WOW: La Jolla Playhouse expecting biggest Without Walls Festival ever at Rady Shell
Not only is this year’s WOW fest free of charge to the public, it’s also being produced at the visually stunning Rady Shell on San Diego Bay. It runs Thursday through April 30
Ever since La Jolla Playhouse artistic director Christopher Ashley introduced the Without Walls Festival in 2013, it has become one of his favorite events.
San Diego’s theatergoing public enthusiastically agrees. The now-annual festivals — which combine local and international artists in a long weekend of immersive and imaginative site-specific entertainment — have become near-instant sellouts over the years.
WOW returns this week with four days of events Thursday, April 27 through April 30 at the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park.
During the past six festivals — in 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019, an all-digital edition in 2021 and a mini pop-up version last summer — WOW audiences have experienced theater, dance and music in car backseats, bars, a high school, a botanic garden and on the beach. They’ve worn blindfolds, headphones and blackout goggles. They’ve taken part in one-on-one shows via Zoom, chatted on the phone with strangers, volunteered their arms for ink drawings, silent discoed their way around Liberty Station and marveled at video portraits projected on trees.
But Ashley said he thinks this year’s WOW fest may top them all. Not only does it feature two dozen all-new shows, it’s also being presented for the first time at San Diego’s most spectacular outdoor amphitheater — the Rady Shell at Jacobs Park. And, best of all, this year’s festival is free of charge for the first time in its decade-long history.
In past years, the WOW fests have drawn as many as 15,000 visitors over the course of four days, but Ashley said he thinks this year’s turnout might break that record.
“Rady Shell is an amazing civic arts building and it can work for San Diego in the way that Sydney Opera House has for Sydney. It’s bold, architecturally striking and it’s right on the water,” Ashley said.
The fest’s move to the 2-year-old Rady Shell was made possible by the San Diego Symphony, which built and operates the $85 million bayside structure and, Ashley said, “has been a spectacular partner in every way.”
The symphony is also presenting one of this year’s WOW shows. In “A Shared Space,” audience members will connect their phones digitally with composer Ryan Carter, who will turn their phones into instruments that they can use to interact with symphony musicians and create their own music.
Asked to name some of the shows he’s most excited about this year besides “A Shared Space,” Ashley picked “Birdmen,” a show by a performance troupe from the Netherlands that performs at night in huge illuminated birdlike puppetry sculptures.
“It will be a really visually stunning piece moving through the festival grounds,” Ashley said.
He’s also excited about “Drive,” an autobiographical piece about a family RV trip during the peak of the pandemic by Sharon Wheatley. She was an original cast member of the Playhouse-born Broadway smash “Come From Away,” for which Ashley won a 2017 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical. “I have a deep personal connection to this show,” he said.
At past WOW fests, many of the shows have been free or priced at $10 to $20. But this year, the festival is entirely free, except for one off-site ticketed event named “La Lucha” that’s being co-produced with the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Ashley said his long-term goal was to make the festival free to the public but finding the funding and the delay caused by the pandemic stymied those plans.
“Moving to free has been something we always wanted to do but we couldn’t make it work. This year, there wasn’t a magic bullet. We just decided let’s take the leap and make it free,” he said.
Festival-goers can make reservations for shows on the WOW website (wowfestival.org), but as in past years, many of the prime slots were snapped up as soon as reservations opened April 4. However, because virtually all of the shows are taking place outdoors in public spaces, members of the public without reservations can still walk up and watch most of the shows at a short distance, including “A Shared Space,” “Birdmen,” “salty water,” “Choreo & Fly,” “The Nest,” “Yellow Bird” and “Jin vs. the Beach.”
Here’s the lineup for this year’s WOW fest, in alphabetical order with showtimes.
2023 WOW Festival lineup
“A Shared Space”: The San Diego Symphony presents this interactive performance in which Ryan Carter transforms cellphones into instruments as the audience joins the symphony musicians as players in a communal performance. Once audience members are connected digitally with Carter, their phones will emit sounds that will cue the orchestra to play. Smartphone required to participate. 45 min. 7:30 p.m. Friday; 6:15 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday. Reservations recommended.
“Birdmen” from Close-Act Theatre Co.: This theatrical stilt-walking troupe from the Netherlands become huge, illuminated, birdlike creatures from the future who react to their environment, communicate with colors and search for others of their species. 45 minutes. 5:45 and 8:30 p.m. Thursday; 6:15 and 8:45 p.m. Friday; 4:45 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 4:45 p.m. April 30. Reservations recommended.
Brassroots District: Live in the Lot Summer ‘73: This immersive music-theater troupe re-creates the Summer of Love in 1973 Los Angeles. The nine-piece Brassroots District funk band has its own internal drama but it’s the opening act for Sly and the Family Stone. Can the record company execs coming to hear them play finally be their shot at the big time? Come for the concert and the drama. 75 min. 4 and 6 p.m. Friday. 3 and 5 p.m. Saturday. Reservations are full.
