Radar L.A. starts Tuesday. (REDCAT)

Running from September 24-October 1, 2013, the international festival will light up historic theaters and stages throughout the downtown area by featuring innovative Los Angeles artists collaborating with influential performing ensembles from Asia, Europe, New Zealand and Latin America.

The weeklong theater extravaganza is, according to its official site, aiming towards “highlight[ing] vibrant interdisciplinary approaches and new forms of theatrical expression.”

Organized by REDCAT and CalArts in partnership with Center Theater Group, the festival was first launched in 2011. It was described by "The Los Angeles Times" as “a glorious convergence of contemporary performance” and “a resounding success” that demonstrated “a vision of downtown as a vibrant cultural nexus.”

Starting this Tuesday, they are doing it again: “bigger and bolder, and using a variety of different Los Angeles venues,” says Executive Director of REDCAT Mark Murphy.

'Shun-Kin' by Complicite and Setagaya Public Theatre. (Photo by Sarah Ainslie)

For this year’s festival, several Los Angeles historic theaters, such as the Tower Theater and the Million Dollar Theater, will reopen for the first time in terms of theatrical use. “[It’s] exciting because it’s a chance to see the inside of those remarkable theatres [and] also to spend time in downtown with other theatre lovers,” says Murphy.

“There’s also projects close at the [Kirk] Douglas in Culver City and at UCLA and Getty Center in Malibu,” adds Murphy, “so you can discover many different things. I hope people will take advantage of it. It can go by very quickly.”

In addition to helping influence the “evolution of theater [by] working across disciplines,” Radar L.A. will also “continue exploring cultural influences that affect Los Angeles,” says Murphy. The wide array of Latin American and Pacific Rim works that are featured in this year’s lineup make the festival unique from anything else Los Angeles has ever experienced.

“Many professionals in our field have noted [the diversity in our works] and are attending because they will be able to see work that they have not seen in European festivals,” says Diane Rodriguez, who along with Murphy and Mark Russell, act as the co-directors of Radar L.A. “The fact that the festival takes place in Los Angeles, a city with a profound cultural mix, a city that is the center of American cinematic pop culture, contextualizes the work and urges people to come look at what this mix provides.”

Hence, this year’s entire program has been split evenly between local and international productions. Here’s a brief breakdown:

Local productions scheduled to perform include: 

“Clouded Sulphur” by Janie Geiser and Eric Ehn; “Track 3” by Theatre Movement Bazaar; “Uncle Ho to Uncle Sam” by Trieu Tran; “Prometheus Bound” by CalArts Center for New Performance; “Rodney King” by Roger Guenever Smith; and “St. Jude” by writer and performer Luis Alfaro.

"Stardust" by David Roussève/REALITY. Photo: Valerie Oliveiro.

International collaborations will include: 

“Dogugaeshi” a collaboration between puppeteer Basil Twist and Japanese musician Yumiko Tanaka; “Shun-kin,” the West-coast premiere of the acclaimed collaboration between British group Complicite and the Satagaya Public Theatre of Japan; and “Jerk” a staging of Dennis Cooper’s novel of the same name by French director Gisele Vienne in association with MOCA. 

Avant-premieres include*: 

“Stardust” by Los Angeles choreographer David Rousseve, “Hospital,” a new collaboration by the Los Angeles Poverty Department and the Netherlands-based collective Wunderbaum, and “Stones in Her Mouth,” a choral based performance by Samoan director Lemi Ponsfasio and his New Zealand-based company MAU.

*These will be first time public performances of all three productions.   

Six productions from Latin America will also be presented, including:

“El Ano en Que Naci (The Year I Was Born)” from Argentine director Lola Arias; “Sometimes I think, I can see you,” an innovative urban intervention by Argentine director Mariano Pensotti; “Se Rompen Las Olas (Breaking the Waves)” by the Mexico City-based theater collective Lagartijas Tiradas al Sol; “You Should Have Stayed Home, Morons,” a site-specific piece from Colombian theater artist Manuel Orjuela; “El Gallo” from Mexico’s Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes; and “Tercer Cuerpo (Third Wing)” from director Claudio Tolcachir and his Argentine company Timbre 4.

Admission starts at $15 with a multi-event pass, while single tickets for most events will be $25. Most downtown venues are within walking distance of one another so audiences can see multiple shows in one day.

From Westwood to Culver City, Malibu to Bunker Hill and Chinatown—starting this week, Los Angeles will be a theatrical hot spot. For tickets and more information, visit their official site. 

Stay tuned to this space for more in-depth review coverage.

Reach Pamela Chan here.