This sponsored post was produced by UploadVR in partnership with Agile Lens.
‘Tis the season to put up a tree, give a gift or two, and snag a little egg nog. For theater lovers in 2025, a classic holiday story takes on a new form with A Christmas Carol VR from Agile Lens. The festive production is a fully-live, real-time theatrical performance in virtual reality. In fact, the event was made specifically for VR, and isn’t a pre-recorded 360 video like other experiences.
What else makes A Christmas Carol VR unique from typical VR theater? Firstly, there’s the full-body and facial performance capture, all done with Meta Quest Pro headsets. Secondly, there’s a cast of trained, distributed actors that perform the classic live within Unreal Engine 5. Thirdly, the attending audience acts as embodied participants inside the same space as the actors themselves.
In its fifth year now, A Christmas Carol VR is carefully crafted to run entirely on the Meta Quest 3 and tickets for the live VR performance are completely free. Participants can download the app on the Meta Quest store, as well as expect a desktop interactive version in coming years. And as an added perk, audience members can take advantage of an all-day stream-a-thon this Christmas Eve on YouTube.
Participants of the 2025 performances can enjoy the virtual acting styles of Ari Tarr (Scrooge, Dickens) and Debbie Deer (Ghosts), and all-new music composed by Katherine Beggs. A Christmas Carol VR started out in 2021 in collaboration with the Actors Theater of Louisville and by 2022, the play went fully virtual. 2023 eliminated the need for pre-recorded segments and the Christmas classic was a fully live show. By 2024, the recital was available as a standalone experience through Meta. This season, the story comes alive through the XR artistry of David Gochfeld.
Agile Lens: Immersive Design was founded by Alex Coulombe and Joshua Dachs, and aims to blend theater, design, and immersive tech. Based in New York, the studio works towards creating virtual performances and design tools with partners like Four Seasons, the Royal Shakespeare Company, NYU, and Royal Caribbean.
Theater lovers who want to take part in the live virtual reality event can do so through the following performance schedule:
Saturday, November 29 – 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Sunday, November 30 – 3:00 PM
Friday, December 5 – 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 6 – 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Sunday, December 7 – 3:00 PM
Friday, December 12 – 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 13 – 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Sunday, December 14 – 3:00 PM
Friday, December 19 – 7:00 PM
Saturday, December 20 – 3:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Sunday, December 21 – 3:00 PM
Christmas Eve, December 24 – YouTube Stream-a-thon
Looking to learn more about A Christmas Carol VR? Live performances continue until Christmas Eve and tickets can be purchased here. In the meantime, follow the team behind the Christmas magic on X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and join the community on the official Discord server for the latest developments.