“The Cell Plays” from Playwrights Project: This San Diego theater organization will present an intimate, site-specific, immersive play written by members of its Out of the Yard program, for people who have experienced incarceration. The audience will be guests touring a correction facility and jail museum where they’ll experience a play about life inside a cell performed by actors in and around their cells, followed by an audience talkback featuring formerly incarcerated individuals. 45 min. Shows begin on the hour, 6 and 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 11 a.m. through 5 p.m. and 6:30 p.m. Saturday and April 30. No reservations required.
“Choreo & Fly” from Disco Riot: San Diego’s Disco Riot present this audience-participation dance program that involves short dance pieces, kite-flying, physical expression and movement. 75 min. 1 and 4:15 p.m. Saturday and April 30. Reservations recommended.
“Circular Dimensions” from Cristopher Cichocki: This Coachella Valley artist presents an audiovisual performance that harnesses elements from the natural and industrial world to create original compositions for his DJ sets, which embrace the music genres of sonic ambience and experimental dance. Complementing the music will be three-dimensional video projections that will transform the environment around the audience. 75 min. 8:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Reservations recommended.
“Cleaning the Stables” from the Herakles Project’s Robert Twomey and Ash Eliza Smith: This San Diego duo has created a moving adventure described as a “sound-walk-meets-locative-cinema” experience inspired by the Greek hero Heracles and his 12 labors. Audience members will wear headphones as they join the HeraKlean company to clean a cow stable, redirect two rivers and discover a cult legend. Smartphone is required. 30 min. Self-guided tours at 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; 11:30 a.m., and 12:30, 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday and April 30. Reservations recommended.
Community Canvas: Making Our Mark: The San Diego Unified School District Honors Theatre Project, in partnership with the Playhouse, will be a devised theater piece created by local theater students in response to studying murals in the community. 30 min. 12:30 p.m. Saturday; 12:30 and 3 p.m. April 30. Reservations recommended.
“Drive” from Diversionary Theatre: The LGBTQ-identified San Diego theater will present this immersive theater piece inspired by Broadway veteran Sharon Wheatley’s book about her pandemic-necessitated, cross-country RV trip with her wife and family. Wheatley, an original cast member from the La Jolla Playhouse-born “Come From Away,” stars in the play with her “Come From Away” castmate Astrid Van Wieren. 60 min. 5 p.m. Thursday; 5:15 p.m. Friday; 3:45 and 6:15 p.m. Saturday; 1:45 and 4:30 p.m. April 30. No reservations required.
“The End” from Control Group Productions: This Denver-based company takes audience members on a real bus tour through a city transformed by escalating climate catastrophe and on the brink of collapse. Part theater, part civics lesson, summer camp and wild ride, it’s a story about San Diego’s present and future from the viewpoint of a school bus window. 110 min. 5:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Noon and 5:30 p.m. Saturday and April 30. All seats have been reserved, but check with festival officials during the weekend for any last-minute cancellations.
“Fair Trade” from Jessica Creane and Yannick Trapman-O’Brien, Philadelphia: In this interactive experiment of negotiation, audience members will choose three items in their possession as possible offerings and negotiate a trade with a perfect stranger. Who they are and what they bring will be a mystery, but with just an hour between the two participants, their decisions will lead the way to discovering if a fair trade is in reach. 60 min. 5 and 6:30 p.m. Friday; 12:30, 3, 4:30 p.m. Saturday and April 30. Additional Spanish-language performances at 4:30 p.m. Saturday and April 30. All seats have been reserved, but check with festival officials during the weekend for any last-minute cancellations.
“59 Acres” by Marike Splint: La Jolla Plahouse artist-in-residence Splint and Jonathan Snipes will create a site-specific, geo-located “soundwalk” to help San Diegans rediscover their city in new ways and then record their thoughts in a custom sound booth. Participants will be selected from the crowd to participate. 15 minutes. Noon to 4 p.m. Saturday. 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 30.
“Glacial Incantations” from the Herakles Project’s Hortense Gerardo: This San Diego artist presents a modern retelling of the ninth labor of Heracles, where king Eurystheus was ordered to bring him the belt of the Amazon queen Hippolyte. Participants will need a smartphone and earbuds to access recordings and augmented reality visuals on the walkway around the Rady Shell. 30 min. Self-guided tour at any time. 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and April 30.
“It’s Not That Way, It’s This Way” from Galmae of France: This immersive installation is created by the audience, starting out with only a stone and piece of string. Over time, people working alone and together create an enormous web-like string maze. South Korean artist Juhyung Lee was inspired to create the project after seeing how collectives can make change during a rally in Seoul in 2015. 60 min. 8:30 p.m. Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday. Reservations recommended.
