Complete 2022 Without Walls Festival Lineup Announced (NEWSWIRE)

PRESS RELEASE

LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCES COMPLETE ROSTER
OF PROJECTS FOR 2022 WITHOUT WALLS (WOW) FESTIVAL
AT ARTS DISTRICT LIBERTY STATION, APRIL 21–24



Acclaimed Local, National and Liberty Station-Based

Companies Join Festival Lineup

La Jolla, CA — La Jolla Playhouse is pleased to announce complete programming for its 2022 Without Walls (WOW) Festival, taking place April 21–24 at ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station, home of the Playhouse’s 2019 WOW Festival and the Pop-Up WOW event in August 2021. Similar to previous WOW Festivals, the 2022 event will feature four action-packed days of theatre, dance and music, with more than 20 productions by acclaimed local, national and international artists taking place throughout the weekend. Tickets for WOW Festival productions, ranging from free to $20, will go on sale mid-March. Please visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org/WOWFestival2022 for more information.

Joining the festival lineup will be several projects by ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station-based groups, including The Four Seasons, from San Diego Ballet (2019 WOW Festival’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream); Just a Phase, from Malashock Dance (2019 WOW Festival’s Without a Net); The Mystery of Secrets, from San Diego Dance Theatre (2019 WOW Festival’s Senior Prom; 2015 WOW Festival’s Dances with Walls); and Somnium, from The Rosin Box Project.

Additional projects include 40 Watts from Nowhere, from the Los Angeles-based duo Mister and Mischief; The Box Show, from New York-based artist Dominique Salerno; Carpa de la Frontera, from CARPA San Diego; C’est Pas La, C’est Par La, from France’s Galmae; Finding Avi, from New York-based artists Katherine Wilkinson and Elizagrace Madrone; In Lieu of FLWRZ, from the San Diego-based group Soulkiss; The Music Sounds Different to Me Now, from San Diego-based artist Bil Wright; A Thousand Ways (Part 3): An Assembly, from the New York-based 600 Highwaymen (Digital WOW’s A Thousand Ways, Parts 1 and 2); and TransMythical, from the San Diego-based Animal Cracker Conspiracy (2015 WOW Festival’sGnomesense; Digital WOW’s The Society of Wonder).

These works join the previously-announced WOW Festival roster, featuring Ants, from the Australia-based group Polyglot Theatre (2019 WOW Festival’s Boats; 2013 WOW Festival’s We Built This City); Ascension, from San Diego Opera; Black Séance, from the San Diego-based Blindspot Collective (Playhouse’s 2020/21 Resident Theatre Company; Pop-Up WOW’s when the bubble bursts; Digital WOW’s Walks of Life; 2019 WOW Festival’s Hall Pass); La Bulle, from the Toronto-based CORPUS (2015 WOW Festival’s A Flock of Flyers); The Frontera Project, from the Mexican group Tijuana Hace Teatro and NYC’s New Feet Productions; Lessons in Temperament, from Canada’s Outside the March; Monuments, from Australia-based artist Craig Walsh; On Her Shoulders We Stand, from the San Diego-based Tu Yo Theatre, plus presentations of the Playhouse’s 2022 Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour Hoopla!, as well as a devised piece created by students in theSan Diego Unified School District’s 2022 Honors Theatre Program.

“Our excitement around the WOW Festival continues to mount, as we welcome even more projects to the mix, including work from four ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station companies, along with several new and returning WOW artists. Get ready for another joyous, community-wide celebration that places the audience right in the center of the action,” said Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.

The Playhouse’s annual WOW Festival creates a cultural and artistic hub in the city, where patrons can gather to experience WOW performances, engage in lively discussions about the work, and enjoy the many food and drink options on offer at Liberty Station. Beginning in 2022, the Playhouse will produce the WOW Festival on an annual basis, making it a staple of the San Diego events calendar for local, national and international audiences.

In addition to WOW productions, there will be a special WOW Family Area available on Saturday, April 23 and Sunday, April 24 featuring hands-on creative activities connected to WOW Festival artists and shows, such as puppet-crafting, hula-hooping and umbrella-making, as well as opportunities to learn about Playhouse jobs in costumes, props and scenic painting.

The 2022 WOW Festival is made possible with support from the City of San Diego, The James Irvine Foundation and Sempra.

