How American Immersion Theater Resolved a Security Incident in 4 Hours with Oceans Talent

Item: Oceans Talent
Author: Kat Carvell-Ray

priority websites migrated for AEO in 2 weeks

~4 hrs

to resolve a site-wide security incident, unassisted

~270

websites brought toward top-tier accessibility compliance

Industry

Media

Company size

Mid-market

Role

Operations

Published

September 16, 2026

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American Immersion Theater Modernizes a 270-Site Stack with Embedded Developers

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American Immersion Theater (AIT) runs immersive dinner-theater experiences, murder mystery parties, princess parties, and other themed events for both private bookings and ticketed public shows. These are offered across several brands, including its flagship Murder Mystery Co., Princess Party Co., and Famous for a Day Co. Running events at that scale means operating roughly 270 brand- and city-specific websites, a roster of about 2,000 part-time actors, and a custom-built ERP system that handles everything from actor scheduling to invoice collection. All of this sits on top of a website and server stack that traces back over two decades.

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AIT partnered with Oceans Talent to bring on two full-stack developers: Risitha Jayaratne in October 2025, followed by Isuru Mahakumarage in January 2026. Both work alongside AIT’s Director of Technology to keep that stack running and modernized.

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The Challenge: Modernizing a Tech Stack While Keeping the Business Online

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An old tech stack was starting to break under its own age. Parts of AIT’s server infrastructure and website code dated back over two decades, and a routine server update without a matching website update was enough to take lead-capture forms down entirely.
AI was changing how customers found the business, and hundreds of websites weren’t built for it. With roughly 270 brand- and city-specific sites (78 for the Murder Mystery brand alone) the shift from traditional search-engine optimization to answer-engine optimization (AEO) meant re-architecting how customers found AIT through AI search agents, not just Google results, with 20 priority sites needing to go live before the next public show season.
A security incident hit while the team’s lead was out of office. When AIT was hit with a phishing exploit harvesting lead-form data through a fake CAPTCHA, its two newest technical team members had to diagnose the issue, brief the CEO directly, and resolve it without their manager available to step in.
Actor scheduling was missing a feature auditions depended on, and invoice data wasn’t easy for finance to act on. With a new casting cycle approaching, AIT’s custom ERP system didn’t yet have the audition-scheduling feature actors needed, and with multiple invoices generated per private show, missing-payment issues were hard for the finance team to catch and follow up on without better visibility into the data.
Accessibility compliance across roughly 270 sites had fallen behind. The majority of AIT’s websites did not meet the highest (AAA) accessibility standards, leaving gaps in screen-reader support, image descriptions, form labeling, and color contrast across the company’s entire web footprint.

When a WordPress plugin vulnerability hit a few of our sites while I was on vacation, I didn’t even find out until it was already handled. Risitha took charge, he delegated the mitigation work with Isuru, and they had it investigated and resolved without needing me in the loop. That’s when I realized I didn’t have to be in the room for everything. It’s part of why Risitha’s since taken on the senior lead role so I can focus on the bigger picture.

Kat Carvell-Ray

Director of Technology

The Solution: Two Embedded Developers Across Migration, Security, and the ERP

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Migrated 20 priority AIT websites to an AEO-ready structure in two weeks. Risitha, Isuru, and their team lead split the work evenly, roughly six to seven sites each, with each operator running the full flow from WordPress build-out and content migration to DNS, SSL, and redirects. The operators leaned on AI coding agents like Claude Code and Cursor to move through the build-out and migration work faster, leaving 58 of the brand’s 78 total sites in the queue for the next phase.
Redesigned lead-capture forms to convert better under the new search paradigm. Stripped down form fields and added dropdown selections to reduce drop-off; leads were already trending up across the first sites live, with full before-and-after numbers still being finalized by the marketing team.
Resolved a same-day security incident without their manager present. When AIT’s lead-capture forms started throwing server errors and a phishing exploit was discovered harvesting form data through a fake CAPTCHA, Risitha and Isuru handled the incident overnight end-to-end: diagnosing a server-and-code version mismatch, safely removing the planted exploit code without disrupting the live site, and briefing the CEO directly. They resolved it in roughly four hours with no support from their usual lead.
Built and maintained AIT’s custom ERP system. Isuru shipped a new actor-audition scheduling feature ahead of the company’s next casting cycle and automated recurring payment and invoice-collection emails, giving the finance team real-time visibility into outstanding show payments.
Brought AIT’s site accessibility toward top-tier compliance. In his first project on the account, Risitha audited and remediated accessibility issues across roughly 270 websites and systems over two months, working with AIT’s accessibility partner to move sites toward AAA-level compliance. This covered screen-reader support, image descriptions, form labeling, and color contrast.
Earned enough trust to move into team leadership. Risitha is now taking over daily stand-ups as his team lead shifts focus to broader oversight, a step up shaped in large part by how he and Isuru handled the security incident on their own.

AIT Runs One of Its Largest Technical Initiatives on Oceans Developers

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Risitha and Isuru joined to clear a backlog: an overdue accessibility pass, an ERP feature stuck behind a deadline, and a search strategy that hadn’t caught up to how AI was changing how customers search. They ended up running one of the largest technical initiatives in AIT’s history and holding the business online through a live security incident with no senior support in the room. AIT didn’t need to bring in extra help for either moment; the two operators already embedded in the account were the ones trusted to handle it.

Kat Carvell-Ray

Director of Technology

American Immersion Theater