Photo by Bruce Clayton Tom of “The Heart”

A few months ago I was sitting at the bar at the 9lb Hammer with metal artist Chris McMullen. He is the mastermind behind the kinetic sculpture in the final room, the Boiler Room, in Ghosts of Nebula that we affectionately called, “The Heart”. We were discussing the project at the Georgetown Steam Plant looking for a way to showcase his sculptures in my narrative. For a few minutes the conversation drifted to darker topics: living in the expensive city of Seattle, the overwhelming noise of politics, the post Covid world that we don’t yet understand. A silence fell and our spirits. Then, we looked at one another, raised a beer, and said,

 “Let’s do some crazy art shit at the Steam Plant.” We laughed. Existential crises averted.

 I’ve been self-producing art events for over 30 years. If I’m not stepping off the edge of another crazy cliff I’m not sure if I’d recognize myself. It’s in the blood.

 It’s December 2024. Ghosts of Nebula has wrapped. There were more than 100 performances over 11 nights in 3 weeks. More than 2200 people experienced it. A small army of designers, performers, electricians, technicians, bartenders, writers, and marketers pulled together to bring to life this once discarded industrial masterpiece of a building. We told our alternate history. We opened a portal to another world. True, some of the characters were lost forever in the void of dreams, but every audience remember returned to the real world safely and mostly sound.

 We put our mark on the plant and made a statement about our art: where we’ve been, where we are, and where we want to go.

 Experimental, independent, and local. This is who we’ve always been. It was the underpinning philosophy of Café Nordo born out of Circus Contraption when Erin Brindley relocated her non-profit Ripple Productions from New York City to Seattle. The mission has always been, “new and innovative storytelling”. This is and will be the basis of Nebula. We will provide transportive art creating fully realized worlds that draw you into a state of discovery and elicit wonder.

 Wonder makes the world a better place, and when we closed Café Nordo we chose to put our focus on that brand of magic. 

 We researched what producers are doing in other cities and what is capturing today’s audiences. We gathered a group of investors and entrepreneurs who want to see this particular brand of entertainment thrive in Seattle.  We’ve built relationships with new artists across the gamut of creative fields. And, as Ghosts of Nebula demonstrated, we are exploring new multi-medium narratives as we weave the real world with the digital world, the history of Seattle with the fictional future of dream technology, performance with exploration.

 This year we built a foundation for what is to come.

 We are looking for a new home in Seattle. A place where we can build a Laboratory of Dreams and actualize this hybrid form of theater where you choose what letter to read and what door to open, what technology to interact with and what performer to follow down a dark hall.

 This will be a new institution in Seattle. Opening doors of possibility. Expanding the arts economy. Utilizing multiple types of artists across multiple platforms with diverse viewpoints we aim to build a welcome and eclectic environment.

 As we search for this new home we will continue to weave stories in 2025. First, working with our artists we will begin to design the Dream Laboratory Facility digitally, building it bit by bit and flushing out the world of Nebula. Perhaps there will be virtual tours of the facility. Secondly, we will continue to open cracks in the real world and expose the multiple dimensions around us. Look for more messages from the Odd & the Curious society about the alternate history of Seattle. Discover a series of hidden NebTech contraptions that seem to be stealing dreams. Unlock the puzzle left behind by a mysterious group of street artists with a warning, “Keep your Dreams.”

Let’s raise a glass together and do some crazy art shit in Seattle.

Learn more about our plans for the permanent Nebula facility here.

   A tour of the Georgetown Steam Plant with Actor Ray Tagavilla

It’s been 8 months since the last blog post. And oh, so much has happened.

 And now, we have stepped over the edge, and we are excited to announce our first full-fledged production since we closed the doors to Café Nordo: Ghosts of Nebula. This site-specific, immersive spectacle is the culmination of a year of development, and it embodies the type of world-building theater that we have always strived for.

 How did we get here?

 After our doors closed, in 2023 we began the hunt for a new facility. We reimagined, researched, reorganized, and in December of 2023, we left you with a recap of all the changes Nordo had undergone with a promise of things to come.

We opened a portal and began the story of Nebula.

In May of 2024, we gave you a sneak-peek of this new world of Nebula, with our NEBtalk at the Pacific Science Center. We met the pioneering scientist, Basil Sangalang, and the Dream Collector, Devorah DeLeon. We discovered that dreams do not just live inside your head. They exist in a place! A place we can travel to and explore!

 If you were not able to attend the NEBtalk, please see the talk and demonstration that revealed it all for the first time to the unsuspecting world HERE

 That was only an introduction. Now, you can explore Nebula!

 This October, we dive deeper into the world with Ghosts of Nebula - an alternate history of the Georgetown Steam Plant and the story of a mysterious experiment that occurred there 103 years ago: Six individuals attempted to use the power of the plant to open a portal to another world. They went missing never to be seen again. That is until now…

 The beautiful, industrial architecture of the steam plant is more than just a setting: it is a living, breathing character in a supernatural world to be explored.

