HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — It’s a Los Angeles institution that dates back 100 years, but this is hardly the centennial season anyone envisioned for The Ford.
The polished wooden stage, usually filled with musicians and dancers, sits empty. So do the theatre’s 1200 seats. As director Cynthia Fuentes climbed the stairs, the only sounds heard in the space were the echo of her footsteps and the call of birds.
“This is the amphitheater of nature,” Fuentes said.
When Fuentes took over as director in December, she had big plans. Not only is this a milestone anniversary for The Ford, it’s also the first season that the L.A. Philharmonic is overseeing the venue’s operation and programming.
“And so we had planned these amazing programs,” Fuentes said, “that were going to project on the hillside, that were going to have people climbing down the walls.”
But 2020 had other plans, forcing Fuentes and the staff at The Ford to pivot. “We’ve had to reimagine what the audience musician experience is like,” she said.
The time had come for this historic open-air theatre to enter the digital age, launching a season of free programs that explore art and culture in Los Angeles, and examine themes like voter engagement and social justice.
One series, Ford Digital Festivals, will feature a marketplace to highlight the work of local craftspeople. If the program is focused on Latinx experience, Fuentes explained that she will look for Latinx vendors who are creating original work and feature them on a website where visitors can purchase their items.
Another offering, L.A. Soundscapes, involves a workshop for families, where the first 50 participants will receive a box containing an activity or craft to do at home.
But perhaps most exciting is that some of the programs involved filming live acts at the theatre, like the singer San Cha and her band, filling the stage once again with life and sound even if the seats remained empty.
“It was surreal,” San Cha said of the experience. “I was very thankful and felt very privileged because it’s a beautiful space and that we are in this time and I can still perform somewhere else other than my house.”
Of course, everything had to be handled carefully. Anyone coming to the venue had to be tested for COVID-19. Acts performed at different times using areas all around the theatre to avoid shared spaces.
Maintaining the safety of the artists was the top priority, with some singers and musicians standing behind what appear to be clear plexiglass partitions. “We need to separate our singers about 12 feet from each other,” Fuentes said. “If they are dancers, there’s no dancing together unless you’re a married couple. And so it’s a lot of negotiation that happens.”
Seeing the stage empty is upsetting, Fuentes said. “We’re in the business of bringing joy. To see it so empty makes me really sad.”
But while this may not be the celebration she had envisioned, she remains positive. On the bright side, she said, it’s still “a beautiful space for storytelling and so that’s what I wanted to lean on. What is the opportunity.”
The opportunity to reach audiences far and wide until they can nestle together again in the Hollywood hillside.