La Jolla Playhouse’s 2022 Without Walls Festival (WOW) kicked off Thursday at Liberty Station with a handful of free and ticketed shows that offered both hands-on entertainment and a couple of truly “wow"-inducing moments.

Thursday evening’s debut was just a teaser for the four-day event, which features 24 shows and continues through Sunday. Launched in 2013 on the Playhouse campus at UC San Diego, the now-yearly event has become so popular that many of this year’s ticketed shows have nearly sold out. There’s still time to buy tickets, but even without tickets, WOW is worth a visit.

Twenty-four shows will be presented with multiple performances — many of them free and outdoors — over a four-day period

WOW has moved around San Diego over the years, but in 2019, it found a great home at Liberty Station, where there’s plenty of parking, restaurants, restrooms and entertainment venues. This year, the Playhouse has moved more shows indoors and tightened the radius of the festival district, so attendees don’t need to walk as far between shows. Signage has also been improved. This year’s WOW features many international artists and some had travel/work visa issues this past week, so two shows have been canceled: “C’est pas là, c’est par là (It’s not here, it’s over here)” from Galmae, France, and “Lessons in Temperament” from Canada’s Outside the March troupe.

Here’s a look at four shows that opened Thursday and continue through Sunday:

South Dakota may have its stone tribute to four U.S. presidents on Mount Rushmore, but through Sunday, San Diego has a living and breathing monument to three of its own women community leaders: Grossmont Union High School District employee Elena Catalina Long, arts advocate Judy McDonald and Kumeyaay Nation tribal leader Martha Rodriguez. Australian artist Craig Walsh worked with local community groups to find his three subjects for “Monuments,” then filmed their faces and projected these films on three large trees in Liberty Station’s Ingram Plaza. The exhibit, which can only be seen at night, is haunting, visually stunning and emotionally moving. The trees give the women’s faces a three-dimensional shape, and as wind blows through the leaves, their smiling and blinking faces ripple to life. Visitors can read the women’s biographies on signs in the plaza. Critic’s Pick. Runs from 8 to 10 p.m. nightly through Sunday. Ingram Plaza. Free.

Canada’s Corpus theater troupe returns to WOW this year with a free nightly solo mime/comedy/dance show that takes place entirely inside a giant inflated bubble tent with the audience seated outside. Corpus director David Danzon stars in the silent, music-enhanced story of the clown character Pierrot who finds a series of ways to keep himself entertained while trapped in solitude in the seemingly COVID-inspired bubble. There are comic bits, sad bits and touching bits. The most moving moments are when Pierrot desperately tries to physically connect with the audience members outside the bubble. He encourages some to stand close to the tent wall, and he draws their likeness on the bubble wall from the inside. He also performs a sweet, but touchless, couple’s dance with one audience member. This show is great for all ages, but bring a folding chair or blanket and a warm jacket. 60 minutes. 8 p.m. nightly through Sunday. North Promenade. Free.

San Diego native Dominique Salerno wrote and stars in this unique and creative 90-minute solo show where she plays more than 30 characters from inside a 4-foot rectangular box. Every time Salerno opens one of the four connected doors of the elevated box, she emerges as someone new — a soon-to-be-born fetus floating in utero, Odysseus’ Greek army inside the Trojan horse, a British feminist pop star in a tiny recording studio, a lisping engagement ring, a 40-foot-tall giantess who washes cars in her mouth and Frida Kahlo painting a self-portrait. Salerno is a talented writer, actor, comedian and singer, but not all of the more than 20 skits are winners. A tighter, hourlong show with just the best scenes would be better. Ages 13 and up only. 8 p.m. Friday. 4 p.m. Saturday. 6 p.m. Sunday. Light Box at Dorothea Laub Music & Arts Center, 2590 Truxtun Road, No. 205. $20.

I’ve attended all the Without Walls Festivals over the years and Mister and Mischief’s “40 Watts” is one of the most creatively conceived and interactive shows ever produced at WOW. It’s part history, part interactive theater and part escape room, where all four or five participants in each performance must work together to tell the true story of magazine editor-turned-radio pirate Sue Carpenter, who created an illegal radio station for musical misfits in the closet of her home in the L.A. community of Silver Lake in 1995. Participants enter Sue’s apartment, and take turns as guest DJ’s, playing their choice of music and helping the absentee Sue keep the station running as a federal agent closes in to shut her down. Critic’s Pick. Ages 12 and up. 50 minutes. 6, 7, 8 and 9 p.m. Friday. Hourly from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday. Hourly from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Sunday. Dick Laub Command Center, 2460 Historic Decatur Road. $20.

Where: Arts District, Liberty Station, 2820 Roosevelt Road, San Diego

Online reservations and schedule: lajollaplayhouse.org/wowfestival2022

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccine with ID is required or negative COVID-19 PCR test within 48 hours of showtime. Face masks required indoors.

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Get U-T Arts & Culture on Thursdays

A San Diego insider’s look at what talented artists are bringing to the stage, screen, galleries and more.

You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune.

San Diego Dining and Drinking

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