This unique structure is being brought back to life by a community of individuals in Seattle, and as producers we are proud to take part in that. We are transforming the space into a portal to another dimension. Explore it with us.

 To accomplish this world building, we have assembled an amazing rooster of Northwest artists, designers, and performers. Some familiar favorites such Opal Peachey, Ronnie Hill, Ray Tagavilla, Katrina Hess, Evan Mosher, and Bo Mellinger are returning. They made Nordo the beloved destination that it was.

And, there are new faces such as Ben Zamora, an international lighting artist who is actually a dear friend from our days with Circus Contraption., Chris McMullen, metal fabricator and sculptural artist and award winning video game writer Whitney Beltrán, and game and experience designer James O’Donnell. Also joining the team is celebrated Seattle playwright, Maggie Lee, and stage director, Gavin Reub of ACT Theater’s Seagull Project.

This would not be possible without the team of amazing artists old and new that has come aboard. Their creativity and dedication are helping us build new dreams and stories. It has been a blessing of ours to partner with such talent year after year.

 This is only one step in our journey of transformation. But in the storytelling, the ambition, this team it is a grand, bold step forward.

 P.S. Do not worry, we are still scouring the Seattle area for that right piece of commercial real estate that will house our new, big dream. Many individuals have stepped forward and signed on as investors. The support has been fantastic.

We want to open a portal to another world and bring the multi-verse to Seattle. Help us make this dream a reality. Click HERE to find out how!

P.P.S. Tickets to Ghost of Nebula are selling at a clip, particularly the VIP ones, so go HERE to grab yours. The show has only 12 performances dates October 19th – November 2nd, 2024

The Culinarium in Pioneer Square. 2015-2023.

Our adventures of 2023 began by shutting down our beloved Nordo location in Pioneer Square. We took it apart bit by bit, sold some of it off, gave some of it away, and put some of it in storage for a later day. That space had served us well for 8 years, and it was an honor to be a part of that community. And, with that, one door closed.

But another door appeared. Unsure where it would lead we opened it with some trepidation. It opened onto a room of bookshelves and desks and cabinets and multiple other doors of all types. It glowed in a pale moonlight passing through a skylight. A few yellowed desk lamps scattered about the room provided the only light.

The first building we fell in love with…

And the exploration of something new began.

Within the first cabinet were pictures of Seattle buildings taped to the inside of the doors. Some industrial shells in SODO, a brewery in Ballard, a church turned event space in West Seattle, a bank on 3rd Avenue. There were real estate contracts, investment papers, transcripts of long conversations with real estate lawyers, and “how to buy real estate” books in mostly organized piles.

Nordo’s Great Escape.

Through a steel door we found ourselves on the streets of Los Angeles where we infiltrated and reported on the NEXT Immersive Summit . We met individuals pushing the boundaries of storytelling and learned about this immersive wave of entertainment sweeping the country. And while there we jumped into Hatch Escapes to prove to rats that humans were intelligent too.

A wardrobe led to New York City, specifically to an asylum where we partnered with a demon to escape before patrolling the halls of the McKittrick Hotel in search of answers. Sadly, the doors to the hotel will be locked at the end of the year as “Sleep No More” finally closes after a 12-year run. This one production single handedly inspired a generation of artists to work in the immersive sphere. We were there in 2010 as well and carried away a bit of their magic then.

After exploring from coast to coast, we sat at a desk covered and stuffed with papers, photos, and folders. The desktop could not be found, and the drawers could not be closed.

Confessions of a World Building Junkie.

Scraps of paper contained snippets of dreams woven together into stories. A tome called the Book of Findings contained a table of contents and an appendix but nothing else. It was awaiting to be filled. Dossiers described ominous character descriptions and incriminating photos. It all appeared disparate on the surface, but it seemed to be from the same world. Was someone building something? A new world of stories?

Nordo’s Portal Polls.

In a cabinet over the desk was a projector and reels of silent film telling the tale of a Daydream Machine in 8mm. These we shared on Instagram.

We paused to take in everything we had discovered.

One last door caught our attention. Dark grey with embossed stars how could we have not noticed it before. A soft green glow emanated from beneath it. The door knob brass and heavy.

 The door clicked closed. Footsteps echoed. The ceiling hid in the shadows. There was a low, soft thumping sound. And there, in the center of the room on a round green table, illuminated by a single spot:

We had found the Laboratory of Stories. And in 2024 we will provide you a map so that you too can find the Laboratory of Stories. There will be events in which we explore the Laboratory together and discover a whole new world of dreams. And if we are lucky, we will find the portal to this world and open it.

Thank you for coming with us on our 2023 journey. Please join us in 2024. 

