“People Off Track”: Sort of an acting workshop where audience is welcome

Typically I would not come out to review an actors’ workshop — what’s to review, after all? But The Actors Jungle, founded in 2023 “to foster creativity and collaboration among aspiring performers,” expressed an interest in my writing up their forthcoming offering to the public, a collection of scenes brought together under the motif “People Off Track.”

Since this is a review (as opposed to a profile, which we ran on The Actors Jungle back in March) — which by definition is meant to help you suss out whether you should put your good money down to see the performance under discussion — it’s only fair to tell you that “People Off Track” is neither a play nor a collection of short plays or even self-contained vignettes. And while these < 10-minute scenes are nominally under the same umbrella (though 25% of what I saw didn’t really fit, with one section being nothing more than a follow-the-leader exercise in spontaneity), otherwise they’re totally unconnected. There are no characters you can follow across the program, no character development, no context to speak of. 

So what’s left? Actors working on their craft. And although this is partly the show’s conceit (“The Actor’s Jungle invites you behind the curtain in an acting class […]”),“People Off Track” feels stuck in a no-man’s land between performance and rehearsal. Because it’s hard for me to imagine that anyone looking for the former will come away satisfied, as far as I’m concerned the only question is whether “People Off Track” can work for those who might enjoy looking in on an actors’ workshop.

To that end, I wonder whether The Actors Jungle might do better really leaning in to the “workshop” aspect. As presented to me at a preview, “People Off Track” is simply a run-through of each scene — no discussion, no notes to the actors, no adjustments, no second bites at the apple. But if I’m a paying customer who wants to come out to something like this, maybe it would be more interesting to see the work, to get a first-hand look at how differently a stretch of dialog — or even a single moment — can be played after actors receive input from their director and each other? 

But that’s a discussion of what this isn’t. Whatever “People Off Track” is, with Little Fish Theatre pulling up stakes last year and programming at the Warner Grand on pause until at least next August, The Actors Jungle is just about the only theatre-adjacent game in town right now.

People Off Track at The Actors Jungle
Times: September 12–13, 7:30 p.m.
Cost: $30
Details: (310) 512-6030, ActorsJungle.com
Venue: The Collage Theater, 731 S. Pacific Ave., San Pedro