La Jolla Playhouse recently announced initial programming for its acclaimed biennial Without Walls (WOW) Festival, a four-day explosion of site-based and immersive performances, taking place\u00a0Oct. 17-20\u00a0at Arts District Liberty Station, in partnership with the NTC Foundation.
\nThe WOW Festival line-up will feature three Playhouse-commissioned projects:\u00a0Ikaros, by the internationally-renowned, New York-based\u00a0Third Rail Projects\u00a0(Then She Fell);\u00a0Las Quincea\u00f1eras, by acclaimed local designer and Arts District Liberty Station resident artist\u00a0David Israel Reynoso\/Optika Moderna\u00a0(2017 WOW Festival\u2019s\u00a0Waking La Llorona, Punchdrunk\u2019s\u00a0Sleep No More); and\u00a0Written in Stone, a series of five 10-minute, site-specific plays, produced by the Playhouse\u2019s 2019 Resident Theatre\u00a0Backyard Renaissance. \u00a0
\nThe WOW Festival will also include pieces by preeminent international companies:\u00a0Boats\u00a0by Australia\u2019s\u00a0Polyglot Theatre\u00a0(2013 WOW Festival\u2019s\u00a0We Built This City);\u00a0\u00a1Vuela!, by Mexico\u2019s\u00a0Inmigrantes Teatro\u00a0(Playhouse\u2019s\u00a0Kikiricaja);\u00a0Hidden Stories\u00a0by France\u2019s\u00a0Begat Theatre; and\u00a0Peregrinus, by Poland\u2019s\u00a0Teatr KTO; as well as works by acclaimed local artists, including\u00a0Senior Prom, by the Arts District-based\u00a0San Diego Dance Theater\u00a0(2015 WOW Festival\u2019s\u00a0Dances With Walls) and\u00a0Hall Pass, by\u00a0Blindspot Collective. Additional projects, including many family-friendly offerings, will be announced at a later date. Tickets for WOW Festival performances, ranging from free to $35, will go on sale this summer. For more information, visit\u00a0LaJollaPlayhouse.org.\u00a0\u00a0
\n“This initial WOW Festival line-up showcases a myriad of extraordinary artists from around the globe who will offer audiences a series of intriguing and transformative experiences that place the audience right in the center of the action,” said\u00a0Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley. “And I couldn\u2019t be happier that these experiences will all take place at Arts District Liberty Station \u2013 an iconic San Diego gathering place and an ideal location for this community-wide celebration of immersive and site-inspired work.”
\nThe 2019 WOW Festival will be curated and produced by Playhouse associate producer Teresa Sapien. Similar to past festivals, this exciting event will serve as a cultural and artistic hub, centered around the\u00a0Show Imaging Festival Stage, where patrons can gather to experience WOW performances, hear live music, engage in lively discussions about the work, and enjoy the many food and drink options on offer at Liberty Station.
\n“The Arts District is looking forward to hosting all these creative artists from around the world at our beautiful campus in Point Loma,” said\u00a0Alan Ziter, executive director of the NTC Foundation. “Programs like La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s WOW Festival are what the community envisioned for the former Navy base\u2019s new mission as a vibrant new San Diego center for arts, culture and creativity. We\u2019re excited about our partnership with La Jolla Playhouse and for what the community will see at the Festival.”
\nSince its inception in 2011,\u00a0Without Walls (WOW)\u00a0has become one of San Diego\u2019s most popular and acclaimed performance programs. This signature Playhouse initiative is designed to break the barriers of traditional theatre, offering immersive and site-inspired works that venture beyond the physical confines of the Playhouse facilities. Over the last nine years, the Playhouse has been commissioning and presenting a series of immersive and site-specific productions at locations throughout the San Diego community, including Susurrus (2011), The Car Plays: San Diego(2012), Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir (2012), Accomplice: San Diego (2013), El Henry (2014), The Grift at the Lafayette Hotel (2015), The Bitter Game (2016), What Happens Next (2018), as well as the 2013, 2015 and 2017 WOW Festivals.
