Los Angeles Equestrian Center

Even after attending a preview, I’m not quite sure how to describe The Cortège, a new experimental theater production from outside-the-box Oakland creative Jeff Hull. (Hull’s 2008 immersive alternate-reality game the Jejune Institute served as the inspiration for the Jason Segel–created TV show Dispatches From Elsewhere.) This latest outing, held at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center in Burbank, is a mix of live music, choreography, larger-than-life costumes, large-scale puppetry, a silent disco, a score by artists including TOKiMONSTA, robot dogs and a simultaneous drone show. The abstract, 99% wordless experience is billed as “a festive funeral for our times,” and a nearly two-hour performance filled with striking visuals culminates in a wake of sorts with cups of tea inside an ambient tent. Before the show, food—veggie bowls, gyros, hummus, pita chips and baklava—and drinks are available for purchase.

What if some of the most accomplished composers in film and television came together for a one-day-only performance? That’s the gist of this debut festival from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; the Nine Inch Nails duo round out a lineup that also includes Danny Elfman, John Carpenter, Mark Mothersbaugh, White Lotus’s Cristobal Tapia de Veer, Stranger Things’ Kyle Dizon and Michael Stein, Joker’s Hildur Guðnadóttir, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin (of Suspiria fame) and Questlove presenting the score works of Curtis Mayfield. It all goes down on November 8 at the L.A. Equestrian Center.