by Laura Garber
The curtain almost didn’t go up for the 29th season of Shakespeare by the Sea.
The nonprofit organization, founded in 1998, faces rising costs and a difficult funding landscape.
“We thought for the first time in 29 years, we won’t be out there,” said Stephanie Coltrin, the company’s co-artistic director.
To continue the South Bay tradition, the tour has been cut from 42 performances to 17, with Macbeth traveling to 12 cities around Southern California instead of the usual roster.
“We are very committed to getting to 30 years and beyond,” Coltrin said. “And hopefully going back to some of the communities that we’re going to miss this summer, because we had to do the reduced tour.”
Coltrin is directing the production, working from a modern translation by playwright Migdalia Cruz.
Cruz’s translation of Macbeth was commissioned from the Play On! Shakespeare project under Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2018. The project enlisted 39 new translations of Shakespeare plays, adapting to modern audiences while ensuring the timelessness of Shakespeare’s verse.
On stage, audiences will watch power, ambition and greed unravel under the open sky.
“It also demonstrates what happens when the grief of a person hardens into ambition and then can affect a whole nation,” Coltrin said. “I just think it’s so sweeping and powerful and it speaks to so many different elements of the human experience. We can all understand wanting more than you have. And yet, the way that the Macbeths do it is not the way to do it.”
That tension is also why Macbeth felt like the right choice for SBTS this year.
“It’s just a powerful enough story to speak to the kind of moment we’re in in the world and the moment we’re in as the company,” Coltrin said.
SBTS used to stage two Shakespeare plays at every stop. This year, it’s just one.
“Some people say, ‘but it’s the same show.’ I say it’s not, because you never know what’s going to happen,” Coltrin said. “It’s a different experience every night. There are different people there, different weather, there’s a different vibe.”
Since its inception, SBTS has remained admission free, relying on donations and grants to perform.
“One of the scary things about free Shakespeare is they might come and they might not,” Coltrin said. “We might just be here by ourselves.”
But on Saturday, June 27, 600 people showed up to Long Beach’s Bandshell at Recreation Park, according to Coltrin.
Returning actors Phoebe Alva and Cylan Brown lead the cast as Lady Macbeth and Macbeth.
The rehearsal process looked nothing like a typical production. Where most companies get more than 300 hours to rehearse, SBTS’ Macbeth cast had 55.
“One of the reasons I love actors is because of what they can do in that rehearsal time,” Coltrin said. “As a director, it’s thrilling to be able to work with people who are so facile and move so quickly.”
After 29 years, Coltrin still marvels that audiences keep showing up for a 500-year-old play.
“Shakespeare understood the human condition in a way that I don’t think that any other playwright did,” she said. “He covered the entirety of the human experience.”
Macbeth comes to Hermosa Beach’s Valley Park on Wednesday, July 8, and Thursday, July 9, at 7 p.m.
“I would love for Shakespeare by the Sea to be continuing long after we’re dead, and somebody else is doing it,” Coltrin said. “Because it’s just so incredible and valuable.”
Beach Cities schedule:
Hermosa Beach July 8, 9, 7 p.m., Valley Park
Manhattan Beach: July 16 and 17, 7 p.m., Polliwog Park
Redondo Beach: July 24, 7 p.m., Veteran’s Park; July 25, 7 p.m., Dominguez Park, with festival closing candlelight ceremony
For more information and the complete tour schedule, visit shakespearebythesea.org. ER