\nThe WOW Festival is made possible in part through the generous support of the Wallace Foundation, the James Irvine Foundation, the San Diego Commission for Arts & Culture, Show Imaging, the FACE Foundation and Delta Airlines.\u00a0
\nFor more information, visit\u00a0LaJollaPlayhouse.org. WOW Festival Projects
\nBoats
\nBy Polyglot Theatre (Australia)
\nAt a central mooring place, large lightweight boats wait patiently for children\u2019s imagination and energy. Once aboard, the boats are propelled by a flurry of feet, with kids working as a crew for their own voyage across the high seas. As the boats journey, Polyglot artists float as castaways to be rescued or as mysterious elements of the urban ocean. Together artists and children guide their boats to safe harbor, ready for new crew and the next adventure! Hall Pass
\nBy Blindspot Collective (San Diego)
\nHall Pass\u00a0is a collection of short plays and musicals by rising talents, including Emily Kaczmarek (2018 Jonathan Larson Grant Recipient), Trevor Bachman (2019 Joe’s Pub Residency Artist) and Elizabeth Irwin (My Ma\u00f1ana Comes\u00a0at San Diego Rep). Set and performed throughout a high school, the show offers a glimpse of the world young people navigate every day.\u00a0Brimming with moments any former teenager will recognize and relish \u2013 as well as those they might rather forget \u2013 audiences choose their own adventure as they experience the trials and triumphs of the class of 2022. Hidden Stories
\nBy Begat Theater (France)
\nHidden Stories\u00a0is an invisible performance, a site-specific event that blends itself into the urban landscape. Supplied with headphones, the audience is temporarily endowed with the power to hear the thoughts of certain passers-by and to follow them into the unknown. The city is transformed into a sound stage, the audience\u2019s eye is the lens of a camera, and the spectator is the editor, choosing which images to synchronize to the sound track being played in their ears. A single rule of thumb: follow an ordinary object (an orange, a newspaper, a box of matches, a pen) as it makes its way through the streets of the city.\u00a0 Ikaros
\nLa Jolla Playhouse Commission
\nBy Third Rail Projects (New York)
\nCommissioned by the Playhouse,\u00a0Ikaros\u00a0is an experiential collection of dreams, myth, film, poetry, dance and performance \u2013 an audience-centered narrative framed as an audio “walking tour” though a desert path, on the grounds of a former naval base \u2013 which sits across from, and shares the sky with, an active international airport. All of these layers fold into one another to create a series of vignettes and rites of passage that follow a cartography of flight and failure, and an odyssey of transformation. Peregrinus
\nBy Teatr KTO (Poland)
\nA 45-minute roaming spectacle, inspired by the poetic universe of T.S. Eliot,\u00a0Peregrinus\u00a0depicts a single day in the lives of people whose existence is summed up by the journey between home and work. A mischievous and wildly kinetic examination of 21st\u00a0century office-workers that illuminates the unpredictability of the mundane.\u00a0\u00a0 Las Quincea\u00f1eras
\nLa Jolla Playhouse Commission
\nBy David Israel Reynoso\/Optika Moderna (San Diego \u2013 Liberty Station)
\nFrom the creators of the groundbreaking\u00a0Waking La Llorona,\u00a0Las Quincea\u00f1eras\u00a0offers a surreal, immersive, multisensory exploration of the famed rite of passage undertaken by many Latinas on their 15th\u00a0birthday. The mysterious OPTIKA MODERNA opens its doors once again after years of secrecy and seclusion, inviting participants to undergo their latest procedure “Proyecto (15).” Those interested can book an appointment to meet with OPTIKA MODERNA\u2019s staff of trained paranormal opticians. Within the lab, patients will experience a hallucinogenic journey into the early 1990s as they relive the fateful events surrounding the celebrations of multiple Quincea\u00f1eras. Senior Prom
\nSan Diego Dance Theater (San Diego \u2013 Liberty Station)
\nSenior Prom\u00a0is a production of San Diego Dance Theater\u2019s (SDDT) Aging Creatively senior dance program. SDDT Artistic Director Jean Isaacs has created a fun evening to highlight this innately humorous, immersive, inter-generational event. Forty dancers perform in a wide variety of prom-like activities, including line dancing, spiking the punch bowl, and crowning the King & Queen. In addition to Isaacs, choreographers include SDDT founder George Willis with Andromeda Bradley, John Diaz, Yvonne Gagliardo, Betzi Roe and Mitchum Todd. The evening is hosted by Ms. Tendu (played by Patti Coburn) and Wolfman Jack (played by Steve Baker). Take a walk down memory lane and\u00a0join the party! Prom attire encouraged!\u00a0 \u00a1Vuela!
