2021 Live Arts Exchange [LAX] Festival is Announced!

Live Arts Exchange [LAX] Festival Vol. 8

A Festival of Contemporary Performance in Los Angeles

We are thrilled to bring back our annual festival November 4-14, 2021, after the industry-wide shut down in 2020. This year’s producing and curatorial team, including Miranda Wright, Patricia Garza, and Jessica Hanna, have created a gentle re-entry for Los Angeles contemporary performers and their audiences to enjoy in person performances. 

Our LAX Festival has served as a highly visible performance platform that has supported hundreds of local artists annually, and has reached thousands of audience members in the greater Los Angeles area since it’s launch at the Bootleg Theater in 2013. 

This year’s festival will take place in a clean, light and airy open warehouse space on Mission Road. Featuring a lineup of all local artists in contemporary dance, theater, music, and cross-genre performance, the LAX Festival will again showcase some of the most innovative artists and independent companies in our city with care and safety. Each installment of our LAX Festival is a platform of exchange, engaging artists, curators and organizations in performance presentations, dialogues and artist-to-artist interactions that are designed to cultivate mutual inquiry and long-term network development.

“Many of the pieces in this year’s festival were created online during the pandemic. These are pieces that have been waiting for a live audience. The excitement to commune in person is palpable and LAX Festival will provide a space for artists and their audiences to finally come together and celebrate,.”

LAX Festival co-Director Jessica Hanna

Audience members will be asked to present proof of vaccination against COVID-19. Acceptable forms of proof are your vaccination card or digital vaccination record. Photo ID is also required for verification. All audience members will be required to wear a mask when in the venue. All performers and staff will be vaccinated and following state & local COVID protocols and perform unmasked. These policies will be strictly enforced. Seating capacity is limited due to COVID safety.  

“In bringing this program together, we’re attempting to meet the time we’re in. We’re following the artists’ leads, and rearranging the space nightly. Gentle themes of reconnection and remembrance are emerging, and we’re seeing some of the artists we’ve been most inspired by over the past years emerge on this side of the pandemic with brilliance and generosity.”

LAX Festival Founder & co-Director Miranda Wright

Performances will begin on Thursday, November 4 at 8:00pm, and will take place nightly through Sunday, November 14. The lineup features work-in-progress from Gina Young (new musical), as well as new work from DaYun Jung (exploring Korean dance in contemporary form), Liz Toonkel (magician), Anna Luisa Petrisko (new opera), Olivia Mia Orozco (theatrical performance) with Alexa Eisner (visual artist), Dorian Wood (sound & movement) and Amy O’Neal’s Hybrid Lab (dancers in multiple genres – hip hop, house and dance culture – improvise/freestyle with a live DJ). Plus performances that address what we are emerging from and how to process it: Anu Yadav’s Healing Through Story that works to process and heal through interactive storytelling between performer and audience. As well as an exciting night of new music hosted & curated by Lauretta Records, a woman run recording label based in Los Angeles. 

LIVE ARTS EXCHANGE (LAX) FESTIVAL runs November 4-14, 2021 at FRANKIE, 300 S. Mission Road, Los Angeles CA 90033.

See the full lineup and reserve your tickets // HERE //