what we do
Our Mission
Rogue Artists Ensemble creates Hyper-theater: original, immersive, multi-dimensional experiences that celebrate the complexity and diversity of Los Angeles.
Our vision
Rogue believes that design and script should uplift, illuminate, and complicate each other; by incorporating design exploration into the early development of a play, Rogue works to create lines of communication between story and spectacle. We are dedicated to bringing impossible theater to the stage.
equity, inclusion, diversity, and access
Reflecting the diversity and complexity of Los Angeles is a core value of Rogue Artists Ensemble. We believe storytelling can be a powerful platform for social change, and we strive to include a multitude of voices and perspectives in the planning and implementation of our artistic work and operations.
Read our full plan here.
our History
Founded in 2004, Rogue Artists Ensemble creates HYPER-THEATER, a design-forward theatrical aesthetic that collides ancient storytelling traditions with modern technologies. Rogue creates stories grounded in its home city of Los Angeles, uplifting LA-based artists, and frequently partnering with guest artists, diverse communities and other arts organizations to realize projects. We prioritize paying artists a living wage and providing access for all communities to our performances.
Rogue Artists produces up to three full productions each year, which range from intimate, small-scale productions to large-scale immersive experiences. Each project has a different community focus, and we include multiple culture-bearers and community experts throughout the development process. In addition, we present at least one reading and one workshop of a play-in-progress each year.
As an itinerant, Los Angeles-based theater company, we do not program one venue year-round, but collaborate with partner organizations and venues across Los Angeles to present work.
Rogue has created over 25 original productions that have been seen by over 200K audience members throughout Los Angeles and our work has toured to Orange County, San Diego, Ashland, Seattle, Atlanta and Portland. Rogue has received accolades from the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and LA Stage Alliance Awards, and a UNIMA Citation of Excellence, the highest honor within the puppetry community. Rogue all-ages shows have toured throughout California to small community events and schools, in addition to larger venues including The Geffen Playhouse, The Pasadena Playhouse, Segerstrom Performing Arts Center, Rio Hondo College, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the National Puppetry Festival in Minneapolis.
In 2018, Rogue partnered with the City of West Hollywood to present a living history exploration of Plummer Park, illuminating the true story of the park's namesake in a critically successful immersive theater experience called Señor Plummer’s Final Fiesta. We have also created work in response to underrepresented cultural histories including the 2017’s Kaidan Project; Walls Grow Thin in collaboration with East West Players, which won the highest number of LA Theater Awards during the awards season. Later in 2018, Rogue presented an encore run of its flagship show Wood Boy Dog Fish, written by Chelsea Sutton, as part at the Garry Marshall Theatre’s inaugural season.
Most recently, Rogue premiered Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular at the Renberg Theatre, a co-production with the LA LGBT Center in Hollywood in summer 2024. In spring 2025, we presented a limited engagement of the premiere of Schlitzie: Alive and Inside, a site-specific production at the Heritage Square Museum.
Since 2018, Rogue presents its annual Rogue Lab, an incubator for new work that breaks free of theatrical conventions and may include immersive experiences, interactive design, puppet plays, and genre-bending work. Rogue Lab has had six successful seasons supporting playwrights, directors and emerging puppeteers, including our first ever Rogue Lab Hyper-Puppet Workshop, an adult puppeteering two-week class.