La Jolla Playhouse Announces Projects For Pop-Up WOW Event

La Jolla Playhouse announces the projects for its outdoor Pop-Up WOW event featuring four Playhouse-commissioned Without Walls (WOW) works, taking place Saturday, August 14 and Sunday, August 15 at ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station, home of the Playhouse's 2019 and 2022 WOW Festivals.

This free event will feature four Playhouse-commissioned projects from Blindspot Collective (Playhouse's 2020/21 and 2021/22 Resident Theatre Company; 2019 WOW Festival's Hall Pass); Optika Moderna (WOW Festival's Las Quinceañeras in 2019 and Waking La Llorona in 2017); and Jesca Prudencio (2019 WOW Festival's PDA); San Diego Black Artist Collective (Say It Loud 2021 Juneteenth Festival); plus a special moment from La Jolla Playhouse 2021/2022 Resident Artist, Kenny Ramos. All productions for the Pop-Up WOW event will be free and have multiple performance times throughout the weekend.

"For over a decade the WOW Series has brought artists and audiences together in experiences that interact directly with the people and places of San Diego. As we find ourselves now, over a year and a half living with the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, it seemed natural to start our season with a series of dynamic local artists presenting WOW pieces in the open-air expanses of ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station. These stimulating new works are both a reflection of where we have been and a celebration of our coming together again," said Christopher Ashley, the Rich Family Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse.

From Blindspot Collective comes when the bubble bursts. Inspired by the words and reflections about this unique moment from local artists and community members, when the bubble bursts is a meditation on human connection and impermanence. Simultaneously a celebration of resilience and a reflection of adversity, this performance blends music, movement, and text to reignite the magic of live theater. Featuring a cast of 20 performers, some larger-than-life guests, and bubbles galore, this 'happening' explores some of the difficult questions posed by the past year while evoking the childlike wonder and curiosity conjured by life's simplest joys.

Presented in partnership with The New Children's Museum is Optika Moderna's OPTIKA PIÑATA The mysterious OPTIKA opticians need your help! Four colorful pop-up offices have arrived at Liberty Station. The opticians invite kids and grownups alike to participate in a fantastical VISION exercise unlike any other. Through this, kids of all ages will see themselves through a new lens as they discover the legend of a mythic, interdimensional caravan theater known as TEATRO PIÑATA. Those who complete the assessment will receive a custom certificate and a mysterious parcel with further instructions. What you do with its contents may forever change the fate of TEATRO PIÑATA and yours as well.

Can We Now? is a celebratory dance theatre piece from UC San Diego MFA graduate Jesca Prudencio that takes a playful look at how we are cautiously, clumsily and joyfully coming out of isolation into community with one another. This happening celebrates the collective and features live music, lots of laughter, and a dance flash mob featuring you!

San Diego Black Artist Collective's Get on Board is a journey through the evolution of Black music. Through that journey, Black Artist Collective will explore the cultural traditions that Black folks carry through music and how these traditions educate and encourage future generations through their own tribulations. For Pop-Up WOW, everyone is invited to the cookout, creating a unique immersive experience for the audience with a few surprises.

The shows when the bubble bursts, Can We Now? and Get on Board will all play outdoors on the North Promenade lawn in ARTS DISTRICT Liberty Station, as an integrated experience Saturday at 1:00 pm and 5:00 pm and Sunday at 12:00 pm and 3:00 pm. OPTIKA PIÑATA is an individual experience for groups of 1-4 that runs approximately 7 minutes each, located between Barracks 4 and 5.

Since its inception in 2009, the Playhouse's signature Without Walls (WOW) series has become one of San Diego's most popular and acclaimed performance programs. Over the last ten years, the Playhouse has been commissioning and presenting this series of immersive and site-inspired productions throughout the San Diego community, including Susurrus (2011), The Car Plays: San Diego (2012), Sam Bendrix at the Bon Soir (2012), Accomplice: San Diego (2013), El Henry (2014), The Grift at the Lafayette Hotel (2015), The Bitter Game (2016) and What Happens Next (2018), as well as WOW Festivals in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

For more information on Pop-Up WOW, please visit LaJollaPlayhouse.org.