La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls (WOW) series has become one of San Diego’s 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 ten years, the Playhouse has been commissioning and presenting this series of immersive, site-inspired and virtual productions throughout the San Diego community, including eight stand-alone productions, fourteen Digital WOW pieces, and four WOW Festivals.

La Jolla Playhouse is a place where artists and audiences come together to create what’s new and next in the American theatre, from Tony Award-winning productions, to imaginative programs for young audiences, to interactive experiences outside our theatre walls. Founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire and Mel Ferrer, the Playhouse is currently led by Tony Award winner Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse, and Managing Director Debby Buchholz. The Playhouse is internationally renowned for the development of new plays and musicals, including mounting 105 world premieres, commissioning 60 new works, and sending 33 productions to Broadway — including the hit musical Come From Away — garnering a total of 38 Tony Awards, as well as the 1993 Tony Award for Outstanding Regional Theatre.

ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station is San Diego’s largest Arts & Cultural District, located in historic buildings at the former Naval Training Center in the Liberty Station neighborhood, near Downtown on San Diego Bay. With 100 park-like acres, the ARTS DISTRICT is home to nearly 145 museums and galleries, artist studios, dance companies, fine dining, creative retail and other organizations that showcase San Diego’s creative community and provide innovative experiences for the public.

WOW Festival Projects

40 Watts from Nowhere

From Mister and Mischief (Los Angeles)

40 Watts from Nowhere chronicles the true story of Sue Carpenter, a restless magazine editor turned radio pirate. In 1995, Sue poured every penny she had into creating an illegal radio station, KBLT, in her closet, which transformed her apartment into the secret heartbeat of the Silver Lake music scene. Over three years, she built an enduring underground community welcoming misfit music lovers into her home and onto the air almost 24 hours a day. Part memoir and part playable theatre, this experiential live documentary puts audiences into Sue’s DJ booth as they run the station, play music, share their voices, and attempt to avoid legal and financial ruin at the hands of the FCC.

Ants

From Polyglot Theatre (Australia)

Ants is an interactive performance which has giant Ants bringing children together in an unusual landscaping project. Faced with three big insects and hundreds of giant breadcrumbs, children are irresistibly drawn in and must figure out what the Ants want them to do. Gradually, a world of meaning unfolds, illustrating the human desire for order by transforming any public space with lines and patterns. Ants is an enchanting investigation into the nature of work and children’s relationship with their environment.

For this engagement, Polyglot Theatre is working in partnership with Inlet Dance Theatre to deliver Ants.

Ascension

From San Diego Opera (San Diego)

Ascension showcases two female opera singers walking through the park areas of Liberty Station, singing a cappella two choral pieces by composer Dr. Melissa Dunphy and librettist Jacqueline Goldfinger, which encompass the Spirit of American Liberty for which Liberty Station was named. The first song, “Halcyon Days,” is about finding hope in the depth of despair and rising up to make life better. The second song, “Set Myself Free,” is about the freedom women found in America, and was originally written and performed in NYC as a celebration of the 19th Amendment. The singers will begin as early 20th century Suffragettes and throughout the performance slowly shed their outfit to reveal 21st century garb, physically showing the passage of time and the evolution of the American dream. The songs will be sung while the performers walk a route within the Station that highlights the places/plaques at the station commemorating American history.

Black Séance

From Blindspot Collective (San Diego)

Black Séance mingles magic and mixed drinks for an intoxicating, immersive experience that celebrates Black icons. Ushered into a dark, back-alley bar like those you might find in New Orleans, patrons are invited to participate in a transformative ritual that finds Francis, their bartender and amateur magician, channeling some of his heroes. Frederick Douglass, Josephine Baker, and James Baldwin are invoked as Francis investigates his mysterious family history. While encountering the humor and humanity of figures like Eartha Kitt or Redd Foxx through their own words, one never knows who will make an appearance and who will ghost in this visceral examination of generational trauma and triumph.

The Box Show

From Dominique Salerno (New York)

The Box Show is a hilarious, edgy solo piece where one woman performs 30 characters from inside a small box. The doors open to reveal a drunken couple in Las Vegas, a lonely Giantess, a lost Pope, the entire Greek Army crammed inside the Trojan Horse, and so much more. With sketch-style characters and musical numbers, The Box Show is a self-contained and fast-paced roller coaster ride that plunges its audience into vastly different worlds without ever leaving the physical space of “The Box.”

