DTLA: Bunker Hill, in Central L.A.

REDCAT

Arts Space · 631 W 2nd St

CalArts runs this contemporary arts center inside the Walt Disney Concert Hall complex, programming performance, film and exhibitions in a flexible black-box theater and an adjoining gallery.

The full name is the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater, which is where the acronym comes from. The entrance is marked by a Frank Gehry marquee of curved stainless steel and neon, and it opens straight into the lobby and the exhibition gallery.

Because it answers to an art school rather than a subscription audience, the programming leans toward work that has not been tested yet. A choreographer's first full evening and a film with no American distributor can sit on the same month of the calendar.

The black-box format means the seating gets rebuilt for each production, so the same space can face one direction in October and open out in November. Music, dance, theater and talks all cycle through it.