{"id":285884,"date":"2026-04-25T19:48:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:48:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285884\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T19:48:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T19:48:15","slug":"la-jolla-playhouses-2026-wow-festival-dazzles-with-variety-and-interaction-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/285884\/","title":{"rendered":"La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival dazzles with variety and interaction \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival, which opened Thursday and continues through Sunday afternoon, has definitely found its groove on the UC San Diego campus in recent years.<\/p>\n

Hardcore fans of the immersive arts festival show up on Thursday afternoons ready to dive in, ticketed shows sell out early, and families with small children delight in the wide range of free entertainment. And first-timers? They wander around with wonder in their eyes.<\/p>\n

La Jolla Playhouse promises \u2018joyful chaos\u2019 at 2026 WOW Festival<\/a><\/p>\n

This year\u2019s international lineup of shows is not only diverse, it also features several premieres. The festival\u2019s footprint is also laid out in a sunny and concise area of the university campus. Most of the shows take place around the grassy Warren Mall, just a five-minute walk from the Gilman Parking Structure, with nearby bathrooms and lots of food venues. It\u2019s never been easier to WOW.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s WOW festival has more than two dozen, mostly free shows. I attended nine shows on Thursday and Friday. Here are mini-reviews of what I saw. And because WOW is all about discovery and word of mouth. For the full schedule of events and showtimes, visit wowfestival.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AudienceAudience members are entirely in charge of Ontroerend Goed\u2019s interactive theater piece \u201cHandle with Care\u201d at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival on the UCSD campus. (Jenna Gilmer \/ For La Jolla Playhouse)
\n\u201cHandle with Care\u201d by Ontroerend Goed<\/p>\n

Belgian immersive theater company Ontroerend Goed puts the audience in charge of this hourlong, ticketed show. As audience members enter the auditorium, the only instruction they receive is that there\u2019s a box on the stage that someone must open for the show to begin. Inside the box are a series of smaller boxes and lists of instructions for a series of \u201cscenes\u201d that guide audience members to string up a clothesline, share their favorite drinks, create their own timelines, meet each other and engage in six minutes of noisy chaos. This was one of my favorite shows of the festival because the audience comes primed to play, interact and have a great time. Ages 12 and up. 60 minutes. Remaining shows: 12:30, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 11 a.m. Sunday, April 26. Qualcomm Institute Auditorium. $25<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"AudienceAudience members help Jeff Crocker, center, keep life in balance in Mister and Mischief\u2019s \u201cAgain! Again!\u201d at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival at UC San Diego. (Jenna Gilmer)
\n\u00a0\u201cAgain! Again!\u201d by Mister and Mischief\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles duo of actor\/director\/playwrights Andy and Jeff Crocker returns to WOW with performer Tiffany Ogburn for this new ticketed show that requires ample support from the audience. Inspired by their own busy lives as producers, parents and performers, the show re-creates three days in their hectic lives. The table at the center of the room balances like a top on a single point, serving as a metaphor for the challenge of finding balance amid the chaos. Audience members are engaged to help with shopping, cleaning, cooking, laundry, storytime, date night and much more. It\u2019s a thoroughly relatable show, but could use a little trimming. For ages 6 and up. 59 minutes. Remaining performances: Noon and 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 12:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26. Qualcomm Institute Theater.\u00a0$25<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Wow-goersWow-goers will need to hunt down an old-fashioned radio to retrieve the escape codes for a sentient AI being in Enemies of Times\u2019 \u201cMessage in a Bauble\u201d at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival at UC San Diego in La Jolla. (Pam Kragen \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\n\u201cMessage in a Bauble\u201d by Enemies of Time<\/p>\n

From the Berkeley theater company Enemies of Time, this self-guided show requires a mobile phone, which audience members will use to either save (or destroy) a sentient AI being who is trapped inside a computer database and needs help escaping before a digital apocalypse. A gumball-style machine dispenses plastic baubles containing a phone number that you text to get started in your quest to find EDIN. She will instruct you to two locations in the nearby Price Center to use old-fashioned radio and TV set to uncover codes to aid in her escape from VERSAI, an organization of aggressive tech bros who will also start texting you. Depending on whose side audience members choose, they will have a different experience. I found the data-rich texts fun and creative and loved the interactions. But I had a hard time finding where the electronics were placed in the multilevel\/multi-entrance Price Center. (If you get lost, here are some hints: For clue 1, enter the Price Center across from Yogurt World. And for clue 2, take the big staircase inside the center\u2019s atrium to the second floor. 45-minute self-guided walking story that can be enjoyed anytime from 11 a.m. to 9:40 p.m. Saturday, April 25, and next Sunday, April 26. Check in at the WOW info booth on Warren Mall for directions to the vending machine. Free.<\/p>\n

\"ParentsParents and children collaborate in \u201cCarry On,\u201d a family performance art piece from France\u2019s Cie Presque Siamoises troupe at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival at UC San Diego in La Jolla. (Pam Kragen \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\n\u201cCarry On\u201d by Cie Presque Siamoises<\/p>\n