La Bulle

From CORPUS (Canada)

La Bulle offers a theatrical setting where there is nowhere to hide: an absurd situation, fully exploited by a lucid and lunar Pierrot. Through mime, dance, text, even drawing, he tries to connect with his audience. Dressed in the archetypal black and white costume and make-up, he manages to create bonds, alas all ephemeral, with those who are willing to give him a little time. He embraces solitude whole-heartedly, and swims freely like a fish in water in the realm of dreams. Poetry and humor are always at his side, true to CORPUS’ vocation. Conceived long before COVID, the show was already exploring the theme of social distancing before it became a concern for all. This new work also speaks of an equally contemporary paradox: private space in full transparency.

Carpa de la Frontera

From CARPA San Diego

Carpa de La Frontera is a site-specific tent-like vaudeville show where entertainment is taken into communities who are in most need of healing from the current pandemic situation. This comic relief performance will address issues such as immigration, race, human rights, accessibility, and culture in a comedic form through performance and visual art, using the concept of the old carpa (tent) style setting used in Mexican during the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

C’est pas là, c’est par là (It’s not here, it’s over here)

From Galmae (France)

How does the crowd move? Does one move differently when alone, from when being amongst a crowd? What determines the « We »? What is an individual within a group? At the departure, there is a stone. With the stone, there is a string. It is rolled up, tangled and we untangle it. We move about, avoiding collision, negotiating our way we find our place. There is something which surpasses the sum of individuals. At the end of the string, does one find the « We »? Inspired by his own sensations during a demonstration in Seoul in 2015, Galmae proposes a sensitive experience of the collectivity.

Finding Avi

From Katherine Wilkinson and Elizagrace Madrone (New York)

Once upon a time (neither here nor elsewhere but somewhere in between), there was and there was not a child… Finding Avi sends the audience searching for a single child inside a map made from scraps of San Diego’s queer history and fragments of re-imagined fairy tales. What we record and mythologize in our history shapes the possibilities we see in our future as children, as adults, and as everything in between. Finding Avi embraces young, queer people and their ability to make their own choices (and mistakes) while learning who they are — and where they find joy.

The Four Seasons

From San Diego Ballet (ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station)

Walk along an outdoor path, lined with rocks, and take a seat to rest in a woodland glade. As Vivaldi’s The Four Season’s begins to waft through the air, dancers appear among the trees. Rising above the foliage and gliding among the grasses. This site-specific performance of Artistic Director Javier Velasco’s rapturous ballet will be set outdoors for audiences to see, feel, and experience the seasons in a lovely garden setting.

The Frontera Project

From Tijuana Hace Teatro (Mexico) and New Feet Productions (NYC)

The Frontera Project is an interactive, bilingual theater experience created and performed by a company of Mexican and US artists. The piece uses theater, music, movement and play to engage the audience in a compassionate, often joyous conversation about life at the US/Mexico border. The Frontera Project does not tell one big story; they build a mosaic of many small stories that celebrate the richness and contradictions of Fronterizo life. Specifically focused on Tijuana/San Diego, the piece explores the varied experiences of people on both sides of the border. Their mission is to create the possibility for recognition across difference — of perspective, identity, experience, sparking a dialogue about what divides us, and what we share. Making that connection is crossing a border.

In Lieu of FLWRZ

From Soulkiss Theater (San Diego)

In Lieu of FLWRZ is a site-ubiquitous performance piece that highlights theatre, dance and the music of local San Diego-based R&B, Soul and Hip Hop music artists. The piece is the story/visual mixtape of the death of a queer couple’s relationship due to an act of infidelity by one of the partners, told through dance and narrated by the original music of local musicians, performed live by the music artists.

Just a Phase

From Malashock Dance (ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station)

Just a Phase is a program of ten short dance pieces, each representing various phases and experiences in everyone’s lives (childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, independence, relationships, community). These small works form a loose narrative, taking the audience on a trip through these life stages. The show features eight dancers from Malashock Dance to tell a story that everyone will relate to. The incredibly compelling music ranges from pop to classical to contemporary.

