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Take a magical walking journey through Balboa Park—in person!—with On This Spot: It Happened Here!, a brand-new interactive adventure conceived and written by Katherine Harroff (the Globe’s Associate Director of Arts Engagement, Artistic Director of Circle Circle dot dot) and directed by Old Globe Resident Artist James Vásquez (the Globe’s American Mariachi, Tiny Beautiful Things, Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas!). Five signs on and around The Old Globe’s campus lead via QR codes to videos created on those spots that you can watch for free on your phone. With humor and heart, your virtual tour guide KG Marsens brings to life everyday people and the intimate, personal stories they’ve experienced in the public spaces where you are standing. You’ll experience Balboa Park in a whole new way with this innovative mix of theatre, history, and technology.
The world premiere of this free ongoing experience begins Tuesday, June 22, and no reservations are required. Visitors will need a mobile device in order to scan QR codes and open the videos. Instructions on how to use these QR codes will be posted at each location.
Katherine Harroff (Conceiver and Writer) has worked with The Old Globe since 2011, when she first originated the Community Voices playwriting workshop. From 2011 to 2014 Harroff instructed and produced short-play workshops and presentations throughout San Diego County. In 2016 she rejoined the Globe and the newly formed Arts Engagement Department under the helm of Freedome Bradley-Ballentine and began managing the Community Voices program as it expanded to new genres of performance development. In 2016 she created and implemented the coLAB workshop program, an offering that partners communities with professional devising artists, with a culminating goal of producing an original play collaboratively. In 2017 she took over producing the Globe plaza performing arts series AXIS and has since curated over 20 different community-driven events for large Balboa Park–attending audiences. Harroff is also a playwright, director, and performing artist. In her spare time she acts as Artistic Director and Head Playwright for the local community-based theatre company Circle Circle dot dot. In 2019 she was awarded a local playwright commission from The Old Globe. In 2020 Harroff helped guide the Arts Engagement Department into an online programming where she hosted several community-driven performance workshops including The Living Room Play Workshop, a site-specific online course where participants devised their own short plays based in their living rooms during the pandemic and presented these plays as part of The Living Room Play Workshop Festival.
James Vásquez (Director) recently directed the West Coast premieres of Hurricane Diane and Tiny Beautiful Things and the world premiere of American Mariachi at The Old Globe, where he has also directed Dr. Seuss’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (onstage and the On the Radio broadcast), Rich Girl, and Richard O’Brien’s The Rocky Horror Show. His directing and choreography credits include work at Denver Center for the Performing Arts Theatre Company, Children’s Theatre Company, and Dallas Theater Center, as well as developmental workshops for La Jolla Playhouse and Goodspeed Musicals. He is the recipient of the Craig Noel Award for his productions In the Heights (Moonlight Stage Productions) and Sweeney Todd (Cygnet Theatre Company). Vásquez is an amateur gardener, lover of dogs, and graduate of The Juilliard School.
Mark Anthony Holmes (Video Production) is a filmmaker, photographer, editor, and producer. He is Co-Founder of Daisy 3 Pictures and served as Executive Producer for their feature films Ready? OK! and That’s What She Said, as well as Director of Photography for their first feature 29th & Gay and the short Feet of Clay. He provided video segments for the West Coast premiere of Rich Girl at The Old Globe and recently served as editor for Thinking Shakespeare Live: Sonnets! His recent credits include filming and editing the world premiere of Buzz directed by Carrie Preston at Alabama Shakespeare Festival and work with La Jolla Playhouse, San Diego Repertory Theatre, San Diego Musical Theatre, Moonlight Stage Productions, and Broadway/San Diego.
Shelly Williams (Costume Coordinator) Old Globe design credits include Globe For All production of Measure For Measure, Alive and Well, Striking 12, the touring education production of Twelfth Night, and is the Associate Costume Designer for Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Elsewhere her credits include Roz and Ray (San Diego Repertory Theatre), peerless, BLISS (or Emily Post is Dead!), and Voyeurs de Venus (MOXIE Theatre), The Motherfucker with the Hat, Gem of the Ocean, The Book of Liz, and Hedwig and the Angry Inch (Cygnet Theatre Company), A Thousand Clowns, The Fantasticks, Cabaret, Man of La Mancha, and Moon Over Buffalo (North Coast Repertory Theatre), The Good Doctor (Moonlight Stage Productions at Avo Playhouse), Pippin (La Jolla Stage Company), The House of Bernarda Alba, Opal, The Kentucky Cycle Parts I and II, and The Triumph of Love (Patté Award for Theatre Excellence) (San Diego State University), Easter and The Killing of Sister George (Cal State Fullerton). She has designed makeup for Burried Child and Fefu and Her Friends (UC Irvine) and The Skryker (SDSU). Ms. Williams received a B.A. in Costume and Makeup Design from Cal State Fullerton and an M.F.A. in Costume Design from San Diego State University.
Sebastian Perfetto (Stage Manager) Stage Management credits: Light Years Away: POP Tour 2019 and Froggy (La Jolla Playhouse), Cardboard Piano, Ballast, Well, The Boy Who Danced on Air, Now or Later, In the Va Va Voom Room, A Civil War Christmas, Bright Half Life, and A New Brain (Diversionary), RENT (Southwestern College), Annie (CYC), Much Ado About Nothing, I Hate Hamlet, All My Sons, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream the Musical (Intrepid). As Production Assistant/ Assistant Stage Manager: Hurricane Diane and The Underpants (The Old Globe), Julius Caesar, Romeo and Juliet, and The Two Gentleman of Verona (The Old Globe/USD MFA Program). At This Evening’s Performance, Ain’t Misbehavin’, The Fox on the Fairway, Side by Side, Chapter Two (NCRT). Sebastian has also appeared on film as ASM for Disney+’s ENCORE! in Godspell, High School Musical, Annie Get Your Gun, and Fiddler on the Roof. He enjoys Assistant Directing in his spare time.
