Actress Guest Stars In Immersive Fantasy Show

Aabria Iyengar is a special guest in DUNGEON & DRAGONS Twenty Sided Tavern. Photo provided by Broadway in Chicago.
Aabria Iyengar is a special guest in DUNGEON & DRAGONS Twenty Sided Tavern. Photo provided by Broadway in Chicago.

Actress Guest Stars In Immersive Fantasy Show

By Tia Carol Jones

Aabria Iyengar always loved musical theatre, even with having a sports background growing up. She got into long form Improv through Second City and the Upright Citizens Brigade once she graduated from college. She was introduced to Dungeons & Dragons, the fantasy tabletop game where players role-play as characters they created to go on an adventure through a fantasy world, while doing Improv. She really got into playing Dungeons & Dragons and other tabletop games online on Twitch and YouTube.

Iyengar will be appearing as a special guest in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern through Sept. 7th. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS The Twenty-Sided Tavern is an immersive theater experience where the cast of players go through Dungeons & Dragons as the audience participates by voting on what the cast does. It was created by David Carpenter, David Andrew Laws and Sarah Davis Reynolds and had a run in Chicago before it premiered off-Broadway in 2024. It will be at the Broadway Playhouse, located at 175 E. Chestnut, through Sept. 28th.

Iyengar said that with the Twenty-Sided Tavern she gets to return to her early love of live performance and improvisation. She said she is excited to join the National tour. She said it feels surreal and crazy, and she is very aware of how lucky she is to be able to do what she does for a living.

“It is truly fun to go from consuming fiction like Lord of the Rings and all the books we read as children, and movies that we are even into now, like superheroes and Marvel, and instead get to be those characters and get to be those kind of heroes in fiction that you enjoy consuming. It’s very fun,” she said.

Iyengar said that she is most excited about introducing Dungeons & Dragons to people. She said the Twenty-Sided Tavern is the best way to get introduced to the game, because the cast is comprised of some of the funniest people going through the improvised story. She said the audience is helping tell the story, which means the story is never the same and the show is different every time. She said it is fun, a well curated, highly polished version of Dungeons & Dragons, that she hopes will spark people’s interest and make them want to play it for themselves. Iyengar encouraged parents to take their children to the show as it is very family-friendly.

Iyengar said being part of a show that has a choose your own adventure aspect to it, is her favorite, because she gets to act and react in the moment. She said the moments where she can genuinely, sincerely and deeply respond to something new that has been offered that ties everything together feels like magic. She said it is her favorite part of Improv in general.

“When those moments start to coalesce, when a bunch of incredibly talented storytellers get together, what starts off as a series of bits and funny moments always seems to coalesce in the third act as this heightened heroic moment,” she said. She added that it seems like a magic trick and it is a delight.

Iyengar is also a comic book author. Her series, The Fade, follows Jeannie going into a magical and dangerous world as she finds her place and her people. She said the first time she saw herself in a comic book character was Storm in X-Men. She said the idea of being able to replicate that and pay it forward was irresistible. She hopes there is a child who sees themselves in Jeannie.



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