Lessons in Temperament

From Outside the March (Canada)

Written and performed by musician and theatre-maker James Smith, and directed and developed by Outside the March Artistic Director Mitchell Cushman, Lessons in Temperament is the story of four neuro-diverse brothers, told through a theatrical escape into the art and science of piano tuning. It is impossible to perfectly tune a piano — something that Smith knows all too well. A few years ago he taught himself how to tune pianos as an additional source of income between gigs. Through pursuing this work, Smith discovered something even more valuable — the perfect metaphor through which to process the mental complexities of his family. Between James and his brothers, they have had life-long journeys with OCD, autism, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Throughout the piece, Smith shares the story of his family, while getting the piano in front of him beautifully and imperfectly in tune. Catch this award-winning play’s return to the stage, hot on the heels of its recent feature film adaptation.

Monuments

From Craig Walsh (Australia)

Monuments is a site-responsive projection installation that represent a haunting synergy between the human form, natural environment and the act of viewing. Nighttime video projections transform trees into sculptural monuments, surveying the immediate environment. The piece aims to challenge traditional expectations of public monuments and the selective history represented in our civic spaces. Cleverly deconstructing its own definition by humanizing the monument, there is a temporary fusion of everyday individuals with other living species occupying shared areas. Undermining the permanent historical and public art models so often controlled by subjective motivations, Monuments recognizes the infinite contributions that influence our understanding of place. Built for the great outdoors, the piece celebrates individuals in the community through large-scale portraits projected onto trees in a public space.

The Music Sounds Different to Me Now

From Bil Wright (San Diego)

Jody is throwing her annual party for her gang of actor, singer, dancer friends. Performers who’ve spent their lives onstage. They step into their stories, funny and poignant — from auditioning for Francis Ford Coppola to playing Cleopatra’s handmaiden in a plastic wig. Featured are NYC dancer/choreographers Kim Grier (artistic director, Rod Rodgers Dance Company), Ellis Wood (artistic director, Ellis Wood Dance) and original music by composer Omari Abdul-Alim. Award-winning writer Bil Wright’s The Music Sounds Different to Me Now is not a musical, but you still leave Jody’s studio singing.

The Mystery of Secrets

From San Diego Dance Theatre (ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station)

The Mystery of Secrets offers a progressive exploration of the mysterious and playful nature of secrets. This premiere performance will introduce audiences to four choreographers weaving different perspectives on this illusive topic, traveling in and around the festival hub. Lead artist will be Terry Wilson with choreographers Marcos Duran, and Lavina Rich, featuring the dancers of San Diego Dance Theater and community dancers. The shared whisper of a secret from an audience member could become an explored improvisation.

On Her Shoulders We Stand

From TuYo Theatre (San Diego)

Explore the revolution of WW2 and the forging of new definitions and identities; the factories and battlefields of WWII fundamentally shifted the narratives about Latinas in the US. Before the war these women were outsiders whose language, food and cultural traditions marked them as other, but this unprecedented reorienting created the space for Latinas to enter into the cultural ethos as never before possible in the US. These women stood with their country, a country unready to claim them as its own, and joined the war effort at home and abroad, they dipped their shoulders down and bore into the fight. This multi-sensory theatrical experience takes patrons through a series of interconnected spaces to experience a performance focused on hidden community stories, immersing them in a world of historical memory, using the power of names to understand the role of Latinas in World War II.

Somnium

The Rosin Box Project (San Diego)

This new ballet centered around and on the architecture of Liberty Station is innovative new creation that fuses imagination with technology, coupling originally choreographed dance with projection mapping and music to create a fully-immersive, multi-sensory experience. Using the concepts of shapes, architecture, and symmetry, the choreography will be crafted to directly exemplify and blend with the motion graphic design of the projection mapping, resulting in a performance that suspends reality; creating a 3D environment in which body and background environment become one.

A Thousand Ways (Part 3): An Assembly

From 600 Highwaymen (New York)

A Thousand Ways (Part Three): An Assembly brings together an audience of twelve strangers to construct a unique and intimate theatrical event. Using a stack of instructive notecards, the audience will collectively recount a timeless story of perseverance — of audacity in the face of uncertainty. This elucidating experience invites participants to consider one another individually and collectively — and the significance of coming together after so much time apart. A Thousand Ways (Part Three): An Assembly is the final experience of the Obie Award-winning 600 Highwaymen’s triptych of encounters between strangers, following Part One: A Phone Call and Part Two: An Encounter. Each installment of the series plumbs the essence of performance, bringing people together in the creation of a moving live experience. The work explores the line between strangeness and kinship, distance and proximity, and how the most intimate assembly can become profoundly radical.

