STRATFORD -- Tuesday marks opening night for the Stratford Festival.

Live performances will mostly take place outside this year. The festival returned to its origins to make sure things will be safe for people amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most performances will be under two large canopies set up outside the festival and Tom Patterson Theatres. That's how the festival launched in 1953, with a performance of "Richard III" under a tent.

The 2020 season was cancelled due to COVID-19, and organizers were determined to offer live shows this summer. The canopies allow for good air flow, seats are spread out, programs are online and attendees need to wear masks.

"The beautiful surroundings here in Stratford, the parkland and the river, you could see why the theatre was inspired to be here in 1953 and that's all kind of came back to us as we were planning a season that we thought would be safest for COVID conditions," said Anita Gaffney, the festival's executive director.

This season features six plays and five cabarets. Tickets went on sale last week and some shows are already sold out.

"There's a real feeling of emotion when we get under the canopies and hear those first notes and we hear the performers," Gaffney said. "It brings us back to why we're here, our purpose for presenting great plays and changing the lives of audience members."

The 2021 festival season opened with a performance of the cabaret "Why We Tell the Story."

"Not only are we celebrating Black musical theatre, but we're also really honing in on the idea of Black Lives Matter and the importance of Black people in the world," said director, curator and singer Marcus Nance.

“These stories that we're telling in the show are stories my parents have told me, my ancestors have told me, that I have felt myself, so it's not new to me. But I think the world is now more open to listening, and I think this is a perfect time to do ‘Why We Tell the Story,'" Nance continued. "Sometimes this conversation gets to the point that people think we’re becoming more divisive, but I think the whole idea is for us to be more one human family, more connected.”

Still, performing outdoors has brought new challenges to the stage, but also new wonder.

"We're in the middle of summer, so lighting has been tricky, trying to fade out and have different colours for different songs, but we've also had the elements of nature," Nance said.

For the cast and crew, there's new joy in returning to live performances after more than a year-and-a-half with the curtains down.

"It's thrilling, it's thriller just to be around our people again," said actor Trish Lindström, who is performing in A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Smaller casts are another pandemic adjustment at the Stratford Festival this year.

Lindström said this year's version of A Midsummer Night's Dream, running only 90 minutes, is a grittier interpretation of the Shakespeare classic.

"A lot of things have been cut and shifted, but as usual, when you come to theatre or you come to a gallery, just come with an open mind and an open heart," she said.

As the province moves into Step 3 on Friday, officials at the Stratford Festival say audience capacity could increase in size and there's even the potential for more theatre indoors come the fall.

A full schedule and ticket information can be found here.

THE 2021 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PLAYBILL

  • Why We Tell the Story: A Celebration of Black Musical Theatre
  • You Can't Stop the Beat: The Enduring Power of Musical Theatre
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • Tomson Highway's The Rez Sisters
  • Play on!: A Shakespeare-Inspired Mixtape
  • R+J
  • Freedom: Spirit and Legacy of lack Music
  • Finally There's Sun: A Cabaret of Resilience
  • I Am William
  • Serving Elizabeth
  • Edward Albee's Three Tall Women