SOUTHWEST SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

SOUTHWEST SHAKESPEARE COMPANY live digital broadcasts

By Lisa Van Loo

Shakespeare never knew Facebook Live, but Southwest Shakespeare Company does. And they’ve got quite a little thing going.

As part of its reinvention during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Southwest Shakespeare Company went digital, broadcasting classics and storytimes live on YouTube and through Zoom.

“The need for the type of programming we do has gone through the roof,” Mary Way, Southwest Shakespeare Company’s executive director, says. “We have had to furlough some of our staff but continue to churn out material and live broadcasting at a rate of six shows a week.”

All of it is free.

About 20,000 households are tuning in every day to see StoryTime Classics Live!, an offering previously geared to children that has gained traction with older, potentially-isolated adults.

“They phone us if we are even one minute late going on air,” Way says of the new, but growing, audience tuning in to hear classics, such as The Wizard of Oz, Treasure Island and Dracula. Once a week, Southwest Shakespeare Company brings together some of the nation’s top artists for full-length plays. Way said the virtual space has allowed them to work with actors who have won Tonys, Emmys and Grammys, and some who aren’t even in this time zone.

“Recently, an actor from three hours outside of Mumbai joined our cast of Pericles,” Way says, noting the shows attract a global audience from Poland to China to Australia and India. “It’s a wonderful way of coming together - and to underscore our motto, taken from A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ‘all the world is here!’”

Although the organization’s upcoming series of six shows (slated to begin in November with socially distanced, in-person performances) is sold out, they still plan to sell virtual tickets to offer the programming to a wider audience.

To learn more, visit swshakespeare.org.