Carousel of Fools

Rogue Artists Ensemble creates Hyper-theater: original, immersive, multi-dimensional experiences that celebrate the complexity and diversity of Los Angeles. Rogue Artists Ensemble has been producing critically and financially successful works in Los Angeles since 2001 and originated over 25 productions that have been seen by over 200K audience members in Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, Seattle, Atlanta, Portland and has received accolades from critics in LA and a UNIMA Citation of Excellence, the highest honor within the puppetry community. They have been commissioned to create work by the Getty Museum, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, and the City of Culver Arts Commission. Two Rogue productions that received funding from The Jim Henson Foundation, Gogol Project and Mr. Punch, received incredible audience and critical response and both were selected as a Critic’s Choice by the Los Angeles Times. Another work, HYPERBOLE: origins, was nominated for four awards by LA Weekly, including Production of the Year. Their original show, D is for Dog, was nominated for a LA Weekly award for Best Comedy Ensemble. The Rogues’ most sophisticated project to date, Wood Boy Dog Fish, ten years in the making, premiered in November of 2015 at the Bootleg Theater, to critical acclaim, six Stage Raw Award nominations and three Ovation Award nominations, taking home the Ovation Honorary Award for Puppet Design. The Rogues have a strong commitment to community outreach and education led by their all-ages shows, The Story of Frog Belly Rat Bone, Zen Shorts and Shakespeare(ish). These shows have toured throughout California at small community events and schools, in addition to playing larger venues such as The Geffen Playhouse, Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, Rio Hondo College, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and others. In 2011, they were invited to be in residency for three weeks at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. In 2015, they collaborated with Tears of Joy Theatre to bring Zen Shorts to Portland. To date, they have created over a dozen original new works, collaborated with hundreds of artists and community members and their work has been seen by over 100,000 people in Los Angeles, Atlanta and Seattle. In 2013 over 5,000 children and families saw Rogue Artists Ensemble’s all-ages performances, many of them free. Other past Rogue Artists Ensemble Hyper-theatrical productions include Songs of Bilitis, commissioned by and work-shopped at the Getty Villa and later produced at the Bootleg Theater; The Tragical Comedy of Mr. Punch, adapted from the graphic novel by Neil Gaiman (recipient of 3 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and an entire chapter in the book “Prince of Stories: The Many Worlds of Neil Gaiman”); and The Victorian Hotel by Angus Oblong. Our recent history includes in 2017 a collaboration with the Pasadena Playhouse to present ZEN SHORTS, which toured to the National Puppetry Festival. Fall 2017 saw the premiere of KAIDAN PROJECT: WALLS GROW THIN, an immersive, site-specific piece created with East West Players, receiving a grant from the NEA and winning 5 LA Stage Alliance awards for its groundbreaking immersive design and score. In 2018 Rogue presented an encore run of WOOD BOY DOG FISH at the Garry Marshall Theater, winning an LA Stage Alliance award for Puppet Design. In fall 2019, we presented a large-scale immersive work called SEÑOR PLUMMER’S FINAL FIESTAwith the City of West Hollywood. Fiesta was nominated for 3 LA Stage Alliance Awards. In January 2020 Rogue was commissioned by the Getty Villa theater lab to present a workshop of Cowboy Elektra, a mashup of the greek Elektra myth and California history written by Meghan Brown with original music by Z. Lupetin of the Dustbowl Revival. Once Covid-19 shut down our in person programs we pivoted to continue to engage community and pay artists and we partnered with Pen America and the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry to create ‘Puppets & Prose’ over thirty short form puppetry videos all created safely during quarantine and made available for free online. Our 2nd season of Rogue Lab supported by grant funding from the City of West Hollywood allowed Rogue to commission 6 LA playwrights, half of them BIPOC artists, to create imposible plays. Due to Covid-19 the in person reading series was transitioned to each playwright team creating an online media based exploration of the play. Also in response to Covid-19, Rogue has launched the Rogue Academy, a FREE online educational program. These free online workshops, featuring Rogue teaching artists, make use of simple materials (so people won’t need to leave the house) to provide buckets of ideas for art making.