This sponsored post was created by UploadVR in partnership with Agile Lens.
It’s the season to put up the tree, give a present or two, and have a little eggnog. For theater lovers in 2025, the classic holiday story takes on a new form in Agile Lens’ A Christmas Carol VR. This festive production is a complete live, real-time theatrical performance in virtual reality. In fact, this event was made specifically for VR and not a pre-recorded 360-degree video like some other experiences.
What else makes A Christmas Carol VR unique compared to typical VR theater? First, it has full-body and facial performance capture, all done using the Meta Quest Pro headset. Second, we have a trained, distributed cast of actors performing the classics live within Unreal Engine 5. Third, the attending audience acts as an embodied participant within the same space as the actors themselves.
Now in its fifth year, A Christmas Carol VR has been carefully crafted to run entirely on Meta Quest 3, and tickets to the live VR performance are completely free. Participants can download the app from the Meta Quest store, and a desktop interactive version will be released in the coming years. As an added bonus, viewers will have access to all-day streaming on YouTube on Christmas Eve.
Attendees of the 2025 performance will enjoy the virtual acting styles of Ali Tarr (Scrooge, Dickens) and Debbie Dear (Ghost), as well as all-new music composed by Catherine Beggs. A Christmas Carol VR launched in 2021 in collaboration with Actors Theater of Louisville, and by 2022 the play was fully virtual. In 2023, the need for pre-recorded segments will disappear and the Christmas classic will become a fully live show. By 2024, this recital will be available as a standalone experience through Meta. This season, the stories come to life with David Goghfeld’s XR artistry.
Agile Lens: Immersive Design was founded by Alex Coulombe and Joshua Dachs and aims to bring together theater, design, and immersive technology. The New York-based studio is working with partners including the Four Seasons, Royal Shakespeare Company, New York University and Royal Caribbean to create virtual performances and design tools.
Theater lovers looking to attend live virtual reality events can do so through the performance schedule below.
Saturday, November 29 – 3pm and 7pm
Sunday, November 30th – 3pm
Friday, December 5th – 7pm
Saturday, December 6th – 3pm and 7pm
Sunday, December 7th – 3pm
Friday, December 12th – 7pm
Saturday, December 13th – 3pm and 7pm
Sunday, December 14th – 3pm
Friday, December 19th – 7pm
Saturday, December 20th – 3pm and 7pm
Sunday, December 21st – 3pm
Christmas Eve, December 24th – YouTube Stream-a-thon
Want to learn more about A Christmas Carol VR? Live performances will continue until Christmas Eve and tickets can be purchased here. In the meantime, follow the team behind Christmas Magic on X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, and join our community on the official Discord server to stay up to date on developments.
