytelling and creative storylines to engage the audience.

The play is directed by Saffron Henke, an associate professor and interim director of theater at CSU, and it is written and designed by CSU theater students. The play will run from Oct. 24 to Nov. 2, creating an interactive theater experience that “surrounds the audience in intrigue as the secrets unravel,” the listing for the play reads. “Embark on a one-of-a-kind adventure through a tale that puts you, the audience member, at the center of where it all happened.”

The play does not offer a traditional theater experience. Instead of taking place on a stage, the audience navigates through different “rooms” where scenes take place. This unique format was popularized by shows such as “Sleep No More.”

“The way it works is that everything’s pretty much on a global timer,” said Vincent Liebchen, CSU theater student and playwright. “Each room has a specific time that the actors adhere to, and we’re getting really strict on those times to make sure it’s almost military levels of perfection to make sure that each guest’s experience is as good as it can be.”

The idea for “Cherryfield Toy Company” came soon after Henke directed “The Wolves” in October 2022. The theater company wanted to write and design a more immersive performance in the near future. From there, the work went to devising and design classes in CSU’s theater program.

“It started out with several kind of big group discussions between the design and devising classes,” said Caelum Janski, CSU theater student and stage manager of “Cherryfield Toy Company.” “We talked about all sorts of things, like various themes and styles for the immersive show. The main idea that we focused on early was … the season (when) we wanted to produce it, and we decided on around Halloween because that gives us a lot more options with the style and themes that we can explore.”

The nature of the play made writing and designing it feel disjointed at times. Each writer and designer was tasked with writing and designing different scenes in various settings. With collaboration, each draft made the play more cohesive, enabling them to craft a whole play from the ground up.

“We had very different ideas of what the play was supposed to be,” Liebchen said. “But eventually as we kept seeing each other’s drafts, we kept adjusting and making sure that we could get a product that was able to be streamlined easily. It was able to mesh together well enough. You can still see in the product the different styles of writing within the rooms, but they all feel very coherent.”

“I think there’s a lot of collaboration in theater, and this gave an opportunity to myself and my classmates to create something. We are constantly working on projects, but we never have the chance to actually do something of our own. This gave us an opportunity to get a glimpse of how the real world looks like. It’s very exciting for designers that they have the ability to create something on their own, that it’s not based on something pre-existing.”-Jesus Castro Gonzalez, CSU theater student and playwright

Although many of the play’s playwrights and designers have graduated, some are still actors or set crew for “Cherryfield Toy Company.” Students learned about acting, designing and writing by crafting a play they would eventually perform in.

“This is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Liebchen said. “I’m a playwright myself, and I always imagine myself as the characters within the play. I also think it’s a very unique experience to be able to perform something you wrote or something you contributed to because you have a different knowledge than the people who are approaching it from the outside. Your insider knowledge can really inform how you see the play and how you view it in a broader sense.”

The play is symbolic to the students who wrote and designed it. They’ve acted in plays and designed plays’ sets and props but seldom wrote or designed their own. “Cherryfield Toy Company” showcases a side to CSU theater that is often only seen by theater instructors.

“I think there’s a lot of collaboration in theater, and this gave an opportunity to myself and my classmates to create something,” said Jesus Castro Gonzalez, a CSU theatre student. “We are constantly working on projects, but we never have the chance to actually do something of our own. This gave us an opportunity to get a glimpse of how the real world looks like. It’s very exciting for designers that they have the ability to create something on their own, that it’s not based on something pre-existing.”

“Cherryfield Toy Company” will be shown in the evenings at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 24-25 and from Oct. 29 to Nov. 1. Afternoon matinees will be held at 2 p.m. on Oct. 25, 26 and Nov. 2.

Tickets can be found on the Ticket Office website.

Reach Robert Sides at entertainment@collegian.com or on social media @RMCollegian.