About
I design worlds - live, hybrid, and institutional - where people can practice consequence, build shared language, and move through uncertainty with more clarity.
Short bio
I am an immersive narrative designer, theatre director, and educator whose work bridges performance, game design, transmedia storytelling, and strategic facilitation. Across projects in the U.S., Europe, China, and Iraq, I return to one question: how do we design environments that make meaningful participation possible - and keep meaning coherent when control is distributed?
My practice treats narrative as a navigable environment shaped by rules, space, and choice rather than as linear content. That approach supports everything from hybrid performance systems (AR, mobile gameplay, AI avatars) to institutional simulation labs-where teams rehearse decisions before reality makes them expensive.
What to Expect
A collaborative process that clarifies the real system problem before proposing a format.
Strong facilitation and authorship in ambiguous situations.
Methods that are intellectually rigorous but usable in practice.
Cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural sensitivity, especially where expectations, risk, and participation differ.
Outputs that can continue working after the engagement ends: language, frameworks, rituals, maps, and rehearsal practices.
Core Values
Coherence before novelty
New tools and formats matter only when they clarify meaning and support the actual behavior you want.
Invitation over control
Participation works when roles, permissions, and trust are intentionally designed.
Embodied intelligence
People understand systems faster when they can feel stakes, thresholds, and consequence in lived experience.
Ethics in participation
Consent, legibility, and psychological safety are not secondary to innovation; they are part of authorship.
What I'm known for
Building participatory storyworlds where audience members become collaborators and co-authors.
Designing strategic rehearsal environments for institutions working inside uncertainty and nonlinear change.
Integrating performance craft with game logic and layered media-without sacrificing emotional legibility.
Teaching and mentoring artists, designers, and leaders in spatial narrative and immersive systems.
Selected Roles and Collaborations
Keep the selected roles list from v4, but move it higher than in the original page so credibility arrives earlier.
United Nations (UNAMI), Iraq - immersive storytelling advisor / trainer
White Horse Immersive (China) - creative direction and XR / transmedia development
Fulbright Scholar - immersive narrative and game design teaching / research
Purchase College, SUNY - theatre and immersive narrative teaching / program leadership
International workshops and lectures across Europe and beyond
Books & longform writing
Spatial Narrative: Designing Worlds Instead of Stories - a method for treating environments as narrative engines and space as causality.
Directing Next - interactive storytelling & performance in an age of mixed media and games.
Becoming Architects of Intelligence - AI literacy and creative agency for artists, educators, and cultural system designers.
Worldbuilding Unbound - five principles for crafting worlds that matter.
Simulation Theory for Future Strategy - why rehearsal outperforms planning in nonlinear systems.
THIS SHOULD BE A BLOG INSERT SUMMARY DESIGN
Talks, media, and interviews
World Experience Organization (WXO) - "How To Use Transmedia Storytelling For Real-World Impact: UNAMI Project in Iraq"
The Jens Heitland Show - episode interview (YouTube / Spotify)
No Proscenium Podcast - interview
Catching the Next Wave Podcast - "Engaging the Audience" and "Dangers of Magical Thinking"
The Business of Extraordinary Experiences Podcast - interview
THIS SHOULD BE A BLOG INSERT SUMMARY DESIGN