La Jolla Playhouse Reveals Programming for 2025 WOW Festival

La Jolla Playhouse has revealed full programming for the 2025 WOW Festival of immersive and site-inspired work, presented in partnership with UC San Diego. The WOW Festival will take place April 24 – 27 on the UC San Diego campus.
 
Like previous WOW Festivals, the 2025 event will feature four action-packed days of theatre, dance, music, puppetry, spectacle events, and more, with multiple performances by acclaimed local, national and International Artists occurring throughout the weekend.

Additionally, the Playhouse will present performances of its 2025 Performance Outreach Program (POP) Tour, The Weather Busters of Beachcastle, during the WOW Festival. Other special WOW Festival projects include Shifting Horizons, created by students in the San Diego Unified School District Honors Theatre Project and Goldilocks Screentime, created by UC Theatre and Dance students.
 
Without Walls (WOW) is La Jolla Playhouse’s signature performance program that takes art outside traditional theatre walls and into unique spaces around the San Diego community. From a car to a bar, from a beach to a basement, WOW invites audiences of all ages to interact with artists and art in unexpected ways, bringing people together and reimagining what storytelling can be. Since its inception in 2011, WOW has become one of the region’s most popular and acclaimed performance programs, including eight stand-alone productions, seven WOW Festivals and fourteen Digital WOW pieces.
 
WOW Festival Projects

American Dream Casino (Free)

A WOW Workshop Presentation
By Robert Farid Karimi
San Diego, CA
 
WOW presents the next stage of development for American Dream Casino: a playful, interactive, casino-like experience that celebrates what we gamble, and what we gain (and lose) to achieve the American Dream. Gamblers play with a special casino currency to win prizes, with the ultimate reward being an all-expenses-paid American Dream for themselves and their loved ones.
 

Artists Everywhere (Free)

By Playwrights Project
San Diego, CA
 
Artists Everywhere brings stories from formerly incarcerated writers to life through professionally produced films. Written as plays and adapted into films by Playwrights Project teaching artist and filmmaker Chris Boyd, the films are presented on five screens with headsets. As if viewing paintings in a gallery, you choose the order and duration of your viewing experience with each film—you may even have the chance to interact with the writers and artists behind the works.
 

Bev & Blanche’s Care-a-Van (Free)

By Esty Bharier and Molly Maslak
San Diego, CA
 
Meet Bev & Blanche, “The Rough Draft Sisters”—two quirky, codependent unfinished marionette twins navigating ongoing mental health journeys. During this roaming pop-up show, Bev and Blanche explore feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and grief while offering mindfulness, levity, and connection. Can you find their Care-a-Van? What nuggets of wisdom will they have in store for you?
 

Black Benatar’s Audience Lip Sync Spectacular (Free)

Black Benatar’s Black Magic Variety Hour (Tickets: $12)
By Beatrice Thomas
San Francisco, CA

In Audience Lip Sync Spectacular, get ready for an interactive, family-friendly, high-energy experience where the audience takes center stage! Hosted by the legendary Black Benatar, this event blends drag, lip sync, and playful performances. Enjoy lip sync battles, surprise guest artists, and playful puppetry. Whether performing or cheering, everyone is welcome to celebrate and let loose in this dynamic, variety-style showcase!
 
In Black Magic Variety Hour, step into Black Benatar's bold, immersive, and unapologetically queer world where drag, magic, comedy, and spectacle collide in a late-night adults-only variety experience. Hosted by Black Benatar, this high-energy journey is filled with dazzling performances, surprise acts, and boundary-pushing artistry. With a rotating lineup of top-tier artists, bringing live music, DJ sets and unpredictable acts, this immersive, rebellious show is full of sass, surprises, and no limits—an unforgettable night of theatrical mayhem awaits!
 

