LMU's Shakespeare On The Bluff Summer Festival Goes Virtual On YouTube Live

Loyola Marymount University's popular Shakespeare on the Bluff summer festival will return for a third season with live performances on YouTube of "All's Well That End's Well" on June 19, 2020, and "The Two Noble Kinsmen" on July 17.

The show must go on, the organizers determined, even as the COVID-19 pandemic prevents the cast from performing in-person before an outdoor crowd.

This summer, Shakespeare on the Bluff festival-goers will trade lawn chairs and picnic blankets for a comfortable spot at home in front of their computer screens. They'll watch via YouTube Live as a company of 27 actors and actresses and seven technicians - LMU students and alumni from the Class of 2004 to the Class of 2023 - give live, online performances from across the country.

"When I put out the call to work on this project, people came out of the woodwork, including alumni," said Artistic Director Kevin Wetmore, professor of theatre arts within LMU's College of Communication and Fine Arts. "They said, 'my shows have been canceled, there are no auditions. I'm an artist and I want to share my art, even if it's online.'

"So, the limitations of the pandemic have actually created an opportunity to work with and showcase incredibly inventive and talented actors."

The virtual festival was conceptualized by LMU CFA Dean Bryant Keith Alexander, who brought the idea to Wetmore about two months ago. With the support of LMU leadership and help from Information Technology Services, the third season of Shakespeare on the Bluff quickly began to take shape.

"The plays were handpicked for this current historical moment," Alexander said. "Both needed light-heartedness (from the previously projected summer season) with some mixture of fairy tale and a cynical realism that invites us to reflect on virtues and vices of people and the times; always locating ourselves in the social realities of the plays that are both make believe and make belief."

This year's festival has been nicknamed "Shakespeare in a Box," rather than Shakespeare on the Bluff, given that scenes are rehearsed via Zoom, and take place within the confines of a computer screen. But Wetmore is quick to say that performing this way "is not a limitation."

"This is a chance to be playful and creative," he said. "We encouraged the cast to use whatever they've got at home as props, knowing the styles will mix and match."

Zoom provides opportunities for some special effects, he added, such as using display names to announce characters, and allowing some performers to sit farther away from their screens, appearing as if they are in the distance.

"All's Well That End's Well" and "The Two Noble Kinsmen" were also selected because the stories work online. And, because they are lesser-known Shakespeare plays, most viewers won't watch with built-in expectations, Wetmore said.

"They're fun and they're funny, and you probably haven't seen them before," he added. "This is a labor of love from the entire LMU theatre arts community."

The 90-minute performances are family-friendly, free and open to the community. They start at 8 p.m. PDT on YouTube Live via cfa.lmu.edu. To receive free access to attend the shows, RSVP here.

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