Monkey Mind Escape Rooms Retires The Stolen Diamond After 8½ Years and Nearly 7,000 Players

 

 

PORTSMOUTH— Monkey Mind Escape Rooms retired The Stolen Diamond this weekend, ending an eight-and-a-half-year run for the safari heist escape room that challenged nearly 7,000 players. The final day brought together owner Renee Vannata, founder Larry Vannata and Wayne Moulton of Sages Entertainment, who helped design the room and played its last run with his daughter and a friend.
 

Renee Vannata and Wayne Moulton met at a Portsmouth TweetUp during the early days of Twitter, around 2010. Renee and Larry were avid geocachers, and Moulton had built a multi-stage geocache around Market Square. All three were serial entrepreneurs with a geeky streak and a love of people, so they kept crossing paths.
 

Their first joint project was Portsmouth Team Building's first successful scavenger hunt, built on the geocaching concept. Larry later hired Moulton to design a portable escape room for a client conference. The result, Escape the Conference Room, is a mock company retreat where teams solve challenges to compete for a mock grand prize of tickets anywhere in the world. Companies still book it today.
 

In 2017, Portsmouth Team Building moved into the Worth Building on Vaughan Mall to establish a home base for events and a much-needed office space. Escape the Conference Room became the blueprint for The Stolen Diamond. Larry pulled together a small design group, including Moulton, and added technology, a storyline and videos featuring Bob, played by local actor Bob Sheesley. A photo from Renee and Larry's trip to Africa in the late 1990s became part of the room's inspiration and has hung inside it ever since.
 

“When we built The Stolen Diamond, none of us knew we'd still be talking about it eight and a half years later,” said Larry, founder of Monkey Mind Escape Rooms. “Wayne was an important part of the team that brought it to life, and Bob Sheesley will forever be ‘Bob’ to the thousands of players who tried to save him.”
 

“I was part of the original design group that helped make this game happen, designing many of the puzzles,” said Wayne, co-owner of Sages Entertainment. “Getting to play the final run with my daughter and one of her friends was a lot of fun. Years later, we're still building things together.”
 

“Almost 7,000 people have played The Stolen Diamond to save Bob’s life, and we really appreciate every one of you who came through these doors over the last eight and a half years,” said Renee, owner of Monkey Mind Escape Rooms. “We look forward to seeing you in our other rooms, and in the new ones coming soon. Adventure awaits!”
 

All of these companies work in entertainment, but they serve different customers in different ways. Along the way, they share ideas, talent and referrals, with one shared goal: bringing people joy.
 

Portsmouth Team Building continues to offer Escape the Conference Room and more than 20 other events for companies across the Seacoast. Monkey Mind Escape Rooms continues to run Legend of the Shoals, The Cursed Tomb, Gates of Atlantis and The Antidote, with new rooms in development. Sages Entertainment brings joy to families, schools and companies through magic shows, bubble and foam parties, balloon art, S.T.E.A.M. programs and school assemblies designed to spark curiosity.
 

Watch the farewell video: https://youtube.com/shorts/EhH_FaC6IQ4
 

Monkey Mind Escape Rooms is a woman-owned escape room company in downtown Portsmouth. Its immersive rooms challenge friends, families and corporate teams to solve puzzles against the clock. Located at 10 Vaughan Mall, The Worth Building, Suite 214, Portsmouth, NH. www.MonkeyMindEscape.com. Adventure awaits