Articles tagged with: Niagara Military Museum

• Escape room with a historical twist

  Thursday, April 27, 2017 | By Nikki Prudden

  

  (Source: The St. Catharines Standard, Tuesday, April 25, 2017 | by Bob Tymczyszyn)

  Niagara Falls is about to gain another escape room site, but this one comes with a twist.

  In the basement of the Niagara Military Museum on Victoria Avenue, Brock University students are busy readying for live testing as they prepare for launch at the end of the summer.

  Dramatic Arts Associate Professor Natalie Alvarez said the idea was just by chance. “I phoned the Niagara Military Museum just to investigate to see the possibility of taking my students through a tour, and through a conversation, I found out they were interested in developing escape rooms.”

  “As a professor of dramatic arts it occurred to me that this was a very rare opportunity to have students in the department of dramatic arts collaborate with students in interactive arts and science bringing their two specializations together, skills in directing, scriptwriting, acting, props and set design with students that were refining their skills in interactive narrative, puzzle, and cipher building.”

  Alvarez says the half-term course of 13 weeks is completely devoted to creating escape rooms designed to the site’s history.

  The site was formed in 1911 as an armoury and used during the First World War then later used for social functions before becoming a museum.

  She explained that one of the room designs is tapping into factual events that unfolded on the site.“And the cold war room is tapping into its latent cold war history,” said Alvarez.

  “In a way, this is an escape room that isn’t just an escape room. It’s bridging other traditions of immersive performance and site-specific theatre, we’re straddling all those traditions and hence this collaboration of disciplines.”

  Museum vice-president Berndt Meyer said this form of escape room is bringing history to a generation, through the subterfuge of play.

  “There are a lot of static displays at every museum, but this one brings it into context,” he said.

  “Because we have real stories that took place here. This place is full of history.”

  Students in the control room monitored the progress of teams in the two rooms, and as the clocks ticked closer to the hour, they were hoping someone would find enough clues to set their way to freedom.

  After several run-throughs, no one had yet escaped in the allotted time.

  Tynan Manuel, one of the room designers, said it’s meant to be hard.

  “Most of the time in escape rooms you go in, and you will fail.“

  “Getting out is great, getting close is still a great feeling.”

  —

  (See the original article at the St. Catharines Standard to watch the featured video on the escape room!)

  Tags: Cold War, Escape Room, First World War, history, Interactive Arts and Science, Natalie Alvarez, Niagara Military Museum, St. Catharines Standard
  Categories: Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, In the Media, News

• Brock escape rooms at Niagara Military Museum ready for testing

  Thursday, April 13, 2017 | By Nikki Prudden

  

  (Source: The Brock News, Thursday, April 13, 2017 | by Maryanne Firth)

  Two new escape rooms carefully crafted by Brock University students are undergoing final testing while readying for their public debut.

  Brock’s Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have been working since January to create the physical adventure games through a partnership with the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.

  The interactive experience sees players locked in a series of rooms and challenged to solve puzzles in exchange for their freedom as they race against the clock.

  

  Brock University Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have been working since January to create two escape rooms in the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.

  A group of about 30 students worked at the Victoria Avenue museum throughout the winter term to develop each aspect of the rooms, from the costumes to the puzzles to the props and sets.

  The building, which dates back to 1911 and was once used as an armoury, inspired the historical First World War and Cold War escape room themes.

  The rooms are unique in that they include live actors who guide players through the narrative.

  “That’s how students hope to differentiate their rooms within Niagara’s escape room market,” said Dramatic Arts Associate Professor Natalie Alvarez, who was the driving force behind the experiential education project.

  “I’m really hoping this will be a niche for students.”

  Students are now working to test the rooms and will be evaluated on their work during an upcoming live testing event on Tuesday, April 18.

  In attendance to evaluate the rooms will be representatives from Casa Loma’s escape room team, Canadian author and historian Christian Cameron, curator Kathleen Powell and archivist Alicia Floyd of the St. Catharines Museum, and Brock University faculty.

  The escape rooms are set to open to the public at the end of May at a cost of roughly $25 per person.

  

  Brock University Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have been working since January to create two escape rooms in the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.

  Proceeds will assist in the maintenance and continued operation of the museum.