Bring Back the Happening (Tickets: $17)

By Nineties
The Netherlands
 
“Happenings” in the tumultuous 1960s reflected the need for disruption. Dutch contemporary theatre collective Nineties convenes a “happening” – neither a play nor a show – as an interactive, high-spirited way to connect with others, find healing and leave behind all worldly dislocation – if only for a moment. Surrender to a lively ritual underscored by a lush soundtrack (and maybe a few dinosaurs).
 

Burnout Paradise (Tickets: $37)

By Pony Cam
Australia
 
Four performers mount their treadmills, and the challenge begins. Burnout Paradise tests the limits of mind, body, and spirit in an increasingly frenetic juggling act of absurdity. A delusional love letter to the reckless labor and euphoric optimism before burnout, demonstrating that the system isn't designed for us: it's designed to break us. Time Out called it “one of the most frenetically uproarious shows of gloriously demented ecstasy."
 

Escape the Box (Tickets: $27)

By Wishing Horse Productions
Austin, TX
 
A time-travel outdoor escape game for all ages, Escape the Box brings to life the history, public art, and spirit of a neighborhood. Your challenge: with the help of your team, get back to the present using the clues and solving the puzzles around you. If you fail, you'll be lost in time—forever.
 

FIREBIRD (Free)

By Touki Delphine
The Netherlands
 
The Amsterdam-based arts collective Touki Delphine brings you the most out-of-this-world concert experience you've never seen. Inspired by composer Igor Stravinsky's 1919 Firebird Suite, FIREBIRD is a rule-breaking, eye-popping electronic orchestral performance of sound and light. Illuminated by over 600 recycled car taillights, the Firebird's dance bursts into life. Don’t miss this thoroughly hypnotic event.
 

Garden (Free)

By Zlatko Mitev
San Diego, CA
 
Admire stunning sculptures inspired by local flora and fauna, and take a seat where art and nature come together for a unique garden experience.
 

Goldilocks Screentime (Free)

By UC Theatre and Dance
San Diego, CA
 
Will snail mucin give you perfect skin? Can Pilates or weight training give you bulletproof abs? Social media promises answers to every wellness question, but how much advice is too much? Bring your gorgeous selves to join us in Goldilocks Screentime as we explore the internet, beauty, wellness, and the challenges of trying to be perfectly "just right" in real life.
 

Green Memories (Free)

By Shahrokh Yadegari and Memo Akten
San Diego, CA
 
Take your time to experience an installation by artists and UC San Diego professors Shahrokh Yadegari and Memo Akten, inspired by Forough Farrokhzad's poem "I Pity the Garden." Through the metaphor of a garden, Farrokhzad’s poem delves into themes of life, death, and the passage of time.
 

How to Put On a Sock (Free)

By Rachel Gita Karp
Brooklyn, NY
 
Abstinence pledges, birth videos, STI slideshows, condom demonstrations. Sex ed can have it all -- if sex ed is taught at all. How to Put On a Sock takes you on an interactive sex ed tour of the United States. Personal stories from a multigenerational ensemble illustrate the highs, lows, and confusing in-betweens of what teens are taught and not taught about sex in school.
 

I SEE YOU LIKE THIS (Free)

By Jessica Wilson
Australia
 
In a world of constant capture, I SEE YOU LIKE THIS invites parents to flip the viewfinder. See yourself through the eyes of your child in a unique artistic exploration: your face as their canvas. A one-of-a-kind artwork, and a memory you will both never forget.
 

THE JUMP UP! (Free)

Presented by ArtPower
New York, NY
 
Sandbox Percussion, in partnership with UC San Diego Professor Steven Schick and Red Fish Blue Fish, presents the West Coast premiere of Douglas J. Cuomo’s THE JUMP UP!, directed by Mark DeChiazza. This site-specific performance involves musicians moving through the space, culminating in the audience joining as a communal orchestra. Praised as "exhilarating" by the New York Times, Cuomo’s compositions span stage, TV, and film, including the Sex and the City theme.
 

