The Jazz Club Spire at Atlas9
“Enter the Reel World. Suspend Disbelief. Look for Anomalies.”
Those are the instructions at Atlas9, the new immersive arts experience located near The Legends in Kansas City, Kansas. Prepare for sensory overload.
Imagine you are in a 1995 cinema where some kind of cosmic glitch has taken place, and a parallel film universe is now in effect. The theater has “turned epicenter of a thrilling plot,” in the words of creator, Dimensional Innovations. Chaos reigns and you’re F.A.C.A.D.E. (Field Agent for the Control of Aberrations and Divergent Energies). Your radio frequency identification wristband tracks you and helps you investigate the 70 individual anomalies.
Presented within more than 45,000 square feet and 35 rooms in an imposing, boxy structure at 1100 98th St., there are control rooms to fiddle with, musical instruments to manipulate, tunnels to crawl through, DNA sequences to charge, pulsating lights to stimulate, drums to pound, hidden emails to read. The image taken of you upon entering is interpreted in different “Now Showing” movie marquees.
There’s an underwater realm, a giant popcorn room and an adjacent one of red licorice and cotton candy — you’ll feel like Alice — and balloon ceilings. Star Wars-like light sabers bounce around.
Every style from art deco to fantasy to noir to futuristic and even a little log cabin, is in evidence. Myriad colors shine out. Time travel is a given. Mirrors contort and confuse, optical illusions unsettle, outer space forms float by. Neon mesmerizes.
A great highlight is the live performances. Performance heavy hitter Quixotic is a founding partner, and its dancers, circus performers, singers, aerialists and musicians (famed saxophonist, Ernest Melton, on our visit), are there to enthrall the audience in a charming ’40s jazz cabaret club. Entertainment changes regularly, so each visit will be different. Flamboyantly costumed figures wander throughout. There’s a grand 250-seat cinema auditorium with projection mapping playing snippets, mini docs and movie quizzes.
Refreshments are available in a darkened speakeasy and a nostalgic pizza parlor. Pinball machines beckon. There’s something for everyone.
The quartet of founders include DI (Dimensional Innovations, a mainstay in local cinema development over the years, which has several similar immersive properties nationwide), entrepreneurs Homefield and Swell Spark, along with Quixotic. Planning began post-COVID; Atlas9 has been six years in the making.
An extensive collaboration of more than 250 artists established the rich and multilayered narrative and features. Interactive tech enhances the storytelling element; visitors’ activity in one room affects elements elsewhere.
General Manager Damon Bradshaw, himself a tech wizard designer/producer, describes it all as a “process of discovery.” He has been pleased with the good response since the opening in late September. Going forward, the auditorium may be used for other local and regional events, and Courtney Crappell, dean of the UMKC Conservatory, envisions students’ involvement in future enterprises.
Two hours is the recommended time for a visit, but the choice is yours. You might aggressively and thoroughly attack the tech puzzles or passively while away your time in the cabaret or widescreen film auditorium.
For tickets and more information, atlas9.com.
