IDS staffers try the new Bloomington escape room
After experiencing escape rooms locally and internationally, Chad Rabinovitz, producing artistic director at Bloomington Playwrights Project brought the experience to Bloomington. Rabinovitz, along with members of BPP, designed several puzzles and riddles to help participants break out of the IU-basketball themed room.
For those who want to try their luck at evading the evil Boilermakers and escaping coach Tom Crean’s office in time for the championship game, tickets can be purchased on the BPP website. Teams can be up to four people, and the cost is $25 per player. The escape room will be open until March 4 with time slots available throughout the day.
A team of IDS reporters and editors took the challenge and escaped the room in 46 minutes and 12 seconds. Here are their experiences:
When you walk into the escape room at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, you officially enter the game. The Purdue Boilermakers have locked you, Indiana basketball players, inside Tom Crean’s office right before the national championship game. You have 60 minutes to escape before the Hoosiers are forced to forfeit.
As soon as the referee said, “Your time starts now,” our team scoured the room. We turned over, picked up and opened everything we could — books, picture frames and deodorant sticks. This led us to clues with riddles, which we solved to get codes and combinations to locked containers, boxes and doors. Remember time moves quickly so make sure you’re constantly moving and looking for clues.
My biggest mistake was underestimating BPP’s creation. I wasn’t sure what exactly the group was capable of creating, so I wasn’t expecting some of the twists and turns we had to figure out. Unfortunately I can’t give anything away, but my best advice if you decide to try your hand at the escape room is to expect anything.
ALISON GRAHAM, former editor-in-chief
There are few things in this world I classify as guilty pleasures. I will proudly tell you I love greasy food, trash reality television and petty celebrity gossip. I will begrudgingly tell you I have seen the entire “Saw” franchise several times and know the games in each movie.
This very twisted knowledge served me well in the Escape Room — or at least I expected it to.
When the clock started I went into game mode. Anything and everything in sight I picked up, unzipped and shook out to gather clues for our first puzzle. Our team fanned out and attempted to solve multiple puzzles at once, but it became obvious that working as a team on one puzzle at a time was the most efficient way to keep moving.
I was pleasantly surprised that my limited IU basketball knowledge didn’t hinder our ability to solve the riddles BPP presented us. Even so, my “Saw” skills only carried me so far, and by so far I mean hardly at all.
I expected the escape room to challenge my wits, but I wasn’t expecting it to challenge my senses. After being so wrapped up in number combinations and word scrambles I had to take a beat to stop and listen or, in some cases, stop and smell.
If I had any advice for future participants it would be to be observant. Never disregard something because it seems simple or even out of place — that’s usually your golden ticket.
LINDSAY MOORE, managing editor
There are two versions of yourself: who you think you are and who you actually are.
I have always pictured myself as a detective, mainly as a result of reading too much “Nancy Drew” and “Sherlock Holmes” as a kid and thinking that the couple of times I noticed a weird detail and correctly guessing its cause made me a genius — and coincidentally ignoring the hundreds of things I was wrong about.
Safe to say, I was a little cocky going into the escape room and thought my years of young adult detective novels were finally going to pay off.
Then I had to find out who I really am, which is someone who is easily frustrated by puzzles.
And impatient.
The escape room at the Bloomington Playwright’s Project was a challenge but was definitely rewarding. I knew the basis of the puzzle was we were the starting basketball players for IU and had been locked in Tom Crean’s office by Purdue team members. This was already a challenge for me because I’m a Kentucky fan masquerading as a Hoosier while at school. Thankfully, intrinsic knowledge of IU basketball was not required to complete the puzzle.
In order to break out and get back to the championship game, you must solve puzzles in the room. I was working with three people much smarter than I am, so I was lucky in the sense that I didn’t have to do too much hard thinking in order to get through it. The escape room definitely provided a good break from normal activities we would typically do on the weekend.
ANNA BOONE, former creative director