\nBy Inmigrantes Teatro (Mexico)
\n\u00a1Vuela!\u00a0The title alone is a nod to the seemingly impossible. Four battered and crippled birds desperately beat their wings in an attempt to return to flight alongside their flock as they flee the arrival of a hurricane. Not able to lift themselves more than\u00a0a palm\u2019s length, they helplessly contemplate their luck at being abandoned by the rest, the model birds, the healthy and strong. Instantly, the most basic questions arise: How will they fetch water? Or food? Will they really be able to survive without the help of their tribe? This is a play about solidarity, teamwork and the ability to adapt and put on a brave face despite life\u2019s difficulties. Written in Stone
\nLa Jolla Playhouse Commission
\nBy Backyard Renaissance Theatre (San Diego)
\nHidden corners of Stone Brewing\u2019s Liberty Station Bistro & Gardens serve as the setting for five new site-specific 10-minute plays. Audiences will travel to five locations and witness stories that were inspired there and penned by La Jolla Playhouse- commissioned playwrights Mashuq Deen, Shairi Engle, Frank Katasse (They Don\u2019t Talk Back, presented by Native Voices during their Playhouse residency), Daria Miyeko Marinelli and Marisela Orta.\u00a0 WOW Festival Biographies
\nBackyard Renaissance\u00a0presents theatre with an “art to the gut” sensibility and believes that exceptional storytelling is rooted in a sense of joyful play, human connection, and gutsy intensity. The company was founded in 2015 by artistic director Francis Gercke and executive director Jessica John Gercke.\u00a0 With the addition of producing director Anthony Methvin, the company has produced nine productions including the San Diego Premiere of\u00a0Parlour Song\u00a0by Jezz Butterworth,\u00a0The Elephant Man\u00a0by Bernard Pomerance, the San Diego Premiere of\u00a0Gutenberg: The Musical\u00a0by Scott Brown and Anthony King,\u00a0Abundance\u00a0by Beth Henley, the San Diego Premiere of\u00a0Bachelorette\u00a0by Leslye Headland,\u00a0The Zoo Story\u00a0by Edward Albee,\u00a0Mr. & Mrs. Fitch\u00a0by Douglas Carter Beane and the world premiere of\u00a0Tarrytown\u00a0by Adam Wachter, which was named Best Original Musical by the San Diego Critics Circle in 2017.\u00a0 Backyard Renaissance also presented the San Diego premiere of Noah Haidle\u2019s\u00a0Smokefall\u00a0while in Residence at La Jolla Playhouse and is proud to present Shelagh Stephenson\u2019s\u00a0An Experiment with an Air Pump\u00a0as its next La Jolla Playhouse Production in Residence this August.
\nFounded in 1992,\u00a0Begat Theater\u00a0uses public space as a venue to explore private and subjective experiences. Recognized for its innovative and contemporary performances, the company has been touring for 25 years in France and abroad. Recent works include\u00a0Les Demeurees, a theatrical installation;\u00a0Hidden Stories,\u00a0an invisible performance; and\u00a0La Disparition, which places portable media devices in the hands of an active audience.\u00a0Askip*,\u00a0an immersive show is currently touring French middle schools allowing students and adults to follow and hear the thoughts of an 8th\u00a0grader, her teacher, and a janitor on one particular day. The company develops its work and operates a Residency Center for the Arts in\u00a0Gr\u00e9oux-les-Bains in the south of France.\u00a0Hidden Stories\u00a0is supported by FACE Contemporary Theater, a program developed by FACE Foundation and the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States with the support of the Florence Gould Foundation, the Ford Foundation, Institut fran\u00e7ais-Paris, the French Ministry of Culture, and private donors.