TransMythical

From Animal Cracker Conspiracy (San Diego)

Transmythical is a celebratory procession of magic, imagination and inclusivity. This 30-minute procession led by stilt walking mythological creatures, giant puppets, masked characters and musicians will invite audiences to participate in the procession and give them the opportunity to make their own puppet to puppeteer during the pageant.

La Jolla Playhouse Learning & Engagement Projects:

2022 Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour: Hoopla!

In Hoopla!, by Cheryl L. West and directed by Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, the fifth grade talent show is approaching, and everyone is abuzz at Baldwin Elementary. Winston wants to win the talent show with his cheerleading routine to prove to others that he’s more than the unfriendly “Fishboy” nickname they call him. Introverted artist Gina wants nothing to do with the talent show, and she knows that the overzealous (and generally unpleasant) twin sensations, Randy and Brandy, are probably going to win it all anyway. But with the persistence of Elliott, the school’s new kid and resident rebel, these unlikely friends form Hoopla, a dazzling hula hooping trio, and help each other navigate through the pressures of being a kid.

SDUSD 2022 Honors Theatre Devised Project

La Jolla Playhouse is partnering with the VAPA office of San Diego Unified School District to facilitate and produce the 2022 Honors Theatre Devised Physical Theatre Project. The project brings students together from the 33 SDUSD high schools to devise an original piece of theatre, to premiere at the 2022 WOW Festival. Students are guided by La Jolla Playhouse Teaching Artists, Production Staff, Marketing staff, and by SDUSD School teachers and administrators.

About the Artists

600 Highwaymen Abigail Browde and Michael Silverstone), “standard bearers of contemporary theater-making” (Le Monde), who have “quietly been shaking up American theatre since 2009” (The Guardian), have been making live art that, through a variety of radical approaches, illuminates the inherent poignancy of people coming together. Their productions exist at the intersection of theater, dance, contemporary performance, and civic encounter. Their work has been seen at Centre Pompidou (Paris), The Public Theater, La Jolla Playhouse, Walker Art Center, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, Dublin Theatre Festival, Onassis Cultural Centre (Greece), Bristol Old Vic (UK), Salzburg Festival and Theaterspektakel (Switzerland). They are recipients of Switzerland’s ZKB Patronize Prize, and their work has been nominated for two Bessie Awards, a Drama League Award, and Austria’s Nestroy Prize. In 2016, Abigail and Michael were named artist fellows by the New York Foundation for the Arts and are currently Associate Artists of IN SITU, the European platform for artistic creation in public space.

San Diego-based artists Bridget Rountree and Iain Gunn are Animal Cracker Conspiracy (ACC), a contemporary hybrid puppet company invested in peering under the surface of things and pushing the boundaries of kinetic performance. Joining forces in 2004, they create performances that aim to de-center expectations, open new avenues of thought, and invoke the uncanny. Their ongoing practice is based on a shared interest and exploration of where fine art, puppetry, performance art, physical theater, film and mixed media intersect. Traversing abstractions of movement from the material to the immaterial, folk to contemporary, and intellectual to intuitive, ACC actively cultivates the suspension of disbelief by embracing the unknown and using the manipulation of puppets to create original stories. Past work includes: La Jolla Playhouse’s Digital WOW piece The Society of Wonder, Adrift, Myth Project 1, Paper Cities Project, The Collector, Desire to Fly and many others.

Blindspot Collective develops transformative theatre that amplifies marginalized voices, illuminates untold stories, bridges disparate experiences, and energizes vulnerable communities. Previous collaborations with La Jolla Playhouse include Hall Pass, Walks of Life, and when the bubble bursts, as well as currently serving as the theater company in residence. Since its founding in 2017, Blindspot Collective has collaborated with The Old Globe; Diversionary Theatre; ARTS (A Reason to Survive); UC San Diego; and other community partners to develop projects that meaningfully engage audiences and artists in the blindspot of society. The company has received acclaim for its original work, including site-specific events, forum theatre, new musicals, and verbatim plays. Blindspot Collective was the first theatre company to be awarded a performing arts residency at the San Diego International Airport and was selected “Theater of the Year” in 2020 by the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The mission of CARPA San Diego is to create a space where Latino artists can showcase

their talent through theater, dance, music, and other artistic expressions reaching out to the community in a non-traditional setting. CARPA San Diego serves the community by bringing artists to their neighborhoods exposing them to the arts through presentation and education, inviting them to participate as creative individuals in performances, workshops, and dialogues expanding their knowledge of artistic culture. CARPA wants to build a fun, working atmosphere were artists and community members can learn from each other to inspire the prosperity of their surroundings.

