Stage Fright

Written By Scott Simmons

The owners of Escape Room Pittsburgh relied on the creative team of Needs More Fog to bring their newest and first-ever scary escape room to fiendish life.

For Stage Fright, the team at Escape Room Pittsburgh partnered with Needs More Fog to help develop a fully immersive, horror-themed escape room experience designed to feel cinematic, theatrical, and deeply atmospheric. Set inside the abandoned puppet theater of the mysterious Madame Zemsta, Stage Fright plunges guests into a supernatural environment filled with unsettling discoveries, environmental storytelling, and escalating tension.

Needs More Fog supported the attraction through a wide range of immersive experience development services, including script development, puzzle design, custom artwork, scenic fabrication, prop development, audio design, internal media production, and environmental storytelling

Projects like Stage Fright represent one of our favorite creative challenges: helping attractions, escape rooms, museums, themed environments, and entertainment brands transform ideas into fully realized guest experiences audiences remember, photograph, share, and return to experience again.

Services Provided

  • Escape Room Design

  • Immersive Storytelling

  • Puzzle Development

  • Script Development

  • Scenic Design & Fabrication

  • Prop Design & Production

  • Audio Design

  • Internal Video Production

  • Experiential Environment Development

Creative Director: Scott Simmons 

Puzzles Developed by Melissa Sapienza Garret, Scott Simmons

Project Manager: Wayne Simmons 

Script Written by Scott Simmons, Melissa Sapienza Garrett 

Concept Artwork and Art Direction: Kelly Braden

Lead Scenic Painter: Heather Heitzenrater

Lead Carpenter: Joe Sugar

Additional Scenic Carpentry: Michael Richter

"Zemsta" portrayed by Tamara Siegert Spangler 

Theater Manager portrayed by Kalee George

Seraphine Puppet created by Michael "Rib" Ribagin, RibFX

Posters & Playbills designed by Scott Simmons, Kelly Braden
Additional Puzzle artwork by Jennifer Dallas

Scenic Team: Crystal Cavitt, Melissa Sapienza Garrett, Kalee George, Leah Henderson Rossi, Scott Simmons, Wayne Simmons, Nicole Danielle Testa 

Special Thanks to Jon Ward, Kellan Anderson, Jon Cooke, Chris Virgilio, JJ Byers

Building an attraction, escape room, immersive environment, museum experience, or themed venue?

Needs More Fog helps entertainment brands and experience-driven organizations bring ambitious ideas to life through immersive storytelling, experiential design, cinematic content, and audience engagement strategy.

CONTACT US

Step inside the newly restored Deasy Theater of Homestead—a once-grand venue consumed by fire in 1939—and prepare for Pittsburgh’s newest and most thrilling immersive and interactive escape room experience.

Your team must unravel puzzles through eerie dressing rooms, cursed workshops, and the crumbling stage itself to uncover the truth behind Zemsta’s final performance. Master the clues and cues of music, lighting, and props to free the trapped soul of her daughter before time run outs… or else your souls will join Zemsta’s growing horde of hellish puppets.

Stage Fright at Escape Room Pittsburgh incorporates live performance, cinematic effects, and physical challenges into highly detailed and immersive sets and environments created by our team of artists and designers. Set the stage, play your part, escape before the curtain falls forever.

Now booking exclusively in Homestead, PA—Pittsburgh’s newest and most frightening escape room adventure, designed for those who crave immersive storytelling and interactive horror within their escape room experiences.

Scott Simmons

Since 1999, Scott Simmons has helped create nationally recognized haunted attractions, escape rooms, theatrical experiences, themed environments, and immersive entertainment projects designed to surprise, engage, and leave a lasting impression.

Best known for his work as Creative and Marketing Director for ScareHouse — one of America’s most acclaimed haunted attractions — and the groundbreaking immersive experience The Basement, Scott now leads Needs More Fog, a creative studio specializing in cinematic video production, immersive storytelling, experiential design, social media strategy, and SEO optimization for experience-driven brands.

Over the past two decades, Scott and his collaborators have developed immersive attractions, escape rooms, and live experiences featured on Good Morning America, Late Night with Seth Meyers, Travel Channel, and The Daily Show, while earning praise from acclaimed filmmakers including Guillermo del Toro, Michael Dougherty, and Elijah Wood. His team also collaborated with Universal Pictures, Legendary Entertainment, and Weta Workshop to create the world’s first immersive experience inspired by Krampus.

Beyond haunted attractions, Scott has overseen the concept, design, production, and marketing of escape rooms, special events, theatrical productions, and themed environments — including the creative reimagining of The Old Mill at Kennywood.

Today, through Needs More Fog, Scott helps attractions, museums, entertainment brands, hospitality companies, and immersive experiences strengthen audience engagement through video production, content strategy, SEO, social media management, and experiential storytelling.

His creative content — including trailers, behind-the-scenes videos, and social campaigns — has generated more than eight million views, while his speaking appearances often explore immersive design, attraction marketing, digital content creation, generative AI, and occasionally, murderous bunnies with axes.

Previous

Row House Theater
Next

Factory of Terror