We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael “Thrash” Ornelas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael “Thrash” below.

Michael “Thrash” , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I’ve always been drawn to telling stories and performance. I think we all loved recess as kids; being on the playground in the middle of class, the unbridled unapologetic PLAY as it were. I think a lot of folks get shy and forget how to play whilst some of us never stop playing.
I also always felt a little odd or different from a lot of other kids, I was always an easy target – but I found that if I could make people laugh or ‘perform’ for them they’d leave me alone. I guess you could say performance and play became a survival tool at an early age.

Michael “Thrash” , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Beyond playing recess in elementary school and make believe with my family and friends in the neighborhood as kids, my first real step into immersive entertainment was working for Knott’s Berry Farm entertainment. When you tell people you work for entertainment at a theme park they often ask “What show are you in?” And I always had an interesting time answering that because I did very little shows there, most of what I did was Interactive; Train Bandits have for a long time relied on the interaction with the guests riding the train – sure you can just perform a scene or tell a joke, but the more you involve your guests the bigger variables there are to make the experience truly unique. Then in 2016 Mr Ken Parks gave us “Ghost Town Alive!” and THAT was a next-level immersive experience unlike anything I had ever participated in. [ incidentally HBO’s Westworld season 1 also released that year. I always said ‘GTA’ was like Westworld meets The Ren Faire rated E for everyone.]

Post ‘GTA’ I started to see a boom in immersive theater and Interactive entertainment. I’ve since been lucky enough to have made great friends, colleagues and connections that have led us to do all sorts of work for Peacock and EDC Las Vegas to name a few.

Whilst I still direct, write, play music and voice-act there’s something about immersion that really tailors it to your other scene partner, the guest, the person who doesn’t rehearse with you but who came to experience the thing. I often see those folks leave with such an extra glow in their hearts. It’s that kind of special connection I think we’re losing in the modern age and I’m excited at the prospect of getting a little bit of it back.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The short answer to this question is seeing the real truly unique connections that you can make with your audience that truly changes their day for the better, perhaps even their lives.

Let’s be honest, we’re living in the age of the electronic device. Even as I’m answering these questions I’m voice texting on my cell phone. When my dad took me to my first Metallica concert at 17 it was still the early 2000s and I remember seeing lighters everywhere during a ballad, flash forward a decade later…cell phone lights…everywhere…
When we did our first season of “Ghost Town Alive!” [at Knott’s Berry Farm] I remember Ken [our director] saying that one of our biggest successes is people spent a whole nine hours with us and they weren’t on their phones.

I often wonder, what if this kind of immersive theater existed prior to the cell phone age, but then I remind myself that it technically did in many different forms without having that title associated with it. I think this new name or title or brand, if you will, specifically must have emitted from this digital age and the need to connect on a deeper level.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve had the opportunity to see a children who are unsure of themselves, feel like they don’t belong, having a hard time with life and yet they find a place to thrive in these immersive experiences. I’ve seen adults reconnect with their inner child and allow themselves to play in a way they forgot how to or in a way that they’re normal lives doesn’t let them do very often.

This is always the ultimate end goal, giving your audience, your unrehearsed scene partner an experience unlike any other that truly lives with them for a lifetime.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @Thrash618
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/MichaelThrashOrnelas
• Twitter: @Thrash618

Image Credits

Insomniac Entertainment, Meta 4 You