To celebrate artists, foster relationships and connect people to art beyond the physical theater, La Jolla Playhouse will premiere its 2024 “Without Walls” Festival, shortened to WOW, its seventh such iteration, next month.
The WOW Festival will take place from Thursday, April 4 through Sunday, April 7, at various locations around the UC San Diego campus. All of the 25 performances are free to the public.
The various projects range from theater, dance, music, puppetry and more, including “one project that is going to get the audience into dinosaur costumes,” said Playhouse Managing Director Debby Bucchholz at a festival launch event Feb 29.
“WOW … creates a whole new ecosystem,” she said, adding the festival “has become a platform for unique work to emerge and grow in new ways.”
The first WOW was held at UCSD in 2013, and has evolved through assorted locations and versions.
“WOW programming transforms the familiar into the artistic, … extraordinary and sparkly,” Buchholz said, bringing together hundreds of local and international artists.
A few of the project creators gave sneak peeks of their upcoming WOW performances, including Jeff and Andry Crocker, whose Los Angeles-based company Mister & Mischief will present “The Apple Avenue Detective Agency,” an interactive endeavor that’s “really about something that we tell our seven-year-old daughter all the time,” Andy said: “Just because it’s pretend doesn’t mean it’s not important.”
“We made fun-forward experiences that turn strangers into pals, [specializing] in what we like to call heartfelt shenanigans,” she added.
From Tuyo Theatre Company in San Diego comes “Pasale Pasale,” which creator Maria Patrice Amon called “a love letter to the swap meet,” during which audience members are invited to peruse the “market” as a patron and more.
San Diego company Blindspot Collective will host “iykyk,” a site-specific show at UCSD’s Che Cafe in which audiences explore themes of student activism and youth organizing to examine issues of race, class and disability.
The many other WOW offerings will include performances from The Netherlands, France, New York, Taiwan and more, along with entries from UCSD Department of Theatre & Dance students and faculty.
“Arts and culture make our lives more … meaningful,” said Abe Hughes of the city of San Diego’s Commission for Arts & Culture. “UCSD and La Jolla are really one of the most dynamic centers for culture.”
UCSD Chancellor Pradeep Khosla welcomed the festival back to campus, noting he wants UCSD “to be a destination for art and culture.”
WOW’s ability to “reach out to those individuals that maybe aren’t comfortable in a more formal art setting [or] maybe can’t afford to attend some of the events that are put on” in traditional performance spaces makes it special, said San Diego City Councilman Joe LaCava, whose District 1 includes La Jolla.
“I want to just encourage everybody to join in on this fun,” Hughes said.
For more information, visit wowfestival.org.
