"I am sitting in a tent placed inside the parlor of a Victorian-era house. Before me lies a spirit board, a lone tarot card and a black scrying mirror. I am here to commune with the dead. There is no medium. It is only myself and eight other attendees- our guide has left the tent. Though earlier we could hear tension-rattling music setting a cryptic mood, now there is nothing. Lights? Off. The tent has gone pitch black."
"Welcome to "Phasmagorica," what composer-turned-magician-turned-spiritual explorer BC Smith describes as "a séance reimagined as art." It's running this month at the Heritage Square Museum, itself a location imbued with history and mystery, the site of the homes of Los Angeles as they existed a century ago. I'll get right to the point: I did not have an encounter with the dead. And yet I left "Phasmagorica" deeply curious."
An intimate séance unfolds inside a tent set in a Victorian parlor, with a spirit board, a tarot card and a black scrying mirror. Nine attendees sit in pitch darkness after the guide exits, listening to breaths and thoughts. Composer-turned-magician BC Smith stages Phasmagorica at Heritage Square Museum to evoke late-1880s American spirit communication using theatrical techniques, modern sound and period atmosphere. The evening aims to engage both believers and skeptics; Smith identifies as a hopeful skeptic and frames the event as an exploratory theatrical séance that blends magic, history and mood. Participants left curious despite no direct contact with the dead.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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