Co-founded by Sylvie Bouchard and artistic director David Danzon, Canada’s CORPUS is known for its precise and surrealist humour that combines movement with theatrical imagery. CORPUS’ unique and engaging performances are presented in both traditional and unusual locations for large and diverse audiences. Created in 1997, CORPUS now has 15 pieces in its repertoire and has presented over 2500 performances at venues and events across Canada and around the world in 35 countries on five continents.

Galmae is driven by Juhyung Lee (South Korea) who discovered street arts performances in 2012 in Seoul with Générik Vapeur (France). In 2015, Juhyung Lee joined the FAi-AR (Higher Training of Art in Public Space) in Marseille (France) which he finished in 2017 with his first creation: It’s not here, it’s over here. He is interested in the concepts underlying large-scale shows: the address to a multitude of people, the place of the individual within a group. This first show impulses a participatory action and reveals its symbolic significance. It has been erformed about sixty times in France and internationally. In 2019, Juyhung Lee starts working on As far as possible, which will premiere at La Passerelle in Gap in May 2022.

Elizagrace Madrone is a writer, theater-maker, and experience designer living in-between uptown New York City and the Northern California backwoods and making small strange works in real and unreal spaces. LMDA Member and participant in the inaugural International Dramaturgy Lab (2020–2021). MFA Dramaturgy, Columbia University. Co-founder, 23.5° Tilt (current show: Marta Nesspek Presents…) www.elizagrace.net

Founded by John Malashock in 1988, Malashock Dance’s impressive track record includes the performance of 100 original dance works, annual performances, and workshops, and collaboration with other cultural organizations. Malashock Dance productions have earned top awards in San Diego among the dance and theater communities, including six Emmy Awards for its dance films, which have aired on over 30 affiliate PBS stations nationwide. John Malashock received the Bravo Icon Award in 2017. Malashock Dance has been recognized with numerous accolades and invitations to collaborate with major arts organizations including the San Diego Opera, San Diego Symphony, KPBS-TV, Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Music Society, the Mainly Mozart Festival, Old Globe Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse and Art of Élan. The Malashock Dance Company regularly presents several performances a year at various venues throughout San Diego County.

Mister and Mischief (a.k.a. Jeff and Andy Crocker) create fun-forward interactive experiences designed to delight audiences and turn strangers into pals. Mixing games, theater, and comedy into playful, participatory events, Andy and Jeff are passionate about increasing the visibility of immersive design and audience-empowering performance wherever they go. Previous shows include the absurd and award-winning Escape From Godot; the wordless puzzle adventure Builder and the Dove for the Skirball Cultural Center; and for the Warehouse Theatre in South Carolina, the virtual self-help satire Objectivity, which was hailed in 2020 as a “moment that defined immersive,” by No Proscenium.

New Feet Productions is dedicated to developing and producing new and classical work that ripples with theatrical language and invention. In collaboration with Tijuana Hace Teatro, New Feet developed and produced The Frontera Project, which premiered in September 2021 at Touchstone Theatre’s Festival UnBound in Bethlehem, PA. In 2018, New Feet produced Arden/ Everywhere, Jessica Bauman’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s As You Like It as a refugee story, with a company of professionals and non-professionals from the refugee and immigrant communities in NYC. Bauman founded New Feet Productions in 2007 to develop Into the Hazard (Henry 5), her adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry V, which premiered off-Broadway. New Feet has produced or co-produced the world premieres of Milk by Emily DeVoti, All Day Suckers by Susan Dworkin, and Leave the Balcony Open by Maya MacDonald, as well as journalist Jack Hitt’s solo performance, Making Up the Truth, which premiered at the International Festival of Arts and Ideas in 2011, and was featured in the 2012 Spoleto Festival.

Outside the March creates unforgettable immersive encounters — redefining the experience of theatre for a new generation of audiences. Heading into their twelfth season, they have become Canada’s leading immersive theatre company, with 22 productions, nine world premieres, 16 Canadian premieres, success with national and internationally touring and several film adaptations. Their work has received numerous honors, including a dozen Dora Awards and a dozen Toronto Theatre Critics Awards. They work to harness theatre’s secret weapon — the power of presence unique to live performance that can’t be streamed or downloaded. Their immersive experiences are communal, site-engaged and fuse the epic with the intimate, all with the goal of implicating our audiences in the stories that we share.