  “It’s meant to leave a lasting mark on Niagara tourism, helping to make the museum more sustainable,” Alvarez said, while expressing gratitude to museum operators Jim and Kathy Doherty for their ongoing support.

  “It’s been really rewarding to see the students form what I hope will be a lasting relationship with the museum,” she said.

  Students will have the opportunity to remain at the helm of the escape rooms going forward, first on a voluntary basis and then potentially in paid positions if the rooms become financially viable.

  The museum’s partnership with Brock was made possible through a cultural development grant provided by the City of Niagara Falls, as well as a service-learning grant provided by the University.

  Students who created the escape rooms will be doing a takeover of Brock’s Snapchat account on the afternoon of April 18 when the escape room testing takes place. To follow along and view behind-the-scenes footage, add brockuni to Snapchat.

  Tags: Cold War, Escape Room, First World War, Interactive Arts and Science, Natalie Alvarez, Niagara Falls, Niagara Military Museum
  Categories: Announcements, Current Students, Faculty & Instructors, Future students, In the Media, News

• Humanities students partner with Falls museum on escape rooms

  Wednesday, January 18, 2017 | By Brock University

  

  (Source: The Brock News, Tuesday, January 17, 2017 | by Maryanne Firth. Photo: Brock University Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students are developing two escape rooms in partnership with the Niagara Military Museum. Students are in the initial stages of the project and have been brainstorming the path the two rooms will take.)

   

  They’re planning a great escape from a 100-year-old building.

  Brock University Dramatic Arts and Interactive Arts and Science students have come together for an innovative project that in a few months will open for the public to experience.

  Throughout the winter term a group of nearly 30 students will work to create two escape rooms at the Niagara Military Museum in Niagara Falls.

  The physical adventure games, which have become increasingly popular in recent years, lock players in a room — or in this case a series of rooms — and challenge them to solve puzzles in exchange for their freedom.

  The museum’s partnership with Brock was made possible through a cultural development grant provided by the City of Niagara Falls, as well as a service-learning grant provided by the University.

  Work on the project began Jan. 10 with students touring the Victoria Avenue museum, learning its background and brainstorming the direction the escape rooms will take.

  The building, which dates back to 1917 and was used as an armoury in the First World War, has an “incredible history,” said Dramatic Arts Associate Professor Natalie Alvarez, who was the driving force behind Brock’s involvement.

  That history, which includes an “infamous escape” by Austrian spy George Heinovitch, will act as inspiration for the stories students are planning to tell through the project, she said.

  “They’re going to build an escape room that tries to uncover that history.”

  Students will be responsible for each aspect of the project, including the narrative, puzzles, costumes, props and sets.

  “We’re building it from the ground up, tapping into my students’ expertise in costume design, directing, acting and scriptwriting,” Alvarez said.

  It was also a natural fit to include Interactive Arts and Science students and their skills with interactive narrative, game structure and puzzle building.

  “Escape rooms are this interesting hybrid of different theatre traditions,” Alvarez said.

  “It’s immersive performance. It’s kind of like a living museum. It’s also tapping into site-specific theatre, where you build a theatre piece that’s intimately attached to the site itself and its own history.”

  The escape rooms will be ready for testing by an invited audience April 4.

  “The assessment is going to be entirely in the hands of those experiencing it,” Alvarez said. It will include museum personnel as well as members of Brock’s Service-Learning Resource Centre.

  Museum operators have created a rubric based on what they hoped to see accomplished through the project and students will be evaluated accordingly.

  The escape rooms will go live to the public in May at a cost of $20 per person.

  Proceeds will assist in the maintenance and continued operation of the museum.

  Students will have the opportunity to remain at the helm of the escape rooms going forward, first on a voluntary basis and then potentially in paid positions if the rooms become financially viable.

  “That’s the incentive for them to build the social media machine to advertise it and get people out to experience it,” Alvarez said, adding she’s seen “100 per cent investment” from the students involved.

  She credited Brock for investing in such an innovative approach and nurturing the University’s connection with the community.

  Tags: Escape Room, Natalie Alvarez, Niagara Falls, Niagara Military Museum
  Categories: Current Students, In the Media, News