La Jolla Playhouse Announces Lineup for WOW Festival

La Jolla Playhouse announces the on-sale date and full programming for its acclaimed biennial Without Walls (WOW) Festival, a four-day celebration of site-based and interactive performances, taking place October 17 - 20 at San Diego's ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station, in partnership with the NTC Foundation. Tickets for WOW Festival performances, ranging from free to $20, go on sale September 13. For more information, visit the WOW Festival website at WOWFestival.org.

Joining the WOW Festival line-up will be several projects by national and International Artists, including Allegory, by New York-based artists Sammi Cannold, Emily Maltby and Ari Afsar; As Far As My Fingertips Take Me, by Beirut/London-based artist Tania El Khoury; Portals: Interactive Connected Trees, by Israel-based artist Matan Berkowitz; She Buried the Pistol, by the New York-based Hearth Theater; and the return of Australia's Strange Fruit (2015 WOW Festival's The Spheres) with their new production of Tall Tales of the High Seas.

The WOW Festival will also feature three more works by ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station-based companies: A Midsummer Night's Dream, by San Diego Ballet; Pandora and the Jar of Hope, by Theatre Arts School of San Diego; and Without a Net, by Malashock Dance. Additional local projects will include Calafia at Liberty, by Wetsuit Collective; How High the Moon, by Mike Sears; Inclusion, by San Diego Circus Center; PDA, by People of Interest (2015 WOW Festival's Romulus Kilgore's Mobile Happiness Bazaar); and Theatre on the Move, by Oracle Performing Arts.

These productions join nine previously-announced WOW Festival projects, among them three Playhouse-commissioned pieces: Ikaros, by the renowned New York-based Third Rail Projects (Then She Fell); Las Quinceañeras, by local designer and ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station resident artist David Israel Reynoso/Optika Moderna (2017 WOW Festival's Waking La Llorona, Punchdrunk's Sleep No More); and Written in Stone, a series of 10-minute plays, produced by the Playhouse's 2019 Resident Theatre Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company. The WOW Festival will also include pieces by preeminent international companies: Boats by Australia's Polyglot Theatre (2013 WOW Festival's We Built This City); ¡Vuela!, by Mexico's Inmigrantes Teatro (Playhouse's Kikiricaja); Hidden Stories by France's Begat Theatre; and Peregrinus, by Poland's Teatr KTO; as well as works by acclaimed local artists: Senior Prom, by the ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station-basedSan Diego Dance Theater (2015 WOW Festival's Dances With Walls); and Hall Pass, by Blindspot Collective.

"Every two years, the WOW Festival unites local, national and International Artists and art lovers for four days of innovative, immersive and interactive events. There truly will be something to appeal to everyone, and we're delighted that audiences of all walks of life can gather at ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station to celebrate our community's adventurous spirit and rich cultural diversity," said Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.

Similar to past WOW Festivals, this exciting event will serve as a cultural and artistic hub, centered around the Show Imaging Festival Stage, 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. The Show Imaging Festival Stage will also feature live music by the bands Trouble in the Wind (Oct 17 at 8:15pm), Dream Burglar (Oct 18 at 8:15pm), Montalban Quintet (Oct 19 at 2pm), Brogue Wave (Oct 19 at 5pm), Euphoria Brass Band (Oct 20 at 2pm), Whitney Shay & The Hustle (Oct 20 at 5pm), as well as a performance of The Golem of La Jolla - Excerpts in Concert: a modern parable spoken and sung, by UC San Diego Theatre & Dance faculty Allan Havis and Michael Roth (Oct 20 at 11am).

Since its inception in 2011, Without Walls (WOW) 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 eight years, the Playhouse has been commissioning and presenting a series of immersive and site-specific productions at locations throughout the San Diego community, Susurrus (2010) at the San Diego Botanical Garden, The Car Plays: San Diego (2011) in the Playhouse parking lot, Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir (2012) at Martini's Above Fourth, Accomplice: San Diego (2013) in Little Italy, El Henry (2014) at SILO in Maker's Quarter, The Grift at the Lafayette Hotel (2015) in North Park, The Bitter Game (2016) at Writerz Blok, What Happens Next at the Challenged Athletes Foundation, as well as the biennial WOW Festivals in 2013, 2015 and 2017.