NM Greenroom | Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff on New Theater Hollywood (2026)

Back in Berlin to show their new film work “The End of Theater” at Isabella Bortolozzi Gallery, artists Calla Henkel & Max Pitegoff drop by New Models to chat about that film’s primary set: New Theater Hollywood, the DIY theater they opened on Santa Monica Boulevard after decamping to LA in 2023. We discuss their layered process — creating a space that generates a scene, which produces its own art and dedicated star-system while also serving as source material, location, and cast for all that Max and Calla make in parallel — as a distinctly contemporary protocol for artmaking today. We also talk about the return of theater itself at a time when every physical place now feels like a potential set, whether for a vlog or an ICE raid, and performance online is constant? Does theater hit different in our neo-oral era? Does LA?For more: www.newtheaterhollywood.com & @newtheaterhollywoodSee also:Mike Davis, City of Quartz (Verso, 1990)Thom Anderson, LA Plays Itself (2003)NM Podcast | Mise-en-TV w/ Calla Henkel (2022)NM 77 | Calla Henkel on Art, Industry, and “Scrap” (2024)