Drawn to the Void

Exploration is a primal drive. Scale the hillside and see what peak lies beyond. Drop into the darkness of a damp cave. Leave behind one shoreline in the hope that there will be another one. Eventually.

Despite the fear of the unknown, people have time and again stepped off the ledge and taken the plunge. Today, humans have walked nearly every square foot of the globe. Myths, folktales, and epic stories have been inspired by the need to discover and see something new, go somewhere new. It fills a void.

Did you ever follow the route of a river or highway in an atlas with your finger? Tracing each curve. Rising over the mountain ranges and dropping down into the valleys. Letting the town names slip by. Moving toward larger spaces with fewer words and fewer lines. Wondering what existed in those blank, nebulous areas on the map. Have you ever let your mind wander?

It’s still exploration. You ask the questions, “What if?” And that question sparks the itch to look deeper. More questions follow. “Who lives there?” or “What do they eat?’ or “Do they know where they are?” Those blank spaces ask to be filled.

The imagination takes over. New maps are drawn. This is where world building begins.

In the Nordosphere, exploration has begun. Ever so gradually a tapestry is being woven from a few distinct, colorful threads. The threads may be characters or objects, places or an exchange of words, and each one, on its own, may appear insignificant but as a collection they begin to form a picture. An illustrated map rolled up and tied with a crimson ribbon and found in the bottom of an attic trunk under a pile of neatly folded but well-worn dresses.

As an explorer of a new world you have to follow your nose, listen to your instincts, and chase what is bright and shiny. In a new, mysterious world you have to grope around in the dark and pick your steps carefully. Follow the lights in the distance. What are the threads begging to be followed?

So, presenting in no particular order the threads of a world weaving itself into being.

The Spyglass:

A Spyglass allows you to see into this new world. There are many versions of it made by scientists and artists over the years. It is said they all are based on Edmund Halley’s spyglass experience. On May 3rd, 1715, Halley observed a total solar eclipse in England and recorded seeing 6 different objects that he later called Nebula, that being a relatively new term in astronomy. It is believed that what he actually glimpsed using the Spyglass was a portal into the dream world.  A Bubble.

The Blue Typewriter:

The Blue Typewriter allows for the transference of words and therefore thoughts and emotions from one world to the next using typewritten letters. It has often been used to allow the deceased to reach out to love ones, but it is never for free. It has been in the possession of the Letter Writer for some time and perhaps always, but that is not clear. For more on the Letter Writer see the Book of Findings.

Fetishes:

Dreams are Temporary Bubbles in time and space, and strong Dreams will create Fetishes. They are objects that embody the essence of the dream.

The Dream Collector:

A strong present that gathers Dream Fetishes and will trade them or gift them when it suits her. She cherishes the Fetishes and is sometimes unwilling to pass with one she particularly enjoys. She can be found on the edge of red plain working in her windowless laboratory melting down Fetishes and storing them in crystal boxes for some later use.

Dream Pajamas:

Made of dark bronze silk with the silver pattern of a snake, the pajamas allow the wearer to seamlessly pass between dreams. They are currently in the possession of the Laundromat and recorded as Artifact #181. The number 8 designates a portal.

Join us and be the first to peak into “The Laboratory of Stories”. With a series of daydreams the construction of the next world has begun. Log onto Instagram on Tuesdays, answer a series of polls, and help fill in the voids on the map. Come exploring with us.

An example of the results of a Portal Poll - where participants are invited to help create Nordo’s upcoming “Laboratory of Stories” on Instagram Stories @CafeNordo

Confessions of a World Building Junkie, Part 1.

I have been playing role-playing games since the age of 9 when my father, who co-authored a gaming system with his friend Derek called Infinity, ran a scenario in which my two older cousins, Shawn and Dawn, and myself played a squad of commandos directed to save a group of scientists held captive in a three-story home by a group of enemy combatants. We gathered in the early morning to surveil our guards and devise a plan. Then, under over of night, we began the assault. We scaled the stone wall that surrounded the property, but before we could manage to enter the house phosphorus grenades exploded all around. We perished on the lawn. At least I did. One of my cousins may have made it inside. I can’t quite recall. It was over 40 years ago. I was hooked.

I grew up in a home with framed illustrations of iconic moments from the Lord of the Rings series. My favorite: I gazed at a scene from the perspective of down the well in Moria as Peregrin Took leans over the edge with a pebble pinched between his fingers poised to drop it just to see how deep the well is. Remember this moment? In Peter Jackson’s movie rendition Peregrin knocks over a whole bucket and chain for more comic effect. Either way, the sounds bring disaster upon the Fellowship.

