The Car Plays™ was conceived by Paul Stein and received its first productions by Moving Arts in 2006 and 2007 in the parking lot of the Steve Allen Theatre in Hollywood. In 2009, Moving Arts remounted The Car Plays for four days at Woodbury College in Burbank. RADAR LA, an international theatre festival presented in downtown Los Angeles by REDCAT in collaboration with The Public Theater's Under the Radar Festival (New York) and Center Theatre Group and in conjunction with Theatre Communications Group’s national conference, commissioned The Car Plays: L.A. Stories in 2011.
In January 2012, Segerstrom Center for the Arts presented The Car Plays as part of their inaugural Off-Center Festival. Following this, The Car Plays: San Diego was presented in both 2012, 2013 and 2015 as part of La Jolla Playhouse’s WoW (Without Walls) Program. Each rendition is unique as new plays, directors and actors are added to the mix of veteran artists and trusted plays, keeping the experience fresh and specific to each location.
Copyright © 2016
The Experience
After checking in at the box office, you and your companion are escorted by “car hops” into the parking lot and to your row of five parked cars. You are handed a “Notice to Appear” citation (or program). You then take your seats inside one of the parked cars and quickly notice two other people in the car with you. A moment later, your car door closes and the drama, or comedy, unfolds in front of you … just inches away!
Ten minutes later the doors open, you are ushered into a new car, and a new play begins. In the course of an hour, five evocative stories are revealed.
Welcome to The Car Plays!
“Part of the power of The Car Plays is the sense it creates of somehow being implicated, simply by witnessing words and actions you can’t pretend to have missed or ignored ... READ MORE”
– James Hebert, Critic’s Choice, Union-Tribune San Diego
“Never has the infamous movie line “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night” been more apt than in The Car Plays, a unique, site-specific theatrical offering that truly lives up to the idea of riveting, in-your-face theater ... READ MORE”
– Michael L. Quintos, Broadway World
“Car Plays is a brilliant and inventive concept, a kaleidoscope of situations that draw snapshot portraits from life, with soulful acting and cinematic detail so close to home and physically intimate it blurs distinctions between theater and life ... READ MORE”
– Steven Leigh Morris, LA Weekly
The Reaction