By its very name, the WOW Festival was designed to inspire wonder. The 7th year of La Jolla Playhouse’s free, immersive Without Walls Festival got off to an imaginative, if slightly soggy, start on Thursday afternoon. It continues through Sunday.
This year’s WOW fest features 25 shows by theater and dance companies from the U.S., Canada, France, the Netherlands and Taiwan. For the third time, WOW is being presented on the campus of UC San Diego in La Jolla.
Most of this year’s WOW shows are being presented outdoors, which poses a challenge in the rain and cold. On Thursday evening, a late afternoon shower caused a roughly 20-minute delay for some outdoor shows. To best enjoy your WOW visit, bring an umbrella, something dry to sit on and be sure to wear warm, layered clothing and good walking shoes. There are plenty of shaded areas, indoor restaurants and restrooms when you need a break to rest or warm up.
Due to the popularity of WOW, many of the shows that required reservations filled up as soon as they were announced last month. But this weekend’s cool weather is likely to keep some WOW-goers with reservations at home, so walk-up visitors are more likely to get in.
Logistically, this year’s festival is well organized and easy to navigate with both online guides and handout maps and daily schedules at info booths. There are also easy-to-spot WOW directional signs around campus. The shows are concentrated at three “hubs”: the La Jolla Playhouse campus, Revelle College Plaza and the Epstein Family Amphitheater/Design & Innovation Building. Free shuttle service is available between hubs and parking garages, or you can walk (it’s a 5-minute walk between the Playhouse and Revelle plaza hubs, and 15 minutes between Revelle and Epstein).
Here are mini-reviews of some shows that opened Thursday.
Mister & Mischief’s “The Apple Avenue Detective Agency” will be presented at La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024 Without Walls Festival at UCSD April 4-7.
(Courtesy of La Jolla Playhouse)
‘The Apple Avenue Detective Agency’
Created by the Los Angeles experiential theater company Mister & Mischief, this hourlong show was inspired by M&M co-founder Andy Crocker’s real-life experience of forming a neighborhood “detective agency” with her two best friends at age 11. The audience meets the three awkward but enthusiastic adolescent girls Alex (Crocker’s childhood alter-ego), Stephy and Evelyn, who lead them to an outdoor clubhouse, where audience members are handed detection tools (toy binoculars, notepads, magnifying glasses, disguises, evidence collection bags, etc.) and taken out on clue-finding missions. Audience members are encouraged to be a kid again, so the quality of their experiences will depend on their desire to play along when “clues” like bike locks and chewed-up gum are excitedly cataloged as evidence. Actual tape recordings of Crocker and her buddies recorded 30 years ago are played during the show and the actors hired to re-create their quirky personalities are excellent. Thursday’s performance marked the world premiere of “Apple Avenue,” and the show still has kinks to work out. The opening and ending of the show are both entertaining, but the free-form, clue-hunting middle section was repetitive and unfocused. 60 minutes. Revelle Plaza. Remaining performances: 4 p.m. April 5; 11 a.m., 12:45, 2:15 and 4:14 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m., 12:30, 2:15 and 4:15 p.m. April 7.
Two Taiwanese acrobats perform in “Duo” at La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024 Without Walls Festival.
(Pam Kragen/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
‘Duo’
Taiwan’s 0471 Acro Physical Theatre presents this sad and mostly wordless two-character dance-infused story about a man and woman whose twisty-turny acrobatics represent the ups and downs of their rocky and passionate romantic relationship. The movement ranges from thrilling to heartbreaking and is supported by haunting atmospheric music. 45 minutes. Revelle Plaza. Remaining performances: 6:20 p.m. April 5; 12:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. April 6; 12:15 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. April 7.
At La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024 Without Walls Festival, France’s Cirque Inextremiste presents “Damoclès” where the audience helps build a moving sculpture and then climb aboard as it tilts precariously.
(Pam Kragen/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
‘Damocles’
France’s Cirque Inextremiste presents this interactive balancing show where the “ringmaster” and audience work together with giant planks of wood to create a kinetic sculpture that moves and transforms when audience members walk on it. The project involves skills of team-building, cooperation, patience and, for a lucky few, daring. 50 minutes in Revelle Plaza. Remaining performances: 4:15 p.m. April 5; 2 p.m. April 6; 2 p.m. April 7.
Toronto’s CORPUS theater company presents “Les Moutons,” a wordless play about a shepherd and his four sheep, at La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024 Without Walls Festival at UCSD.
(Pam Kragen/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
‘Les Moutons’
Toronto’s CORPUS theater company presents this funny, weird and entertaining 30-minute show, where a shepherd leads his flock of sheep — three ewes and a ram with clanging bells around their necks — out for a walk, a shearing, a milking, a meal and more. The audience sits on all four sides of their pen, where actors costumed as black and white sheep wander about dead-eyed, baa-ing, munching lettuce and attempting to escape. It’s a family-friendly show, but be aware there are moments of true pastoral life, including a ewe relieving herself, a quick mating session and the arrival of a hungry wolf. 30 minutes. Two locations. Remaining performances: 5:30 p.m. April 5 at the Design & Innovation Building; Noon and 4 p.m. April 6 at Revelle Plaza; 11:45 a.m. and 3 p.m. April 7 at Revelle Plaza.
BANDALOOP, an aerial dance company from Oakland, performs on the side of a building at UC San Diego on April 4.
(Nelvin C. Cepeda/The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Here are some of the most highly recommended shows:
“BANDALOOP”: the Oakland-based aerial dance company t will perform flying shows while hanging from the side of the university’s Design and Innovation Building at 9510 Innovation Lane. 4:30 and 6 p.m. April 5; 3:30 and 6 p.m. April 6.
“Spectrum: Society of Wonder”: San Diego’s Animal Cracker Conspiracy is premiering this family-friendly nighttime puppet show featuring beautiful handmade puppets that are all illumin ated from within. 8 p.m. April 5 and 6 on Galbraith Hill Lawn near La Jolla Playhouse.
“Folding Futures”: Origami Air Co., a UCSD performance group based at the campus’ Design & Innovation Building, will offer time-traveling guided walking tours to Earth in the year 2065. Design and Innovation Building. 6 p.m. Feb. 5; 12 p.m. Feb. 6 and 7.
La Jolla Playhouse’s 2024 Without Walls Festival
When: 4 to 10 p.m. today, April 5; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, April 6; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, April 7
Where: Multiple locations on the UC San Diego campus, 9500 Gilman Drive, La Jolla. Venue details at lajollaplayhouse.org/wowfestival/venues.
Admission: Free. Some shows take reservations, but a standby list is kept at check-in
Transportation/parking: Only paid parking via the Parkmobile app is available on campus, so ride-share services, MTS buses or the Blue Line Trolley (which stops at Epstein Family Amphitheater on campus) are recommended. Details at lajollaplayhouse.org/wowfestival/plan-your-visit.
Schedule, reservations and details: wowfestival.org