Theatre L'Acadie's "Today/Tonight/Soon" dramatizes climate change at Loyola Beach

CHICAGO (CBS) -- It's no Shakespeare in the Park, but a local theater company's latest production wasn't too far off. This past weekend, Theatre L'Acadie put up their final set of performances at an unlikely lakeside venue.

Seagulls, sun, and theater. Sunday brought the final performance of "Today/Tonight/Soon," a drama about climate change, at Loyola Beach.

"The play is begging you to do it on the beach," said Erin Sheets, the play's director, and the co-artistic director of Theatre L'Aacadie.

"Today/Tonight/Soon" was their theater company's fifth production, but their first on the beach.

Playwright Melanie Coffey typically overses grants for Theatre L'Acadie, but this year, she said, "we kind of knew that this season would just be my work."

Coffey's new show, "Today/Tonight/Soon" follows two sisters attempting to navigate a post-apocalyptic society.

"The play takes place on an island, and the water is too acidic to swim in," Coffey said.

Coffey wrote the show during COVID lockdown, and keeping theater alive meant moving it outside.

"That was the only place we could go," she said.

They gave the Chicago Park District a call.

"They were like, 'Yeah, it's cool. You can do a play on the beach.' And we were like, 'Well, I guess we're doing a play on the beach,'" Sheets said.

Even after pandemic restrictions were lifted, they decided to keep it by the lake.

"The windy nights, and the beautiful skies … it just keeps adding and adding and adding these aspects that we weren't even planning on," Coffey said.

It's been easier and cheaper meeting nature where it's at, rather than on a stage

"If we weren't going to do outside, then there was never going to be real water," Coffey said.

The lake, the beach, the general public; they, too, became players in their show. No two performances were the same.

"Sometimes it's a beautiful, perfect sunset, and it's a full moon rising just at the right moment," Sheets said. "But sometimes a dog runs and pees on your blanket."

Going to see one cost whatever folks could afford to pay.

"Our motto is that we believe that theater should be accessible to everybody, regardless of their ability to pay; and not turning anybody away because they can't pay $40 for a ticket," Sheets said.

While sand wasn't in the original plan, Coffey said, "I think having it in that location, … it makes me happy we exist, and happy the world exists, and so thankful it does."