Today we’d like to introduce you to Paige Solomon.
Hi Paige, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Elsewhere at the Madcap Motel is a premier entertainment venue in Downtown Los Angeles that combines interactive oddities, art installations, theatrical performances, and magical acts for a 4-D, multi-sensory experience. Through a series of seemingly normal 1960’s-themed motel rooms, guests explore 17,000 sq. ft. of hidden passageways and merge through different dimensions to uncover an interactive series of whimsical wonders. Not to be confused with a functioning hospitality institution, pop-up experience or another “selfie-museum,” Elsewhere at the Madcap Motel is designed to take guests on a vacation from reality and rediscover the childlike wonder that exists in all of us.
The immersive experience starts off with linear storytelling and performances. However, once guests are transported into Elsewhere via wormhole travel, the immersive experience becomes more “sandbox” – meaning guests choose their own adventure from that point. Guests can explore behind any numbered motel door and interact with the portal tourists (immersive theatre actors) as much or as little as desired. When guests wish to leave and go back to reality, they are instructed to find door #7 where they enjoy a final performance before being ushered into our motel gift shop.
Inspiration for the concept came from parts of Beetlejuice, Interstellar, and Big Fish. People’s everyday life tends to become ‘Groundhog Day’ so we wanted to create a space where people can play and experience an escape from reality while having this sense of nostalgia and familiarity.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
The biggest challenge (aside from surviving a global pandemic) was navigating the LADBS and obtaining our change of use. We had to completely renovate the building to allow us to use it as a public venue. This required us to install sprinklers, bathrooms, and an entire new electrical system. This caused us months in delays and hundreds of thousands of dollars. There were times when we didn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel. When we finally obtained our proper permitting and passed all inspections, we were shut down a day after opening to our friends and family. We then obviously faced our next challenge: a small business surviving a pandemic with little to no government support. When we were allowed to reopen, we had to hire and train over 80 part-time employees, as well as update our production after it sat for over a year. Thankfully since our experience always planned for limited capacity with timed ticketing, we didn’t have to make too many changes to our layout or overall experience.
This extra time was a good lesson in patience, perseverance, and perspective. When you’ve worked so hard on something collectively as a team and gone through arguably the hardest thing our company will ever face, it brings everyone closer together. We also aren’t sweating the small stuff anymore. We are confident in what we built, our capabilities, and the joy we are bringing to our guests. Now it’s just time to keep our heads down and keep fighting to make this dream a reality.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Before I founded Good Enough Productions LLC, the company responsible for Elsewhere at the Madcap Motel, I spent my career as an experiential marketing creative strategist, launching consumer activations for brands including Netflix, Sony, Uber, Instagram and Facebook.
Then in 2018, I launched my first experience, Dream Machine, an immersive entertainment venue in Brooklyn, New York. In less than six months, Dream Machine saw over 90,000 people and earned more than $3M in revenue. After success with Dream Machine, I decided that instead of hiring outside production companies, I wanted to form my own team of expert writers, artists, creators and fabricators under one umbrella. Thus, Good Enough Productions was born. The team consists of nine full-time employees that are highly specialized in writing, marketing, design, lighting, set production, and operations. Between world-building, storytelling, production, and marketing, our team is capable of projects at any scale.
In March 2020, we were poised to open Elsewhere at the Madcap Motel in downtown Los Angeles, and after more than a year of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we opened our whimsical world of Elsewhere to the public on April 30, 2021.
Pricing:
- Adults – $40
- Children (ages 4-11) – $30
- Babies (under 3) – FREE
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.madcapmotel.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inthemadcapmotel/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MadcapMotel
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/MadcapMotel
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1pWGy7sfgO_ysj8-9KJ13Q
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/madcap-motel-los-angeles-2
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4LqUoIExn6MyDTAy8uaHpk?si=f917d33039324ca8
Image Credits:
Madcap Motel
