Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex has commissioned Ella Louise Allaire and Martin Lord Ferguson of Montreal-based production company Monlove (Cirque du Soleil’s Kà and Zed, The Nut Job Live & Friends, Ice Age Live! A Mammoth Adventure) to create All Systems Are Go, an original live, immersive educational entertainment experience to be presented at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Targeted to launch for spring 2023, it will feature beloved Peanuts characters including Snoopy, Woodstock, Charlie Brown, Sally, Linus, Lucy, Franklin and Schroeder.
“We are over the Moon at the opportunity to work with Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and Peanuts Worldwide on this project to conceive a world-class experience that will both entertain and educate the audience about what NASA has achieved and will pursue in the future,” commented Allaire and Ferguson. “The creative potential for telling this larger-than-life story through the eyes of the fabled Peanuts characters is as vast and exciting as space itself.”
Monlove is transforming the visitor complex’s 300-seat Universe Theater for All Systems Are Go with Dolby Atmos sound, motorized scrims and more than 20 integrated laser projectors to enhance the project’s high-end immersive edutainment experience. The original orchestral score composed by Allaire and Ferguson will offer music in an eclectic mix of orchestral, contemporary and jazz styles. Using augmented reality interactive technology, audience members will be able to use their smartphones to scan the environment to discover space elements and a music sequence.
“Peanuts has had a long association with space, starting with NASA’s Apollo 10 mission in the 1960s to Snoopy being the zero-gravity indicator on the upcoming launch of Artemis I,” noted Craig Herman, Vice President, Global Brand Experiences & Publishing, Peanuts Worldwide. “This joint effort between Monlove, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and Peanuts Worldwide is a fantastic avenue for fans to learn about Peanuts and NASA’s storied history as well as experience Charles Schulz’s iconic characters in a new and exciting way.”
The 20-minute experience, included with admission and offered daily, will feature the Peanuts gang appearing as four to five-foot-tall articulated characters operated by puppeteers. The characters will narrate the iconic history of NASA, the Artemis missions and future plans in an educational and imaginatively enlightening way for the whole family. NASA’s Artemis missions will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon and establish the first long-term presence on the Moon.
Therrin Protze, Chief Operating Officer at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, said, “We’re thrilled to partner with Monlove to bring the world’s most beloved Peanuts characters to the stage in All Systems Are Go at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Guests of all ages will love the experience from start to finish.”
Allaire and Ferguson will act respectively as creators of the experience’s original concept, story and music as well as executive producers for this new project. The collaboration is Monlove’s first association with Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and Peanuts Worldwide, and follows two successful associations with Warner Bros. Themed Entertainment, featuring the recent live stage show Scooby-Doo! and the Lost City of Gold and the upcoming fall 2023 live theatrical and musical stage show with the internationally recognized Looney Tunes characters.
