In September in Highland Park, Los Angeles, a 102-year-old building that was once a Pontiac auto repair shop was transformed into a new venue, Outside In Theatre. Founded by Daniel Blinkoff and Tamlyn Tomita, this 8,000-square-foot space includes a theatre, classroom, rehearsal room, and kitchen/bar space that can serve as a third space for the L.A. theatre community. The theatre in this building, dubbed the ArtSpace, is designed to reimagine how theatre can serve communities with live and digital storytelling, experimental new works from local artists, and improvised plays inspired by classics.
According to Blinkoff, an L.A. theatre veteran, Outside In represents “an attempt to establish a physical and digital space in which voices and stories can be discovered, evolve, and shared” and “intends to be a welcoming and nurturing space…for artists shaping their personal stories and for audiences to witness and to participate in.”
Blinkoff co-founded Outside In with his wife, film and theatre actor Tamlyn Tomita, an L.A. native. He said he was inspired by We See You White American Theater conversations, and by his mother, Carol Hall, a composer and lyricist for Free to Be You and Me and Sesame Street, who advocated for artists to have space to create and established a Dramatists Guild endowment. Tomita said she she’s inspired by her father, who created L.A.’s first bilingual Asian American police task force in the 1970s. Both want to pay homage to these legacies.
“The idea that the theatre had failed to be its best version of itself was a driving force in trying to gather the people that we have and starting discussions on what we wanted to focus on, as a theatre of nurturing voices that hadn’t been represented, hadn’t been acknowledged,” said Blinkoff. “It’s a tremendous task. It will never be fulfilled to a point where we feel like, ‘Oh, we did it.’ We’re contributing to an ongoing conversation.”
Though this is the pair’s first foray into running a theatre, their staff consists of theatre administration veterans: Jessica Hanna, former Bootleg Theaterco-founder and managing and producing director, as producing artistic director; Maisha Sebastiany, who served in managerial roles at National Black Theatre, Ujima Theatre Company, and Studio Arena Theater, as managing director; Paul Hungerford and Matthew Pitner, who both worked at the Impro Theatre’s Studio Space, as associate artistic directors and directors of unscripted and education; Matthew Pitner as the general manager, improv director, and creative producer; and Arlo Sanders as technical director. They’re funded by the L.A. County Department of Arts and Culture and individual donors.
Under an AEA 99-seat theatre contract, the ArtSpace allows each production to determine its own staging and seating. Their inaugural season opened in September with Monet Hurst-Mendoza’s bilingual coming-of-age drama Torera, about a young Mexican woman bullfighter, in which seats were set in a circular form like an arena. For the October-November offering, In Honor Of Jean-Michel Basquiat by Roger Guenveur Smith, a solo performance blending personal history and political commentary, the configuration was proscenium-style. Next is Jami Brandli’s O: A Rhapsody in Divorce, a rhapsodic dramedy version of The Odyssey from a woman’s perspective. And the final show of the first season will be the world premiere of Room By the Sea by John Guerra, a co-production with Coin & Ghost Theatre Company.
In addition to the ArtSpace, the 900-square-foot ArtBox studio theatre next door to the new building is where Outside In produces weekly unscripted shows, premiers solo scripted shows and holds workshops of new plays and classes.
From the start, Blinkoff said, they wanted to work with other 501(c)(3) nonprofit theatres and “reach out to other organizations that were struggling, that didn’t have a space, that didn’t have the resources to put up a show.” In addition to livestreaming and film-capturing their own projects, they’re collaborating with L.A. theatres to provide such services on-site and at other theatres, including loaning or renting out equipment. They became community partners with East West Players to stream Cambodian Rock Band, and in spring 2026, they’ll partner with Circle X Theater and Boston Court Pasadena on Octopus’s Garden.
Blinkoff and Tomita have also discussed giving artists space and resources for new-work development. They’re “not looking to own anything that people do. We just want to help them,” Blinkoff said. “L.A. is so vast. We really wanted to try to create a hub for all of these small places that have been around forever.”
Highland Park—which is home to one other theatre, the Bob Baker Marionette Theater—has a history of art-making, including the 1920s arts and crafts movement, and is home to a majority-Latine population. Outside In’s space served as the last art studio of experimental artist Mike Kelley; a 16-foot stained glass piece within its ArtSpace pays homage to him.
(Corrections appended: This article previously incorrectly listed the company’s ArtSpace and ArtBox. Positions for staff members have also been updated.)
