The Old Globe Announces Upcoming Arts Engagement AXIS Events for Fall 2021

The Old Globe has announced upcoming free and exciting arts engagement in-person events and digital offerings for the remainder of 2021. Audience favorites such as the seventh annual Day of the Dead Celebration and Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! Sensory-Friendly AXIS Event will happen in person after having pivoted to digital-only content due to the pandemic.

This fall season includes a Globe Learning professional development opportunity, more AXIS performing arts events, and additional Reflecting Shakespeare TV episodes for the public to join in on. The Arts Engagement Department continues to make theatre matter to all of San Diego and beyond with in-person and digital private offerings in the community. With so much to choose from, there is something for everyone!

"The Old Globe's three Balboa Park theatres are back in business after a too-long closure, and our announcement now of a broad and deep program of arts engagement events is yet one more thrilling step in our return to full operations," said Erna Finci Viterbi Artistic Director Barry Edelstein. "Freedome Bradley-Ballentine and his wonderful team have put together a brilliant slate of performances and participatory programs that truly demonstrates what the Globe means when we say that our goal is to make theatre matter to more people. These are fun, enlightening, and entertaining programs that capture everything that San Diego loves about The Old Globe, and bring our work to our neighbors all over the county. I'm so grateful to our partner organizations, and I look forward to welcoming San Diegans to this bounty of great work."

"I am absolutely bursting with excitement," shared Associate Artistic Director and Director of Arts Engagement Freedome Bradley-Ballentine. "We are so fortunate to be able to return to in-person work with our neighbors and communities, in addition to continuing the inclusive digital work we pioneered during the pandemic. Our Teaching Artists offer such high-quality programs to so many. We have been overwhelmed with a feeling of gratitude at this ability to reconnect with old friends and the chance to make new friends with people from all over San Diego and beyond."

Kicking off the slate for the fall season of The Old Globe's free arts engagement offerings is the Globe Learning professional development program Theatre Games with Neurodiverse Actors, which will feature a hands-on practicum. Led by inclusion specialist Samantha Ginn with actors Ethan Mar and Reid Moriarty, this workshop will take place over Zoom on Saturday, October 9, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Registration is open at www.TheOldGlobe.org.

After a successful summer of AXIS programs, the AXIS performing arts series continues this fall season with Powerball, a site-specific dance performance taking place on Saturday, October 2 and Sunday, October 3 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. on the Globe's outdoor Copley Plaza. Connected through plot points derived from The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, this mashup work is a compilation of references that insists we take stock of current events and their long-term implications, while viewing the past, present, and future through a dystopic lens.

The seventh annual presentation of the AXIS Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead Celebration returns this year with a twist! Activities and festivities will take place on Tuesday, November 2, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Altars, crafts, music, and theatre performances inspired by the holiday, with guest artists Tijuana Hace Teatro and more, will bring fun for the whole family to enjoy either outside or from the comfort of their own home through The Old Globe's YouTube channel live digital streaming.

Holiday cheer will fill the Globe's outdoor Copley Plaza with an in-person Grinch Sensory-Friendly AXIS Event on Saturday, December 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. before the matinee performance of Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! An all-ages event offering sensory-friendly Grinchy activities, music, and theatre focused on neurodiverse audience members, but everyone is welcome to participate in the seasonal festivities.

Following months of long-distance programming via correspondence, Reflecting Shakespeare TV (RSTV) will return to The Old Globe's YouTube channel to present writing from inside California State Prison, Centinela. The five-part series features reflective and creative writing from Reflecting Shakespeare participants across Yards A, B, C, and D of Centinela, read by 10 artists from all over the country who experienced arts programming while incarcerated and were transformed by its power. The writing is responsive to themes and characters in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, parallel to the focus of RSTV Season 3. The sharing of this work aligns with the essential return to in-person programming at Centinela and will be released every Wednesday, September 29 through October 27.

We are excited to once again mention the recently announced Globe for All Tour of a free Shakespeare adaptation throughout San Diego County. Director and creator Patricia McGregor will return to the Globe with her innovative reinterpretation of Shakespeare: Call and Response, bringing a stirring production to various economically, geographically, and culturally diverse communities throughout San Diego County, including Old Globe Community Partner venues from San Ysidro to Oceanside. The free-admission Globe for All Tour kicks off on Tuesday, October 26, with opening night on Thursday, October 28, and runs for three weeks, Tuesdays to Sundays, with a culminating closing night performance on November 14, 2021 in beautiful Balboa Park.

Offerings for Community Partners include, for the first time since the onset of the pandemic, in-person School in the Park, a San Diego Unified School District program in collaboration with other Balboa Park institutions; an online Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead-themed coLAB; a scriptwriting workshop with SAY San Diego culminating in a public performance on Saturday, October 30 at the City Heights Día de Muertos Festival; and the return of free student matinees for Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas! The popular free playwriting workshop Community Voices will hold a telenovela writing/acting workshop through Lemon Grove Community Services; there will be a music-making workshop with the Fourth District Seniors Resource Center; and a holiday-themed sensory-friendly workshop will be held for a group of neurodiverse artists.

In addition, Reflecting Shakespeare, our transformative program created for people experiencing incarceration, continues its presence at California State Prison, Centinela, expanding to Yard D. This fall semester brings back the re-entry edition, as well as a youth edition for classrooms in San Diego County.

All patrons who attend an event or performance at The Old Globe will be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and present proof of vaccination, or present a negative result of a COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of entering the venue, and everyone must wear masks whenever indoors. Additional details are available here.

The Old Globe 2021 CALENDAR

September 11 - October 17 - The Gardens of Anuncia
October 2 and 3 - AXIS: Powerball (site-specific dance performance)
October 7 - November 7 - Shutter Sisters
October 9 - Globe Learning Virtual Workshop: Theatre Games with Neurodiverse Actors
November 2 - AXIS: Día de Muertos/Day of the Dead Celebration
November 3 - December 31 - Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!
November 19 - December 26 - Ebenezer Scrooge's BIG San Diego Christmas Show
December 11 - AXIS: Grinch Sensory-Friendly AXIS Event