RUSCELLA IMMERSIVE — PRESS KIT
ruscellaimmersive.com/press · info@ruscellaimmersive.com

ABOUT RUSCELLA IMMERSIVE (short)
Ruscella Immersive is an Orlando-based immersive design and production studio led by director JJ Ruscella. It designs and produces immersive experiences, and builds the labs where institutions make their own, for clients in education, government and entertainment.

ABOUT RUSCELLA IMMERSIVE (long)
Ruscella Immersive is an Orlando-based immersive design and production studio led by JJ Ruscella, and the only immersive studio led by a stage and film director who co-authored the field’s design taxonomy. The studio works in three disciplines: Immersive Design, which shapes each experience around the participant; Immersive Production, from 360 capture and 3D development to projection mapping and live simulation; and Immersive Labs, which equip institutions to create their own. Its work includes Voices of Freedom, an immersive history series with Shenandoah University and New American History; an arts and humanities immersive lab at Christopher Newport University, built with Apple; and The Living Nativity, a live production captured in stereoscopic 360. Learn more at ruscellaimmersive.com.

ABOUT JJ RUSCELLA (short)
JJ Ruscella is a stage and film director and the co-founder and CEO of Ruscella Immersive. Over thirty years he has directed theatre, film and live-action simulation, founded the Interactive Performance Lab at the University of Central Florida, and co-authored the immersive experience design taxonomy adopted by the U.S. Air Force. He is based in Orlando, Florida.

ABOUT JJ RUSCELLA (long)
JJ Ruscella is a director whose work has moved from the stage to the screen to the headset. He is the co-founder and CEO of Ruscella Immersive, the Orlando studio that designs and produces immersive experiences for institutions and creators.
Trained as a theatre artist, he earned his MFA at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts and spent twelve years at the University of Central Florida teaching theatre and film, where he founded the Interactive Performance Lab with the School of Film and Digital Media. He directed and produced the feature film The Karaoke King, a winner at the Skyline Indie Film Festival, and received a Bronze Telly Award for directing and writing Santa Talks.
As founding executive director of the Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning, he grew a student-run immersive design and production lab and received the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges’ H. Hiter Harris III Award for Excellence in Instructional Technology. He co-authored a peer-reviewed taxonomy for immersive experience design that became the foundation of the U.S. Air Force’s Vector program, and created OrchestrateXR, software for designing and orchestrating immersive learning experiences.

AT A GLANCE
Studio: Ruscella Immersive (Ri)
Headquarters: Orlando, Florida
Led by: JJ Ruscella, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Disciplines: Immersive Design, Immersive Production, Immersive Labs
Worked with: Apple, U.S. Air Force Air University, Shenandoah University, Christopher Newport University, New American History, RIVERE Ecological Center

RECOGNITION
- Bronze Telly Award, directing and writing (Santa Talks)
- Winner, Skyline Indie Film Festival (The Karaoke King)
- H. Hiter Harris III Award for Excellence in Instructional Technology, Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges
- Designed for Lincoln Center: live-action simulation stage
- Adopted by the U.S. Air Force: immersive design taxonomy

STYLE
Ruscella Immersive on first reference, Ri after that. JJ Ruscella is written without periods.

MEDIA CONTACT
info@ruscellaimmersive.com
