Winner, 2019 Off-Broadway Alliance Best Family Show — New York City
Pip's Island was a one-hour immersive theatrical experience for children and families, co-created by Walter Lyon Krudop and Rania Ajami. It ran in New York City from 2016, with a permanent location near Times Square opening in March 2019.
Groups of up to fifty entered nine physical spaces — from a flying ship to a bakery — helping the explorer Pip and his sidekicks save the island from a villainous force that had taken over the lighthouse. The experience combined live performance, puppets, animation, and interactive challenges across tactile, handcrafted environments. It was described in The New York Times as immersive theater for kids — in the tradition of Sleep No More, scaled to a child's sense of wonder.
In 2019, Pip's Island was voted Best Family Show in New York by the Off-Broadway Alliance. The show was also covered by CBS News and ABC7, and has a Wikipedia entry.
Pip's Island closed in 2020. The experience informed the approach Walter Lyon Krudop and Rania Ajami bring to their current project, The Machine Trial — turning their attention from world-building to world-questioning.