La Jolla Playhouse hosted its 2025 Innovation Night on Oct. 20, inviting leaders from San Diego’s artistic and scientific communities to get together for food, drinks, interactive exhibits and a performance, as well as to honor Martha Dennis, a longtime La Jollan well-known in San Diego for her work in telecommunications, technology and business and her philanthropy, advocacy and leadership in arts and sciences.
Innovation Night, launched in 2007, helps raise funds to support La Jolla Playhouse’s new-play development, Without Walls (WOW) Festival and artist residencies and commissions.
Over more than five decades, Dennis — this year’s honorary chairwoman — has co-founded wireless communications companies WaveWare Communications and Pacific Communications Sciences, led software development at Linkabit Corp., served as chairwoman of Netsapiens Inc. and been a partner with venture capital firm Windward Ventures. She currently is principal at Gordion Knot, an advisory firm for emerging technology businesses in San Diego.
She and her husband, Edward, are active philanthropists, and Martha has been chairwoman or president of several boards and commissions, including the La Jolla Music Society, The Bishop’s School and the Dean’s Council of Advisors of the UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering, all in La Jolla. She currently is on the board of the San Diego Symphony.
“Her inventive spirit and unwavering commitment to progress embody the essence of Innovation Night and the playhouse’s own mission to create what’s new and next in American theater,” playhouse Artistic Director Christopher Ashley and Managing Director Debby Buchholz said in a statement. ♦