Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett of Third Rail Projects

What is Third Rail Projects and Why Should Denver Audiences Care?

Once upon a heady time, I walked over the third rail of the New York City subway. Donning a cocktail dress and heels, fueled by the kind of immortal delirium only your twenties can afford, I casually placed one foot after the other across that deadly strip of steel. I had missed my stop and decided it would be faster to walk across the tracks to the other side. Or maybe I craved a thrill.

The third rail carries enough voltage to power a city’s transit system – and enough to end the world as I knew it, instantly. It divides the tracks with an untouchable force field, a liminal land between two directions: this way and that way, toward home or away, beginning or end.

Third Rail Projects, a cutting-edge immersive theater company, inhabits that same charged space. And even better, they invite you into it, if only for a moment.

Co-created by artistic directors Zach Morris, Tom Pearson, and Jennine Willett, Third Rail Projects has conjured a brilliant body of work that lives on in the audiences fortunate enough to bear witness: the Bessie Award-winning, Lewis Carroll-inspired fever dream Then She Fell, the 1970s-drenched resort trip The Grand Paradise, Ghost Light at Lincoln Center, Learning Curve with Albany Park Theater Project in Chicago, and many others. They’ve created work in New York City, nationally (Chicago, Denver, Washington DC) and even abroad in St. Petersburg, Russia.

With their incredible ensemble of collaborators, Third Rail Projects creates worlds that are disorienting, transcendent, and seemingly outside the constraints of time. Audiences are immersed in environments that feel hyperreal, yet are a few degrees askew from our known world, enough to make you wonder: Was that real? And the truth is, yes. Fictitious or not, it’s all real. And you’re part of it.

Their work is an invitation to lose yourself in a story, only to find yourself again on the other side. Every detail is intentional and rooted in the surrounding architecture. A stray note of music, the wisp of perfume drifting by, the hush of a stranger’s voice under dimming lights, all play a role in the story. Performers do not simply exist in the space; they’re intrinsically intertwined with it.

In an era when we’re overwhelmed by screens, to-do lists, and constant notifications, yet suffer from a profound sense of disconnection, Third Rail Projects doesn’t offer escape. They offer something far richer: a rare opportunity for presence, intimacy, and wonder. Their work is a balm for our weary souls – a chance to explore risk and vulnerability, held safely in a meticulously crafted experience.

And now, Denver audiences are in for a treat. Created by Zach Morris and Third Rail Projects, Sweet & Lucky: Echo is now playing at DCPA Off-Center at Broadway Park® at Broadway & Alameda. Check out the show and get tickets here, and learn more about the company’s extraordinary body of work here.

Their art doesn’t just entertain; it asks something of you. You may be the only person to experience a singular, unrepeatable moment. You might even influence the course of the narrative. And isn’t that what we all crave – to feel a sense of agency in the story of our own lives?

So go ahead. Step into the in-between. You never know who you’ll meet on the other side.

DETAILS
Sweet & Lucky: Echo
Now Playing • Broadway Park® at Broadway & Alameda
Tickets