“Jin vs. the Beach” from the La Jolla Playhouse: The Playhouse’s Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour is a new musical play for young audiences about an anxious fifth-grader named Jin going on his first school field trip to the beach. 45 min. 11 a.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. April 30. Reservations recommended.
King Britt and Friends by King James Britt: Philadelphia composer and producer and his musician friends will create a musical journey back to the mid-1990s club scene. 90 min. Participants can join any time. 7 p.m. Thursday. No reservations required.
“Las Cuatro Milpas” from TuYo Theatre: This Latinx-voices San Diego theater company will present an immersive play inspired by one of San Diego’s oldest and most beloved Mexican restaurants, Las Cuatro Milpas in Barrio Logan. Audiences will walk through a corn maze modeled on Aztec codices and covered in murals with interactive QR codes and audio tracks to learn the story of Petra and Nati Estudillo’s journey from Mexico to California and the founding of their restaurant in 1933. The show will include music and recorded dances inspired by the Aztec corn gods. Smartphone and earbuds required. 15 min. Visit anytime from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 10:30 a.m. April 30. No reservations required.
“Moving Spaces” by San Diego Dance Theater: Dancers will lead their audience to different spaces around the Rady Shell where they will perform site-specific pieces at different locations by four choreographers. Grace Shinhae Jun of bkSOUL will create hip-hop and modern dance; former SDDT artistic director Jean Isaacs will present “Creation Myth”; Pendula Cero’s Miraslova Wilson will create “Esquina del Movimiento,” inspired by the Shell’s architecture; and SDDT’s current artistic director, Terry Wilson, will premiere a new work inspired by the Shell and San Diego skyline. Audiences will move from site to site to observe dancers. 45 min. 6:45 p.m. Saturday; 3:30 p.m. April 30. Reservations recommended.
“The Nest” from Megan Flød Johnson: This St. Paul, Minn., artist will create an immersive playscape for young people that represents the home of an elusive migrating creature. Children will help workers decorate the colorful nest with their writings and reflections. 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and April 30. No reservations required.
“salty water” from Blindspot Collective: This San Diego theater company will present a walk-through theater piece inspired by San Diego’s history and its connection to the sea. Fifteen performers, 40 local youths and large-scale puppets will present music, movement, poetry and spoken word pieces. 45 min. 2:30 p.m. Saturday; noon April 30. Reservations recommended.
Silent Disco from the LOFT Vinyl Collection: Audience members will wear multichannel headphones to vibe and dance along to live DJs. 8:30 to 10 p.m. Thursday. Reservations recommended, but not required.
Sunset yoga by Fit Athletic: An all-ages and all-flexibilities yoga class will be offered on the lawn at Rady Shell. Bring your own mat. 60 min. 6 p.m. Thursday. Reservation recommended.
“360” from Benjamin “Monki” Kuitenbrouwer & TENT, the Netherlands: A duo of Dutch circus acrobats invite the audience to sit close and take part in this show, whether it’s rolling around on wheeled stools, making physical contact or simply sitting back to observe. 30 minutes. 6:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday; Noon, 2:30 and 5:30 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 4 p.m. April 30. Reservations are full.
“Yellow Bird Chase” from Liars & Believers of Boston: A clownish maintenance crew finds a magical yellow bird and the mad chase begins. The family-friendly show will travel around the Shell and will feature masks, puppets and gibberish language. 60 min. Noon and 3:15 p.m. Saturday; 12:45 and 3 p.m. April 30. Reservations recommended.
Separate ticketed event offsite:
“La Lucha”: As an addition to the four-day WOW Festival, La Jolla Playhouse and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, are collaborating on this ticketed event at MCASD’s downtown location. Tickets for next weekend’s preview performances are sold out, but the show will launch a separate ticketed run in May. Written by veteran WOW artist David Israel Reynoso through his immersive Optika Moderna theater company, “La Lucha” take viewers inside the world of lucha libre Mexican masked wrestling. The audience will step inside the ring to cheer, explore and learn the secrets of the highly popular sport. All seats for the preview performances this weekend are sold out, but the show will return in an extended run May 11 through June 4. MCASD, 1100 Kettner Blvd., San Diego. $39-$69. lajollaplayhouse.org/wowfestival/event/la-lucha
La Jolla Playhouse’s Without Walls Festival
When: Thursday, April 27 through April 30
Where: The Rady Shell at Jacobs Park, 222 Marina Park Way, San Diego
Details on parking and dining options: theshell.org/plan-your-visit/visit-faq/
Admission: Free (some shows require online reservations, as noted)
Online: wowfestival.org
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