To be or not to be — by the sea

The actors in Shakespeare By the Sea’s productions, coming to Newport Beach today and Sunday, could definitely be said to suffer for their art.

How else to describe building a theater set, then donning a heavy costume and performing one of the Bard’s plays in summer heat five days a week?

“We’ve had higher attendance because the weather has been great ? because by the time 7 o’clock rolls around, it’s a great time to be outside,” Shakespeare By the Sea’s founder and producing artistic director Lisa Coffi said.

But it’s harder for the actors, who are also the stage crew.

“Cast-wise, we’ve been sweating bullets,” Coffi said. “It just reinforces my decision not to do matinees.”

The San Pedro-based theater company has been coming to Newport Beach since 2002 and is the only one that performs Shakespeare here, said Jana Barbier, the city’s cultural arts coordinator. The Newport performances are sponsored by the city’s arts commission.

Actors will perform “Hamlet” tonight and “The Comedy of Errors” Sunday at Grant Howald Park.

“The first year we thought, ‘Let’s do a trial run,’ ” Barbier said. “We thought, ‘Oh my gosh, wouldn’t it be great if we got an audience?’”

That year, 700 people came to see “Much Ado About Nothing,” and the audience has grown ever since, she said.

“A lot of people also follow Shakespeare By the Sea, and they love to come to Newport Beach,” Barbier said. “They spend the day at the beach, and they come for their dose of Shakespeare in the evening.”

Coffi said Newport is a gorgeous performance venue, and she appreciates the city’s support of the arts.

She could use a little more support for the company this year, she said ? Coffi is about $40,000 short of making her budget, which is funded by a combination of foundation grants, corporate and private donations.

But that won’t deter her this weekend.

“I don’t think people realize what a challenge it is to do this every year,” she said. “I do it because I love it, and I love collaborating with other artists.”

What might put a kink in the plays, however, are the distractions of performing outdoors.

And they’re myriad ? “airplanes, helicopters, people with dogs,” Coffi said.