I’m on the hunt with Ethan Rodriguez-Torrent BA/MA ’13, a tall man wearing an “Escape New Haven” t-shirt. Our target? Five dioramas scattered downtown.
Rodriguez-Torrent began experimenting with puzzle-making around 2015 when he opened Escape New Haven on Whitney Avenue. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he expanded his escape room business to include outdoor adventures.
“Time Crimes” is one such example: a scavenger hunt of diorama boxes imagining what New Haven surroundings looked like in past eras of history. The word diorama comes from Greek roots meaning “seen” and “through.” Players chase a time-traveling villain and engage with the dioramas, uncovering a story about the city’s transportation evolution, from canals to railroads to trolleys to cars.
Each of these dioramas required research at the New Haven Museum, about twenty hours of design, ten hours of construction, and a precise hand—the boxes are only a couple feet wide. Rodriguez-Torrent invited Sooo-z Mastropietro, a multimedia artist based in Connecticut, to construct the miniatures with historical themes and game clues.
Players can pay to rent a large wooden briefcase with clues guiding them through the scavenger hunt’s narrative. However, the dioramas are free for the public to enjoy.
“Not everything is commercially a huge success. But that’s not the only reason to be doing things,” Rodriguez-Torrent said. He plans to leave the boxes around as long as possible.
We huddle around a small wooden box in Phelps Triangle Park, at the intersection of Whitney Avenue, Trumbull Street, and Temple Street. It looks more like a birdhouse than a time machine, with a rustic slanted green roof resting upon a waist-high post.
Peering into the diorama transports me through centuries of history. In a miniature recreation of the same location in 1828, small clay mules pull boats down a resin-filled canal, surrounded by fuzzy trees, mossy fields, and pebble walls. I can almost hear the bray of livestock and shouts of boatmen.
We walk down the Farmington Canal Trail and spot a woman peeking inside the second diorama, by Scantlebury Park. “I really like seeing that. I really like that they function as independent pieces of art or education,” said Rodriguez-Torrent.
However, there is also a “secret layer of information” for official players, Rodriguez-Torrent said. He tosses Escape New Haven’s briefcase onto the grass and opens a locked compartment, revealing instructions and tools specific to this diorama.
I peer through the diorama’s viewfinder and discover an 1835 scene: a large cargo ship floating in a canal lock, or “boat elevator,” operated by a townsperson. Behind the canal is a row of houses with hand-painted shingles. Rodriguez-Torrent passes me a handheld mirror from the briefcase, and I slip it into the diorama scene through a hidden slot. I glimpse an array of colors and letters etched onto the back of each house—clues leading to the next stage of the puzzle.
I take a step back. Pickleballs ping back and forth on a nearby court. Bikers whiz by. Rodriguez-Torrent and I continue our journey down the asphalt path, our shadows stretching out behind us.
— Anna Koontz