Yellow Brick Rebellion: Hollywood Veterans Fight Back With ‘Fall Into Oz’

Fed up with corporate studio mergers and algorithmic scripts, entertainment professionals take an alternate path into a Woodland Hills rose garden.

As corporate entertainment studios continue to consolidate, slash payrolls, and look toward artificial intelligence to automate storytelling, a group of Hollywood veterans is taking a defiant, offline path to reclaim their careers. Their battleground isn’t a studio lot or a courtroom. Instead, it is an outdoor rose garden in Woodland Hills.

On Saturday, September 26, 2026, Heart to Art Productions will premiere Fall Into Oz. This original, immersive outdoor theatre experience represents a growing counter-movement among entertainment professionals fighting to preserve their livelihoods.

The Birth of a Cooperative Sanctuary

Heart to Art Productions was established in 2025 by Rochelle Perry, a veteran writer and producer. After spending more than two decades working inside major Hollywood studios alongside more than a decade of producing and playwriting for local theaters, Perry had a front-row seat to the systematic dismantling of creative spaces. Recent studio mergers, widespread layoffs, and an aggressive industry-wide shift toward AI have left many artists, technicians, and storytellers feeling cold and displaced.

Rather than waiting for the next round of corporate cuts, Perry walked away from the studio system to build a cooperative, human-centric sanctuary. She founded Heart to Art as a dedicated space where local artists, performers, designers, technicians, and storytellers could collaborate, develop new work, and reclaim control over their professional destinies. As a mother, Perry was also motivated by a personal mission to create stories that appeal to children and introduce younger audiences to live theater and classic tales.

De-Automating the Emerald City

The company’s debut production, Fall Into Oz, is a direct manifestation of this mission. Written and conceived by Perry, directed by Justin Rose, and produced alongside Producer Anne Mesa, the production is a reimagined, immersive adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s classic 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. An ensemble cast of local performers brings this fantasy to life, including Dayton Axle, Jillian Brotman, Hannah Marie Campbell, Avery Dixon, Sabrina Ebright, Sue Gisser, Stede Hendricks, Nathan Kowalczyk, Mindy Le, Mikael Mattsson, Paul McCrillis, Dreama O’Neal, Terri Parks, Simon Roger Ristow, Carly Roseman, David Alan Schroeder, Michael Stancliff, and Isabella Thatcher.

In an era where streaming services deliver flat, algorithmic content directly to living rooms, Fall Into Oz offers the exact opposite. It is an intimate, physical experience that cannot be replicated by an AI or experienced through a screen. Instead of sitting in a dark theater watching a stage, audiences walk a physical yellow brick road nestled in “A Secret Rose Garden” in Woodland Hills. The journey is an active, tactile adventure where participants join Dorothy, interact directly with the whimsical “Emerald City players,” complete quests, and buy wares from local merchants.

To maintain a deeply personal connection, the show’s scale is deliberately kept tiny, capping each half-hour time slot at a maximum of just 12 tickets. It is a production designed specifically to celebrate the physical, un-automatable magic of live, community storytelling.

Defeating the Gig Economy

For the creative team, Heart to Art is more than a production company—it is a labor of love and a structural alternative to the corporate gig economy. The company’s mission explicitly positions itself as a creative home built to empower local artists, performers, designers, technicians, and storytellers by providing meaningful opportunities to create, collaborate, and thrive in an ever-changing entertainment industry. By focusing on original, immersive storytelling, they aim to preserve creative careers and prove that human-centric art remains an essential part of how we connect, imagine, and belong. As Perry and her team demonstrate, when local artists flourish, the surrounding community benefits.

Plan Your Journey to Oz

For those looking to support local artists and experience this fresh, human-centric take on Baum’s classic tale, Fall Into Oz will make its home at A Secret Rose Garden, located at 23444 Oxnard Street in Woodland Hills. Performances run on Saturdays and Sundays from September 26 through October 25, 2026. The 75-minute journeys, which include an intermission, depart every half hour between 10:00 AM and 4:30 PM.

General admission tickets are priced at $30, with a special discount available by using the promotional code 210 on Onstage411. Families can also purchase a $40 “Wizard Pass” which includes a themed goodie bag for children to collect treats along the physical path. Advance tickets are available online through Onstage411.com, Eventbrite.com, or the official company website at HearttoArtProductions.org.

Because this interactive experience takes place entirely outdoors on natural terrain with steps and slight hills, attendees are highly encouraged to wear closed-toed shoes. Due to the uneven paths and stairs, there is no stroller or wheelchair access. Free street parking is available in the surrounding residential neighborhood, though organizers recommend arriving early, carpooling, or using rideshare services.