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Reviewed by:
  • La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls Festival by La Jolla Playhouse
  • Alison Urban
LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE WITHOUT WALLS FESTIVAL. La Jolla Playhouse, Arts District Liberty Station, Point Loma, California. October 17–20, 2019.

La Jolla Playhouse has a long history of reinventing itself in response to the artistic needs of its community. Beginning in 1947 as a summer respite for Hollywood actors looking to maintain their connection to the stage, they performed in the local La Jolla High School theatre. The Playhouse eventually found its home on the campus of UC San Diego in 1983, where it has become one of the preeminent regional theatres in the country, producing up to six premiere productions a year, plus one new play for young audiences. The Playhouse’s commitment to supporting and developing new work is more than just part of its mission; it is a part of its identity as a space for artists and communities to come together in celebration of storytelling and innovation. Having originated in a nontraditional theatre space, it is no surprise that La Jolla Playhouse has developed and cultivated audiences that expect the unexpected when it comes to theatrical programming. Recognizing the diversity of audiences (both economically and culturally) here in San Diego, La Jolla Playhouse has found a way to connect with more urban areas and engage communities by meeting them where they so often are—outside.

The Without Walls (WOW) Festival, now a biennial event, was first produced in 2013 and made use of unusual and unexpected locations in and around the campus of UC San Diego. The festival sought to showcase an array of interactive, site-inspired performances, each intended to provoke audiences into reconsidering how they experience performance. Productions have taken place in locations ranging from basketball courts to car interiors and in the Pacific Ocean. Based on the 2013 success of WOW programming, the Playhouse returned to the UC San Diego campus for its second festival in 2015, but moved to various sites in and around San Diego’s famed Gaslamp Quarter for the third WOW in 2017, all to bring theatre outside its walls and closer to a new generation of audiences. The festival has cultivated an artistic space in which nontraditional performance pieces promote opportunities for communities to come together, interact with the arts, and perhaps more importantly, share moments of theatrical expression as one new collective.

While the 2017 edition felt too spread out, the 2019 WOW Festival held at Liberty Station returned to the communal nature of the original festival by utilizing a single large venue; and by selecting a unique and significant locale, the festival honored San Diego’s adventurous spirit and celebrated its rich cultural diversity. Formerly a Naval Training Center, Liberty Station is lined with historic buildings, repurposed barracks, and an open promenade. Once used to train sailors, Liberty Station is now the largest Arts and Cultural District in San Diego, providing a space for the city to gather surrounded by both our military history and our artistic future.

Throughout WOW’s history, the Playhouse has sought productions that challenge San Diego audiences to dispel the common assumption that theatre is not a participatory experience. By taking performances outside of traditional theatre spaces, La Jolla Playhouse opens audiences to the notion that theatre can happen anywhere, and with everyone. The four-day 2019 festival included productions from preeminent international artists like As Far as My Fingertips Take Me by Beirut/London-based Tania El Khoury, Hidden Stories by France’s Begat Theatre, and Tall Tales of the High Seas by Australia’s Strange Fruit, as well as three Playhouse-commissioned projects: Ikaros by New York–based Third Rail Projects, Written in Stone by Backyard Renaissance (2019 Playhouse Resident Theatre), and Las Quinceañeras by local designer David Israel Reynoso/Optika Moderna. While international and nationally known artists are a draw to the festival, the Playhouse’s programming also highlighted local theatre companies often without a permanent venue of their own, supporting and encouraging the exposure of diverse theatre-makers for new audiences. [End Page 354] Local San Diego company Oracle Performing Arts, for example, performed Theatre on the Move, an installation where a...

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