Polyglot Theatre is a world-renowned contemporary theatre company based in Melbourne, Australia, making exceptional arts experiences for children and families. Their unique brand of theatre encompasses a wide variety of forms, and is shared with audiences everywhere, from the world’s most prestigious theatres to the football grounds of regional Australia. Polyglot’s artistic and philosophical approach of child-centered practice has earned their strong reputation internationally as a leader in the theatre for young audiences (TYA) sector, celebrated for creating distinctive, participatory works that are playful and conceptually rigorous. Access is central to Polyglot’s work, driven by the right of all children to experience growth and resilience through creative play.

The Rosin Box Project’s mission is to elevate and enrich the arts in the San Diego community and beyond through uniquely curated contemporary ballet performances. The boutique contemporary ballet company aims to encourage artistic growth and exploration by creating a platform where professional artists can amplify their voices, permitting audiences new access to the transformative power of dance. Made up of top-tier versatile classical and contemporary professional dancers, TRBP delivers exceptional fine-art performances in an approachable and accessible way.

A native San Diegan and a graduate of La Jolla Playhouse’s Young Conservatory Program, Dominique Salerno has strong ties to the San Diego theatre scene. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and her MFA in Acting from American Conservatory Theatre. She works as an actor and writer in both New York City and Los Angeles and is and was recently staffed as a writer and comedy producer for an upcoming Netflix show. Recent acting credits include The Color of Light (Schoolhouse Theatre), PussySludge (Here Arts Center) and Love and Information (A.C.T.). Recent writing credits include: Characteristically, a web series she wrote, directed, and starred in, which was selected at the New Jersey Web Festival and World Web Fest Mania and Matched (a half hour comedy pilot she is currently shopping with Broadway production company, Alchemation). She also writes and performs musical sketch comedy with her duo Feminarchy, whose viral videos have been featured in HuffPost, The New York Times, and more.

San Diego Ballet features a talented and diverse group of professional dancers that has included all regions of the U.S. and other countries including Australia, England, Japan, Russia, Mexico, Cuba and Azerbaijan. San Diego Ballet is dedicated to bringing the finest quality dance productions to San Diego ranging from classical ballets to original works found nowhere else. Annual series of distinct programs entertain audiences with world premiere dances and original music compositions in Jazz & Dance, the holiday spirit of The Nutcracker, the distinctive spice of Ritmos Latinos, and classic moments like our Giselle coming to the Balboa Theater in May. With its home studios and School located at Dorothea Laub Dance Place in the historic Liberty Station, San Diego Ballet is the area’s premier dance company. For more information, visit www.sandiegoballet.org

San Diego Dance Theater was founded in 1972 by George Willis, Professor Emeritus of Dance at San Diego State University, whose goal was to bring joy, comedy and theatricality to modern dance and to train young dancers. Jean Isaacs was appointed Artistic Director in 1997. Under her direction, San Diego Dance Theater has earned its reputation as a company of professional dancers committed to unconventional and deeply courageous programming. George and Jean have expanded access to the stage for dancers of many nationalities, races, ages, and physical abilities. San Diego Dance Theater is known for cross-border projects, summer dance workshops and the yearly site-specific performance Trolley DancesTM. Recent changes to the company brings Terry Wilson to the helm as Executive Artistic Director in 2022. Terry strives to continue the dynamic and inclusive programming of SDDT. She believes that dance is a way of life for everyone, with everyone finding a place to belong. The company’s mission is “to create and perform dances that breathe life into the people of our region and beyond, and to provide access to professional training and the performance of these dances by people representing diversity of all kinds.”

Created in 1950 as the San Diego Opera Guild, and incorporated in 1965 under the name

San Diego Opera, the mission of the Company is to deliver exceptional performances and exciting, accessible programs to diverse audiences, focusing on community partnerships, and the transformative and expressive power of the human voice. Since 2015, the Company has been led by General Director David Bennett and continues to present grand style operas with world-renowned singers at the Civic Theatre in addition to smaller, more innovative works through the Company’s dētour Series.