\nBlindspot Collective\u00a0develops radically inclusive programming that cultivates new work, emerging artists, and diverse audiences. The company has collaborated with The Old Globe, Diversionary Theatre, UC San Diego Department of Theatre and Dance, and other community partners since being founded in 2017. Their inaugural projects were two site-specific and immersive musicals:\u00a0Last Night in Town, based on the songs of Ben Folds; and\u00a0Hall Pass, commissioned by New York University and produced in partnership with Playwrights Horizons Theatre School as part of the Future of Storytelling Festival. The company has received acclaim for its original work, including\u00a0Untold, a verbatim play about mental illness that won the Dunn-Rankin Award for New Work at the 2017 San Diego Fringe Festival;\u00a0The Magic in this Soul, another verbatim play about discrimination and resilience that won the Audience Favorite Award at the 2018 San Diego Fringe Festival; and\u00a0Qulili, a documentary play based on the stories of local refugees supported by the Critical Refugee Studies Collective. The company also develops Forum Theatre for youth audiences, including\u00a0Safa\u2019s Story\u00a0and\u00a0Danny\u2019s Story, which allow young people to consider the complexities of difference and prejudice. Combined, those two productions have been seen by over 6,500 students in the 2018-19 academic year.
\nInmigrantes Teatro\u00a0is an independent group of experienced creatives in the Mexican theatre field. Based in Baja, California. Their goal is to create productions geared to audiences on both sides of the Mexico-United States border. Founded in 2005 by Raymundo Gardu\u00f1o, the company debuted with the play\u00a0Naufragios\u00a0(Shipwreck). The improv show\u00a0Los Improductivos\u00a0(The Improductives) followed in 2007.\u00a0Inmolaci\u00f3n\u00a0(Immolation) opened in the summer of 2010, with book by Enrique Olmos and directed by Raymundo Gardu\u00f1o. The piece was selected by CECUT (Centro Cultural Tijuana) as part of their Education Series Program and it represented Baja California in the International Borders Theatre Festival (2012) and FESARES Baja California State Theatre Festival (2013).\u00a0Kikiricaja\u00a0debuted in 2011 and ran at La Jolla Playhouse in 2015. With a state government grant called PECDA, Inmigrantes Teatro was able to put together\u00a0No Tocar(Do Not Touch) by Enrique Olmos in 2013. In 2014 they premiered two plays also by Enrique Olmos,\u00a0Hazme un hijo\u00a0(Make Me a Child), and their latest play\u00a0Dios es un bicho\u00a0(God Is a Bug) which had its world premiere at the Children\u2019s Theatre festival.
\nOptika Moderna\u00a0is a ground-breaking, immersive company led by San Diego’s\u00a0David Israel Reynoso, the Obie Award-winning costume designer for the Off-Broadway runaway hit\u00a0Sleep No More\u00a0(Punchdrunk\/Emursive). At La Jolla Playhouse, he designed\u00a0Queens,\u00a0Tiger Style!,\u00a0Waking La Llorona\u00a0(2017 WOW Festival), Liz Lerman\u2019s\u00a0Healing Wars\u00a0(2015 WOW Festival) 2015 and\u00a0The Darrell Hammond Project. His other regional scenic and costume design credits include The Old Globe, American Repertory Theater, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Lyric Stage and Gloucester Stage, among many others. He is the recipient of the Elliot Norton Award in Costume Design and a multiple nominee for the IRNE and BroadwayWorld awards.
\nPolyglot Theatre\u00a0is Australia\u2019s leading creator of interactive and participatory theatre for children and families. Their distinctive artistic philosophy has placed them at the international forefront of contemporary arts experiences for babies and children up to 12 years of age. Inspired by artwork, play and ideas of children, Polyglot Theatre creates imagined worlds where audiences actively participate in performance through touch, play and encounter.\u00a0Polyglot Theatre is assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, the Victorian Government through Creative Victoria and the City of Melbourne.
