This October, something curious is happening in Mancos, Colorado.
A vintage Silverton school bus is being transformed. A little red cottage beside the river is waiting. Artists are building installations in unexpected places. Characters are preparing to appear in alleyways, businesses and hidden corners of town.
And groups of just 14 people at a time will be sent into it all.
‘The Golden Fox Paradox: An Immersive Adventure for the Wonderfully Lost’ takes place October 2-4 and October 9-11, 2026, transforming downtown Mancos into a sprawling, participatory theatrical world where the audience doesn’t simply watch the story. They enter it.
Part immersive theatre, part interactive story, part public art adventure, Golden Fox Paradox might best be described as Alice in Wonderland meets Meow Wolf meets a magical, slightly feral Mancosland.
Produced by the Sunflower Theatre at KSJD radio in collaboration with Mancos Common Press, the production brings together more than 25 performers, 15+ artists and eight local businesses to create an experience unfolding through the town itself.
Audience members – known throughout the experience as Intrepid Travelers – depart in small groups every 15 minutes and follow a trail through Mancos, encountering theatrical vignettes, installations, sound, unexpected characters and sensory experiences along the way.
But beneath the playfulness and absurdity is a surprisingly human question:
What does wonder know, that certainty does not?
The story explores our discomfort with uncertainty – and what can happen when curiosity, connection and imagination are allowed to interrupt our instinct to divide the world into certainties, sides and categories.
Rather than delivering a message or telling audiences what to think, Golden Fox asks them to get wonderfully lost for a while. To notice. To listen. To play. And perhaps to encounter one another a little differently.
The production grew from the creative team behind Purple Fox Conundrum, the 2019 immersive theatre production that also transformed the Mancos Valley into an unconventional theatrical landscape. Co-producers Sarah Syverson and Kellie Pettyjohn return to the form with Golden Fox, joined by Jody Chapel, who is leading the production’s visual art and installation work.
This time, the scale has grown considerably.
There are performers “in the field” throughout town. Artists creating environments, costumes, props and installations. Local businesses becoming theatrical locations. A vintage school bus being transformed into an immersive sensory world. And, somewhere along the way, a little red cottage beside the Mancos River where things may become stranger still.
The town isn’t simply the backdrop. Mancos itself is one of the characters.
For Syverson, Artistic Programming Director of the Sunflower Theatre, that is part of the experiment.
“We wanted to create something where people couldn’t quite tell where the theatre ended and the town began,” Syverson said. “Golden Fox is playful, weird and funny, but underneath all of that is this idea that maybe curiosity is something we need right now. What happens when we stop needing to know exactly what’s coming next and become willing to be surprised – by a place, by a story and maybe even by each other?”
The result is difficult to categorize intentionally. It isn’t a traditional play. It isn’t an art walk. It isn’t an escape room. And audiences won’t spend the evening sitting in theatre seats.
Instead, Golden Fox Paradox asks people to walk directly into an unfolding world created specifically for Mancos – one that will exist for just two weekends and then disappear.
GOLDEN FOX PARADOX
An Immersive Adventure for the Wonderfully Lost
October 2-4 & October 9-11, 2026
Downtown Mancos, Colorado
Tickets: $25 adults / $20 ages 15 and under
Small groups of approximately 14 Intrepid Travelers enter every 15 minutes.
Tickets and information: sunflowertheatre.org
Produced by Sunflower Theatre at KSJD in collaboration with Mancos Common Press.