I grew up playing board games, mostly of the war variety.  I began with basic ones like Stratego, eventually learning more complicated systems like Wooden Ships and Iron Men, and finally graduating to the master class of Squad Leader, in which we replayed WWII battles that took hours upon hours to complete. Rooting out Bugs in Starship Troopers was always a good evening. Dungeon, the gateway board game of Dungeons and Dragons, became very popular. As was Survive!, in which you started at the top of a volcano on a jungle island and raced to find a boat and escape before being obliterated by the inevitable eruption. The list goes on and on.

You get the point. I was raised in an atmosphere that primed me to become a role-playing addict. I probably had no choice. That was me in Stranger Things, 11 years old in 1983, riding my bike with a gaggle of friends in a small town, mine was Holland, Michigan not Hawkins, Indiana,  playing Dungeons and Dragons and wishing to God that we could find a demagorgon or mad scientist.

I drew maps of fantasy worlds regularly, complete with misty mountain ranges and lost islands at sea. I created NPCs (non-player characters) to populate these worlds such as Gustav, the gruff and condescending gnome detective decked out with useful and at times faulty contraptions who always had a nefarious job for the characters to complete. I built theological empires that crushed the will of its citizens (this one is not so fantastical). I spent as much time as I could imagining these other worlds.

 Anyone remember Mazes and Monsters the made for TV movie starring Tom Hanks in which he plays a young man who loses his grasp on reality and eventually stabs someone thinking that person was a monster? My mother was concerned I might do that.

(If you’re lost at all by the titles or jargon, don’t worry, you certainly know someone who plays role-playing games either openly or secretly. Ask around, they can walk you through this blog post.)

It was early high school when I found myself going to the mall and visiting the bookstore beside the video arcade to obsess over the different gaming systems. If I couldn’t afford them I simply opened them and read the rule books of different gaming systems in the bookstore, and yes, store managers do not like you cutting the plastic, opening the boxes and sitting on the aisle floor for an afternoon read. I got busted for that. But, I digested so many systems: GURPs, Bushido, Vampire: The Masquerade, Pirates and Plunder, Rune Quest, Paranoia, Call of Cthulhu. Some my friends and I played regularly, like Chill, Shadowrun, and Warhammer, but most I just read by myself. I loved the rules of combat, the method in which characters were created, but most importantly, I loved devouring the descriptions of the different worlds that these games lived in. You see, I was addicted to World Building.

Yes, I love role-playing games, but in my 20’s, I stopped playing them so much. Not sure why. Maybe because it was tougher then to find a group of like-minded nerds. It’s not like today when they’re everywhere. Also, drinking and role-playing games tend to collide in a mess of futility, and drinking had become quite popular. And I had discovered writing, and the art world.

So, the games slipped away, but what I never lost a passion for is the world building. Creating political systems, economic systems, river docks, bar names, poisonous mushrooms, disgusting regional recipes. The task of creating a fully realized fictional world is just simply a never-ending joy.

Terry’s set for Onērus at Nordo in 2017

I could go on and on about world building. I could talk about how writing and truly any art springs from a fictional world that bubbles in the mind. I could, and probably did in this blog already, talk about how the magic of world building for fantasy and science fiction novels gave birth to role-playing games, and how those games in turn have laid the foundation for the immersive arts that are exploding today!

Read more of Terry’s reviews on immersive games here, and here.

At Nordo, we are not only writing business plans and looking for buildings to house the next iteration. We are also constructing the infrastructure for the next world of stories. It’s already begun in daydreams using flights of fancy. Beakers bubble. Characters talk. Tales weave. And in fact, in case you missed it, you can help guide the story through our Portal Polls.

This concludes Confessions of.a World Building Junkie Part 1. Keep following for Part 2, in which I delve into my current obsession, The Laboratory of Stories.

Join in and become the first to peak into our latest world: The  Laboratory of Stories. More prizes await for those who play. You can do this by logging on to Instagram and finding @CafeNordo on Tuesday, October 24th . You’ll play a series of polls and your answers will help us visit the next star in our creative universe.

While exploring the Library stumbled upon a string of discoveries. First, we found the Book of Findings. Questions had been written in the margins, and as we answered them aloud “blue vials, crystal bottles, hollow trees” stories scrolled out on the page. Second, we found a Spyglass made of brass and walnut hidden behind a collection of dusty maps. It doesn’t magnify the world like an ordinary telescope, but instead jumbles the world like an erratic kaleidoscope. But today, under a soft full moon, we looked at the night sky and saw threads like fissures. We focused on one of them.

The Spyglass

 A young woman with an unusual grasp of composition and color began sketching a pattern in her notebook that she could not see in her head, but could feel in her hand, and if she had been asked to describe it she would have been unable to find the words.

The colors of the sketch bled seamlessly between one another and subtle vibrations of sensation could be recognized in the weight of the lines.  Anyone who saw the page in her notebook could never recall it well enough to describe it much less copy it.

In time, after many twists and configurations in the story, it would become known as the first diagram for measuring imagination.