\nSan Diego Dance Theater\u00a0is led by artistic director Jean Isaacs, an award-winning choreographer whose work has been presented in Switzerland, Germany, China, Mexico, Guatemala, Canada and Poland, as well as on both coasts of the US. She is the originator of the annual site-specific project Trolley Dances and co-founder of the San Diego Dance Alliance, Three’s Company and Dancers, and Isaacs\/McCaleb & Dancers. Her work has been commissioned by the San Diego Opera, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, Goodman Theatre, San Diego Rep, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Long Wharf Theatre, and for Brooklyn Academy of Music. She collaborates frequently with numerous cross-border partners, creating the Festival of Mexican Contemporary Dance at San Diego State University. Recent awards include the San Diego Critics Circle Award, Bay Area Theatre Critics Award, two California Arts Council Choreography Fellowships, Distinguished Teaching Award at UC San Diego and the California Dance Educators Associate Artistic Award. Isaacs taught technique, choreography, and improvisation at UC San Diego\u2019s Department of Theatre and Dance for 25 years. San Diego Dance Theater is in residence at ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station.\u00a0
\nTeatr KTO\u00a0was established in 1977. In the company’s 42nd\u00a0year of operation, over 30 productions have been performed indoors and outdoors in Poland and around the world, which have been seen by more than three million people. The group has visited nearly 250 cities in over 40 countries on five continents. Since January 2005, the Teatr KTO has had the status of a municipal theatre in Krakow. For 42 years now the company has been managed by its current director Jerzy Zon.
\nThird Rail Projects\u00a0has been hailed as one of the foremost companies creating site-specific, immersive and experiential performance. The company is led by artistic directors Zach Morris, Tom Pearson and Jennine Willett, and is dedicated to re-envisioning ways in which audiences engage with contemporary performance. The company\u2019s currently running, award-winning immersive hit,\u00a0Then She Fell, was named as one of the “Top Ten Shows of 2012” by Ben Brantley of\u00a0The New York Times. \u00a0They have made work in New York and nationally since 2000, with projects including\u00a0Ghost Light\u00a0at Lincoln Center Theater, the immersive theater hit\u00a0The Grand Paradise\u00a0in Brooklyn,\u00a0Sweet & Lucky\u00a0with Denver Center for the Performing Arts, and\u00a0Learning Curve\u00a0in Chicago with Albany Park Theater Project, as well as internationally through the Global Performance Studio (GPS), which combines the company\u2019s creative and educational offerings through a program of cultural listening and exchange. Third Rail Projects has been the recipient of several prestigious awards, including two New York Dance and Performance (Bessie) Awards; a Chita Rivera Award for Choreography; two CEC Artslink Back Apartment Residencies (Russia); a Theater Fellowship from the Bogliaco Foundation (Italy); an IllumiNation Award from the Ford Foundation and National Museum of the American Indian; and more. Third Rail Projects\u2019 artistic directors were recently named among the 100 most influential people in Brooklyn culture by\u00a0Brooklyn Magazine.\u00a0Visit\u00a0thirdrailprojects.com\u00a0to learn more.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
La Jolla Playhouse recently announced initial programming for its acclaimed biennial Without Walls (WOW) Festival, a four-day explosion of site-based and immersive performances, taking place\u00a0Oct. 17-20\u00a0at Arts District Liberty Station, in partnership with the NTC Foundation. The WOW Festival line-up will feature three Playhouse-commissioned projects:\u00a0Ikaros, by the internationally-renowned, New York-based\u00a0Third Rail Projects\u00a0(Then She Fell);\u00a0Las Quincea\u00f1eras, […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":265077,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11560","_seopress_titles_title":"La Jolla Playhouse announces WOW Festival line-up","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11560,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-265076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-jolla-village-news","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265076"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265076\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}