Los Angeles Theater Companies Announce Reopening Plans

Several states have started to reopen doors to selected businesses amid the coronavirus pandemic, not without restrictive measures. Two of the major performing arts theater companies in Los Angeles County have announced their plans for 2020-21 after their doors were indefinitely closed in March 2020 following the mandatory lockdown.

Long Beach Opera

Long Beach Opera, the oldest operatic producing company in the Los Angeles and Orange County region, has laid out its plans for the 2021 season. The company announced on May 19, Tuesday that it will move along with the January reopening and have set four featured productions for next year. The theater will also showcase collaborations with arts organizations and leaders from Los Angeles County.

"Season of Solidarity" is the chosen theme of LBO for 2021.

Yuval Sharon, the theater's interim artistic adviser, and Jennifer Rivera, CEO and executive director of LBP, both agree the art collaborations are given a new significance after going through the "period of uncertainty and difficulty."

According to Rivera, opera performances were staged in public open spaces like parking lots, train stations, and others during the past 40 years in LA county. "Together, we plan to continue to find creative ways," she said and added, "to bring the incredible collaborative art form of opera to people in our community."

The first show is the Los Angeles premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies' "The Lighthouse" scheduled on January 23, 30, and 31. The performance will be held at the Aquarium of the Pacific's new Honda Pacifics Visions Theater.

Next in line will be Philip Glass' "Les Enfants Terribles," which will be at the Beverly O'Neill Theater on March 20, 27, and 28.

The third is a co-production with The Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills set on April 17 and 18. The featured shows are Arnold Schoenberg's "Perrot Lunaire" and Kate Soper's "Voices from the Killing Jar."

The final production of 2021 is the intertwined works by Claudio Monteverdi and composer George Lewis dealing with race, power, and apocalypse titled "Comet/Poppea." Sharon, who curated the upcoming season, is the director of the show that will run on June 20, 26, and 27.

The Broad Stage

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage at the Santa Monica College Performing Arts Center will be taking on two different routes for its proposed reopening. Rob Bailis, Broad Stage's artistic and executive director, announced on Wednesday, May 27, the plans for outdoor performance this coming fall and indoor stage show on January 2020.

The season will open with the world premiere of Mark Grey and Júlia Canosa i Serra's "Birds in the Moon," a theatrical chamber opera. The fall show date is yet to be confirmed. The opera, which was planned long before COVID-19, will be performed at different outdoor locations with an open shipping container as the stage and high-tech sound and video projections.

The indoor auditorium performances will be running from January to July 2021. Several of the season's featured shows are Yo-Yo Ma in collaboration with photographer Austin Mann, New York-based Heartbeat Opera's "Fidelio," among other plays and musical events.