Summer 2020
In-Home Entertainment Recommendations
We all love sitting down and watching Netflix while we’re stuck in our houses during quarantine, but what are some other fun things we can watch and play? In this Theatre & Arts section, we’ll give you suggestions for games to play, podcasts to listen to, and theatre to stream, as well as Netflix and Hulu recommendations.
Virtual Escape Rooms—Feeling trapped in your own living space? Let’s live vicariously through escaping locked rooms using our own wits. And a couple of hints. The Virtually Escaped blog has compiled many available virtual escape rooms for you to explore—some free, some available for a fee—as well as short reviews of each room. Another website, Hourglass Adventures, has done something similar. And hey, this time your cat can help you! (Plus, don’t forget about our own Murder on the Island!)
Podcast Recommendation: The Magnus Archives—Currently in its fifth and final season, The Magnus Archives is a horror anthology podcast set in London, where a fictional institute of researchers compile and archive stories of encounters with the supernatural. The statements seem simply unsettling on their own, but as they file and store them properly, the archival staff begin to realize that they might be putting together something more sinister than they could’ve imagined. Available on Spotify and other platforms.
Streaming Recommendation: Natsume Yujin-cho—All his life, Natsume Takashi has been surrounded by spirits that only he can see, and they’ve brought him nothing but misfortune. But when he moves to his deceased grandmother’s hometown, he discovers that she was just like him. She left behind a powerful book with the names of many spirits in it, and as Natsume finds himself pursued for the book, he decides he’s going to start giving the names (and thus, their freedom) back to each spirit, even if he has to do it one by one. Natsume Yujin-cho is available on VRV for free.
Game Recommendation: Stardew Valley—You are trapped in a corporate, dead-end job, when you get a letter from your late grandfather informing you that he has left you his farm. You travel to the town of Stardew Valley to tend to your new home, only to find it broken down and covered in weeds. Not to worry, though; you can soon be well on your way to a sprawling farm. Clean, mine, own livestock, romance citizens of the town, and even make friends with the mysterious character living in the tower in the woods. Take a break from life. You deserve one. Available on Steam for $14.99, as well as PS4, Switch, and other platforms.
Theatre Recommendation: The Importance of Being Earnest—Although the cast of our own theatre’s production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest was not able to perform traditionally, the show must go on! The cast and crew came together for Zoom rehearsals, costume and lighting adjustments, and recordings from their homes. The full production was put together by John Thornberry and Rebecca Stone-Thornberry and has been released to the public on Youtube! Be sure to catch this production that we worked so hard on.
—Cassidy MacArthur, Theater & Arts Editor