This French performance company has created a musical and meditative outdoor theatrical piece inspired by the joys and responsibilities of parenting. Co-created with local parents and their young children, the show features eight parent-and-child pairs silently interacting to music and pre-recorded interviews about the challenges they\u2019ve faced and the rewards they\u2019ve enjoyed on their parenting journey. During the 30-minute show, these pairs dance, play, collect uggage and bags representing the burdens they carry, and then settle into \u201chomes\u201d for a cuddle. It\u2019s a sweet and warm encounter. 30 minutes. 2 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26. Warren Mall. Free.<\/p>\n

\"Canada'sCanada\u2019s Kif-Kim Sisters perform \u201cJam Side Up\u201d at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival at UC San Diego in La Jolla. (Jenna Gilmer)
\n\u201cJam Side Up!\u201d by the Kif-Kif Sisters<\/p>\n

The physical theater duo of Montreal-raised identical twins Fran\u00e7oise and Josette is a whimsical delight. In their family-friendly stage show, they do wacky acrobatics, dice vegetables with an electric fan, accidentally behead a stuffed bunny, unravel a rope made of bras and create giant bouncing breasts from inflatable balloons. A big part of the magic (and it is a magical show) is how the enraptured children in the audience leap into action to help the twins. 30 minutes. All ages. Remaining performance: Noon Sunday, April 6. Warren Mall. Free.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe South Korean acrobatic trio FORCE presents \u201cSuzik\u201d at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival. (Nelvin C. Cepeda \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\nSuzik by FORCE<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s FORCE acrobatics company present this outdoor three-man show, where they first battle to be the first to reach the top of a tower of three vertical Chinese poles. Ultimately, they bond as brothers and climb together in some truly impressive feats of strength, balance, agility and death-defying drops. 25 minutes. Remaining shows: 2:30\u00a0 and 5:45 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 2 and 4 p.m. Sunday, April 26. Warren Mall. Free.<\/p>\n

\"DrewDrew Peterson presents the audience-interactive photo-themed piece \u201c[IMAGE DESCRIPTION]\u201d at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival at UC San Diego in La Jolla. (Pam Kragen \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)
\n\u201c[IMAGE DESCRIPTION]\u201d\u00a0 by Drew Petersen<\/p>\n

This New York performance artist is back after presenting his wonderful audience interactive show \u201cInertia\u201d at the 2024 WOW fest. In this show, Peterson talks about how photographs capture moments in time, but they can never preserve all of the beauty and wonder of the lived experience. With audience interaction, he creates a man\u2019s life journey from his all-possibilities-are-open youth to his final years, where dementia has dimmed his memories. There\u2019s some wonderful sound and onstage prop surprises that bring a magic to the storytelling. Audience members are invited to join the unfolding story and add their own \u201cimage descriptions\u201d for what they\u2019re seeing in their mind\u2019s eye. 45 minutes. Remaining performances: 4 and 6 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday, April 26. Qualcomm Instiute Auditorium. Free.<\/p>\n

\u201cTea Party at the End of the World\u201d by IKantKoan Play\/s<\/p>\n

From Philadelphia, this audience-interactive play written by and starring Jessica Creane unfolds during a serene and mesmerizing tea party. While educating the audience on the world of tea, Creane tells a haunting personal story of losing her emotionally distant father to cancer and seeing up close the collapse of polar ice sheets due to climate change. As she steeps and poursthree different teas for audience members, Creane asks attendees a series of existential questions about life, death and what comes next, which left some audience members wiping away tears on Friday. Ages 16 and up. 75 minutes. 5 and 8 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sunday, April 26. Qualcomm Institute. $25 (includes tea service).<\/p>\n

\""Night\u201cNight Watch,\u201d an audience interactive experience from L.A.\u2019s Bee\u2019s Knees immersive theater company, will be presented at La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival. (Bee\u2019s Knees)
\n\u201cNight Watch\u201d by Bee\u2019s Knees<\/p>\n

Designed by a team of L.A. theme park experience designers, \u201cNight Watch\u201d takes place inside a cargo van, where four audience members are on their first shift as overnight security workers at a mysterious manufacturing plant. The four workers must watch the security cameras on a monitor, fill out an event log, communicate via walkie-talkie and track down several missing items in the van. Meanwhile a strange creature can be seen on the monitor stalking plant employees. It\u2019s part escape room, part interative haunted house. I was impressed with the design and detail of the experience, particularly the lighting and sound effects. The actor in the show who acts as the boss is a good improviser and the show definitely delivers some scream-inducing jump scares. Ages 18 and up only. 25 minutes. 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Saturday, April 25; 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Sunday, April 26. South Lab, 3185 Matthews Lane. $29. (all performances are sold out, but check in online during the festival for additional seats).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"La Jolla Playhouse\u2019s 2026 WOW Festival, which opened Thursday and continues through Sunday afternoon, has definitely found its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,967,930,181,74,84,76,75,1058,420],"class_list":{"0":"post-285884","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-la-jolla","11":"tag-latest-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-county","14":"tag-san-diego-headlines","15":"tag-san-diego-news","16":"tag-theater","17":"tag-things-to-do"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=285884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}