New Theater Hollywood: Where Artists Run the Show in LA

New Theater Hollywood, a 49-seat indie playhouse on Santa Monica Boulevard, was launched in 2024 by artists Calla Henkel and Max Pitegoff, former artistic directors of Berlin's Grüner Salon. The nonprofit venue specializes in genre-defying, multidisciplinary collaborations, staging works by artists like Diamond Stingily (a feminine take on Pulp Fiction), novelist Stephanie LaCava (featuring supermodel Kaia Gerber), and ventriloquist Sophie Becker (Ronnie's Big Idea, which sold out and will return for a second run in June). Henkel and Pitegoff, who met at Cooper Union and previously ran bars in Bushwick and Berlin, avoid showing their own plays for the first three years to prevent a vanity space. The theater, described as a 'psychotic undertaking' by Henkel, operates on small donations, ticket sales, and art sales. Upcoming for early 2027: musician Mykki Blanco's adaptation of Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour. The venue's film THEATER (2024) was featured in the latest Hammer Biennial.