La Jolla Playhouse on Thursday unveiled more than 20 shows that will be presented at its 2025 Without Walls Festival (WOW), which will take place April 24-27 on the campus of UC San Diego.
This year’s WOW fest will feature local, national and international troupes specializing in theater, dance, puppetry, music and spectacle events.
“We are delighted to once again celebrate this four-day, community-wide event in partnership with UC San Diego, with more than 20 exhilarating WOW experiences that invite us to connect with space and with each other,” said Christopher Ashley, the Playhouse’s artistic director, in a prepared statement. “The lineup for our 2025 WOW Festival features a wild and wonderful combination of intimate and large-scale spectacle productions for audiences of all ages, created by acclaimed artists from across the globe.”
Although most of this year’s artists are from San Diego, there will be participating artists from New York City, Texas, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
This year’s festival will also feature performances from its 2025 POP Tour, which visits local schools, as well as several programs by students from UCSD and the San Diego Unified School District.
Since its founding in 2011, the Playhouse has presented eight stand-alone WOW productions (like the current run of “The Unfair Advantage”) and seven WOW Festivals, along with 14 digital WOW pieces which were produced for at-home audiences during the 2020-’21 COVID lockdown.
Most of the immersive and site-specific performances at the 2025 WOW Festival will be presented free to the public. Seven shows will be ticketed with prices ranging from $12 to $37, and are noted below. The full schedule of events, reservations and ticket sales can be found at wowfestival.org.
Here’s a brief overview of this year’s festival acts. More details can be found online.
“American Dream Casino”: San Diego’s Robert Farid Karimi present this casino-like experience portraying the high-stakes gamble of achieving the American dream.
“Artists Everywhere”: San Diego’s Playwrights Project and teaching artist/filmmaker Chris Boyd will create an experiential gallery of videos made from autobiographical plays written by formerly incarcerated individuals in San Diego.
“Bev & Blanche’s Care-a-Van”: San Diego residents Esty Bharier and Molly Maslak will present this roaming pop-up story of twin marionettes navigating their ongoing mental health journeys.
Black Benatar’s “Audience Lip Sync Spectacular” & Black Benatar’s “Black Magic Variety Hour”: San Francisco performer Beatrice Thomas will present two audience-interactive experiences blending drag, lip syncing, puppetry, comedy and more. “Audience Lip Sync Spectacular” is free; “Black Magic Variety Hour” is $12.
“Bring Back the Happening”: Nineties, a Dutch contemporary theater collective, will create their interpretation of a 1960s “happening, featuring connection, a lush soundtrack and maybe a few dinosaurs. Tickets are $17.
“Burnout Paradise” by Pony Cam: This Australian acrobatic troupe will perform increasingly frenetic feats of juggling, treill-riding and absurdity inspired by the workaholic lifestyle. Tickets are $37.
“Escape the Box” by Wishing Horse Productions: This Austin, Texas-based company will create a time-travel outdoor escape game for all ages. Tickets are $27.
“Firebird” by Touki Delphine: This Amsterdam-based art collective will present this eye-popping electronical orchestra performance of sound and light inspired by Igor Stravinsky’s 1919 Firebird Suite.
“Garden” by Zlatko Mitev: This San Diego artist and musician will create a sculpture garden inspired by local flora and fauna.
“Goldilocks Screentime”: UC San Diego Theatre and Dance students will present this interactive theater performance that explores the temptations of the internet, beauty, wellness and the pressure to be look perfect.
“Green Memories” by Shahrokh Yadegari and Memo Akten: UC San Diego professor Shahrokh Yadegari, inspired by Forough Farrokhzad’s poem “I Pity the Garden,” will create a metaphoric garden that explores the themes of life, death, and the age of time.
“How to Put On a Sock” by Rachel Gita Karp: This Brooklyn-based theater artist casts the audience as ninth-graders in a sex-ed assembly for an interactive tour of what teens are learning in high schools across America.
“I See You Like This” by Jessica Wilson: This Australian artist’s interactive activity for families allows children to choose materials to turn their parents’ faces into a canvas that represents how they see their parents.
“The Jump Up” by ArtPower NYC: Sandbox Percussion, in collaboration with UCSD’s Steven Schick and the Red Fish Blue Fish ensemble, will present the West Coast premiere of composer Douglas J. Cuomo’s percussion work “The Jump Up!” It involves the musicians moving through space and the audience ing in.
“Layers” by Circus Center: This San Diego circus ensemble will present this theatricalized story of the things that inspire us as humans.
Marcel Lucont’s “Les Enfantes Terrible – A Gameshow for Awful Children” and “Whine List”: French comedian Marcel Lucont will present two different audience-interactive shows. In the first, children in the audience are invited to play pest and politicians. The second is an adult-oriented comedy about audience ’ gripes and moans, combined with erotic poetry. “Les Enfants” is free; “Whine List” tickets are $17.
“ODDISEA: A Puppet Procession” by Animal Cracker Conspiracy: This San Diego troupe will present an interactive giant puppet procession for people of all ages inspired by the sea and an alien cosmology, with music from the Chunky Hustle Brass Band.
“Shifting Horizons” by the San Diego Unified Honors Theatre Project: Local high school students will create this original movement piece inspired by a falling star’s journey from displacement to belonging.
“The Society of Historic Sonic Happenings” by UP CLOSE Projects: This New York company presents this interactive event where the audience aids the Society (SHSH) in its mission to find and preserve hidden sounds from history. Tickets are $12.
“Summer Break” by FLIP Fabrique: This Canadian theater and acrobatic company invites the audience to a nostalgic circus show inspired by the memories of youthful summer camp adventures.
“Tale Travelers” by Blindspot Collective: This San Diego site-specific theater company will host a books-themed adventure at the Geisel Library, where participants will meet book characters including Captain Hook, Frankenstein’s monster and more. Tickets are $12.
“When My Body Talks” by Danniel Ureña and Diversionary Theatre: This theater piece, developed at Diversionary Theatre, explores queer people’s discovery process of first-time experiences.
“The Weather Busters of Beachcastle” by La Jolla Playhouse: The Playhouse’s 2025 POP Tour production is a new play for young audiences about two 12-year-olds who embark on an adventure to meet a mysterious explorer from beyond the stars.
