Mikhael Tara Garver is a pioneer in the immersive field. For 20 years she has led the way in creating, directing, and developing transformative live experiences across the globe.
She has worked across brands, national arts organizations, social justice organizations, and civic centers. She has created work in rock clubs, mile-long riversides, national parks, theaters, and most recently her biggest adventure yet… a galaxy far far away. Mikhael was the Director of Immersive Experience creating the THEA award-winning Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser.
Starcruiser fulfilled her dream of 20 years: a two day, 3 night immersive narrative experience that meets people where they are and gently involves them in the epic possibilities of our world. Not having been a Star Wars fan before she landed on the ship…. Mikhael has always been a believer of the potential of this craft in creating transformative experiences. And Starcruiser shows her everyday how the power of high-quality immersive narrative + performance can bring us together…its like being a part of “the force.”
She has built award-winning experiences for AMC Television, Amazon, The National Park Service, Bloomberg, Serino/Coyne, BBDO, Hormel, Tentrr, & Smirnoff. She has also done work for brands such as IDEO, Facebook, and Virgin. Garver was the Creative Director for the band, Great Caesar, and developed an immersive journey through 18 hidden shows over 8 days at SXSW!
Her journey along the way has seen her at the center of many of the major immersive junctions: a director on American Repertory Theater’s Initial Production of Sleep No More; a founding board member of the Immersive Experience Institute; awarded the first ever immersive commissions from The Kennedy Center, Goodman Theatre, the National Theatre of Scotland; a multi-year grantee of Pop Culture Collaborative - identified as a leading Pop Culture Leader making culture change; an International Sacatar Fellow in Bahia, Brazil writing her book on immersive; and a Lead Creative Consultant for Walt Disney Imagineering.
Garver has been at the forefront of developing the massive business potential of live immersive entertainment. She has spent her career consulting and building multiple business models that leverage the unique diversity of revenue in this entertainment field while fundamentally centering artists, audience, and culture change. She has seen, first-hand the potential of this multi-billion dollar industry, and believes that immersive’s power is the scale of what and who it can include. It is not a silo’d entertainment industry. She is proof that the work extends and can connect across businesses, brands, live entertainment, podcasts, streaming, civic spaces, new technology, music, and more.
Garver created the advanced program in Making, Directing, and Leadership for NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. She has spoken and taught on Arts and Democracy at North Carolina School of the Arts, Yale, Columbia University, Harvard, DePaul, Montclair State, as well as other universities. Her speaking and thought leadership around Innovative Experiential Content - where digital and live platforms work in concert - has been a keynote at the Immersive Design Summit, Switchpoint, Lincoln Center, and the International Festival of Arts and Ideas. She has an MFA with honors from Columbia University. She most recently spoke at NAMT on innovation in curriculum to shift the pipeline of higher arts education. She is currently an associate professor at the Johnny Carson Center for the Emerging Media Arts where she teaches “How Live Entertainment Experiences Lead Culture Change.” Mikhael worked at many of the theaters across the country as a director and creator including The Public Theater, Steppenwolf Theater, The Playwrights Center, among many others.
She resides in Los Angeles. And is proud to be the Head of (newly launched) Culture House Immersive