Since 2007, Hip Hop artist Miki Vale has curated spaces for queer Black womxn in San Diego, with collaboration from producing partner DJ Niomiesoulfly, videographer Eb of Course, and more. These events were known across Southern California as Soulkiss Theater, a magical event series unlike anything else for Black womxn who love womxn in the region. Since entering the world of theatre, and becoming a commissioned playwright, teaching artist and more for The Old Globe, Vale is now an integral contributor to the San Diego theatre scene. To create more pathways to platforms for Black womxn’s voices and stories, and to cultivate more spaces for community, celebration and healing, Vale founded SoulKiss Theater in July 2020. SoulKiss Theater offers arts education aimed at empowering queer Black womxn to channel their collective voice and share their experiences through meaningful storytelling, as well as career development in the arts.

Tijuana Hace Teatro’s work has covered both the theater for adults and young people, including the world premieres of The Frontera Project (2021), Sometimes Dogs Smile (2019), There Are Also Flies In The Moon (2018), Reef (2017), among others. Their work has been seen at festivals, seminars and conferences in China, Denmark, Spain, Armenia, U.S. and Mexico. They also originated the THT Binational Spectators School, an audience engagement program that unites 10 theaters on the Tijuana (MEX) / San Diego (USA) border; the THT High School Festival; and the THT Workshop acting training program. They are part of México en Escena, a program funded by the Sistema de Apoyos a la Creación y Proyectos Culturales of the Federal Secretary of Culture.

TuYo Theatre was founded in 2017 by Daniel Jáquez, Patrice Amon, Crystal Mercado, Bernardo Mazón, Peter Cirino, and Evelyn Diaz Cruz. Led by Co-Artistic Directors Patrice Amon and Peter Cirino, TuYo Theatre’s mission is to create and produce theatre in the San Diego area that tells stories from and by diverse Latinx perspectives. TuYo is committed to professional artistic rigor, forging authentic connections, developing community artists, and furthering the discourses that affect our community.

Craig Walsh has, over the last 30 years, become widely known for his pioneering works including innovative approaches to projection mapping in unconventional sites. His site-responsive works have animated natural environments and features such as trees, rivers and mountains, as well as public art projects in urban and architectural space. He is also renowned for his site interventions at live events, including iconic works at music festivals across Australia and internationally. Craig’s work remains distinctive for its conceptual underpinnings and deftly woven narrative. Over recent years he has extended his digital arts expertise into work with diverse communities, enabling large-scale participation as collaborators in contemporary art projects such as Home Gwangju (South Korea, 2012), Traces — Blue (Setouchi, Japan, 2013), and FIVE (DADAA Inc., Western Australia, 2013/14).

Katherine Wilkinson (she/they) is a queer director and writer based in Brooklyn. Katherine has spent the last decade of their career creating new, ensemble-driven plays and performances throughout the US and abroad. She is currently a 2022 WP Lab Member and a recent winner of the Opera America Tobin Director-Designer Prize. An Artist-in-Residence at Arcadia & Rutgers University, her/their work as a director is fluid, open, and engaged across many different mediums, directing classics, new plays, operas, musicals, and devised work. Her practice is rooted in imagination, creative communication, and physical rigor, all of which she uses to build trusting communities and transformative experiences and productions. Katherine has developed work with Classical Theatre of Harlem, Juilliard, WP Theatre, Signature Theatre, SITI Company, BRIC, The Watermill Center, among others. Katherine has Associate/Assistant Directed for Anne Bogart, Sam Gold, JoAnne Akalaitis, Whitney White, and Christopher Renshaw.

Bil Wright is an award-winning Young Adult novelist, playwright and actor. His novels include Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy (Lambda Literary Award and American Library Association Stonewall Book Award), When the Black Girl Sings (Junior Library Guild selection), and the critically acclaimed Sunday You Learn How to Box. His plays include Bloodsummer Rituals, based on the life of poet Audre Lorde (Jerome Fellowship), and Leave Me a Message (San Diego Human Rights Festival premiere). He is the Librettist for This One Girl’s Story (GLAAD nominee) and the winner of a LAMI (La Mama Playwriting Award).

Discover the latest immersive events, festivals, workshops, and more at our new site EVERYTHING IMMERSIVE, new home of NoPro’s show listings.

Get NoPro Newswire’s stories in your inbox

Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.

SubscribeSubscribe

NoPro is a labor of love made possible by our generous Patreon backers. Join them today!

In addition to the No Proscenium website, our podcast, and our newsletters, you can find NoPro on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, in the Facebook community Everything Immersive, and on our Discord.