Layers (Free)

By Circus Center
San Diego, CA
 
Layers is a chance to explore what inspires us all as humans. We’re all storytellers in some way, and it’s amazing how a single idea can grow into a whole world of animated characters. Join Circus Center on this journey of imagination to see how we create and sometimes tear things apart to find the story that’s waiting to be told.
 

Les Enfantes Terrible – A Gameshow for Awful Children (Free)

Marcel Lucont’s Whine List (Tickets: $17)
By Marcel Lucont
United Kingdom
 
In Les Enfantes Terribles – A Gameshow for Awful Children, French comedian Marcel Lucont takes families on a wild ride of impersonation and improvisation, as kids play pests, politicians and more in a contest where worst comes first. See what happens when international insouciance meets infantile exuberance in this fringe festival favorite. “An absolute gem… If you don’t have kids, borrow someone else’s…a treat from beginning to end,” raved Edinburgh Festivals magazine.
 
Let your past gripes, moans, and woes take center stage! Served up by a deadpan Frenchman with characteristic wit, Gallic superiority, and a side dish of his premier erotic poetry, Marcel Lucont’s Whine List promises no solutions—just plenty of laughs. This award-winning comedy show has packed houses around the globe. Now, add your minor sins to the list, and see that you're far from alone.
 

ODDISEA: A Puppet Procession (Free)

By Animal Cracker Conspiracy
San Diego, CA
 
Embrace your mermalien roots as you join the ODDISEA: an interactive giant puppet procession unlike any other! Inspired by the sea and an alien cosmology of light, ODDISEA calls us to gather, to celebrate life, and to reclaim connection--with the stars above, the ocean below, and the ancestors who offer a bridge between them. Dance along to the rhythms of the Chunky Hustle Brass Band and become part of this larger-than-life spectacle.
 

Shifting Horizons (Free)

By the San Diego Unified Honors Theatre Project
San Diego, CA
 
What happens when a shining star falls far from home? Join students from across the San Diego Unified School District on a journey from isolation to community. Shifting Horizons explores displacement, belonging, and finding one's place in the unfamiliar in an original movement piece.
 

The Society of Historic Sonic Happenings (SHSH) (Tickets: $12)

By UP CLOSE Projects
New York, NY
 
What if you could hear the sounds of the past? The Society of Historic Sonic Happenings (SHSH) is on a mission to find and preserve forgotten, hidden sounds from history—and they need your help! From the earth beneath your feet to the walls around you, SHSH believes every sound is still out there, waiting to be freed. Join the hunt to uncover the sonic history around you and help reveal the stories of those who came before us.
 

Summer Break (Free)

By FLIP Fabrique
Canada
 
Join FLIP Fabrique for a nostalgic circus show that takes you back to your summer camp days! Relive the excitement of packing for camp, making new friends, and the thrill of early morning swims. Bring your popcorn, your marshmallows, and hop on the Vacation Bus for a heartwarming and fun-filled adventure back to those unforgettable camp memories!
 

Tale Travelers (Tickets: $12)

By Blindspot Collective
San Diego, CA
 
Embark on an adventure at Geisel Library with Tale Travelers. Meet literary legends like Captain Hook, Frankenstein’s monster, and Scheherazade. Explore hidden surprises, unlock storytelling secrets, and encounter unforgettable characters. Step into the pages of beloved books and discover a world of theatrical wonder along the way!
 

when my body talks (Free)

By Danniel Ureña and Diversionary Theatre
San Diego, CA
 
when my body talks is an experience exploring our first-time queer experiences – how they resonate in our bodies and shape our identities. Inspired by the question, “Why do we keep having ‘first-time’ experiences as queer people?”, the piece deconstructs moments of discovery, secrecy, celebration, and love through movement, monologue, and music. Developed at Diversionary Theatre, when my body talks fosters a shared exploration of storytelling to reimagine the past and create a better future.
 

The Weather Busters of Beachcastle (Free)

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