Case study

CultureTags Live!

Lead producer
Client: Eunique Jones Gibson / CultureTags
Existing IP → live entertainment
2 live shows + 1 virtual production
2020 · 2021 · 2022
Sold out (2022)

From the Whiteboard

I was in the room when CultureTags was still a joke on a whiteboard.

I watched one joke become several, then watched those jokes turn into cards cut from a cardboard pizza box. My mentor created CultureTags, and I got to be part of bringing it to life, from figuring out what belonged on each card to seeing the game through production and onto the shelves at Target.

There’s something special about being that close to an idea from the beginning, especially when you’re learning from the person who imagined it in the first place.

CultureTags cards fanned out to show the category stripes: TV and film, daily sayings, church, family and friends, songs and lyrics, words to live by, Black Twitter — The finished game · CultureTags was created by Eunique Jones Gibson.

The CultureTags game box: a yellow box covered in hashtag acronyms — The finished game · CultureTags was created by Eunique Jones Gibson.

Later, while producing another live show, we brought CultureTags into the experience. My mentor came to watch, and seeing the game played in front of an audience gave her the idea to create CultureTags Live!

That was the beginning of a new kind of production for us. The game already existed. Now we had to figure out how to turn it into a show.

Making It Live

Playing a game with your friends is one thing. Building an entire show around it is something else.

We already knew CultureTags was fun. The challenge was figuring out how to make that same experience work onstage, with an audience, a cast of personalities, and enough structure to keep the whole thing moving.

I helped develop the live format, thinking through how each round would work, how the talent and audience would participate, and how one part of the show would lead into the next.

First page of the CultureTags Live w/ Eunique and Friends one-pager: what the game is, how the live show works, and the details for Friday, February 21, 2020 at Ivy City Smokehouse — The one-pager · 2020

The game
“Grab a card, show your team the acronym and give hints to help them guess the phrase without saying what it is.”

The show
“The show features numerous categories of the game and allows for two teams of three to compete at a time.”

From the CultureTags Live! one-pager

I was also responsible for booking talent, shaping the show’s flow, managing production, and bringing all those pieces together on show day.

The goal was to make it feel as natural as playing CultureTags with people you know, even though everything happening onstage had to be planned, timed, and produced.

A seating chart with the stage at the top, tables and an upper tier, nearly every seat marked SOLD — Seating chart

Hands working on yellow hashtag-shaped cutouts with Sharpies

Playing It Live

CultureTags Live! became two in-person shows and a virtual edition, each with its own way of bringing people together around the game.

Edition 01

In person
- Friday, February 21, 2020
- Ivy City Smokehouse
- Washington, DC
Edition 02

Virtual edition
- Friendsgiving Virtual Edition
- Sunday, November 29
Edition 03

In person
- December 17
- Bethesda Blues and Jazz

We brought in personalities who could make the game their own, including Gia Peppers, ThatGirl Jay Cole, Kier Gaines, KevOnStage, Mack Wilds, Luvvie Ajayi Jones, and Spice Adams.

Gia Peppers
ThatGirl Jay Cole
Kier Gaines
KevOnStage
Mack Wilds
Luvvie Ajayi Jones
Spice Adams

Part of the fun was that you couldn’t predict everything someone might say. We needed enough structure to keep the show moving without losing the spontaneity that made the game fun in the first place.

Players onstage under a big-screen prompt, DILLBRTF?

An audience member holding up an IYKYK sign

The crowd cheering, waving yellow hashtag signs

Two audience members laughing, one in a CultureTags hoodie

Audience members cheering in CultureTags hashtag shirts

For a lot of people, CultureTags Live! was their introduction to the game. The shows gave audiences a chance to see how it worked, play along, and get familiar with CultureTags in a room full of people.

The game: CultureTags, created by Eunique Jones Gibson
Client: Eunique Jones Gibson / CultureTags
Lead Producer: Aja Sophia
Editions: Two in-person shows · One virtual edition