Usually at this time of year, Flock Theatre is deep in the mad midst of staging shows. The cast and crew are performing Shakespeare in the Arboretum and taking the show on the road to Wilcox Park in Westerly and elsewhere.

This summer has been different. The New London-based group has had to forgo live performances as the world has been figuring out life during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pre-coronavirus, Flock had planned to do “Jane Eyre” in the Shaw Mansion during the spring and “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado About Nothing” outdoors in the summer.

Spring passed as Connecticut was in lockdown, so “Jane Eyre” wasn’t to be. (And the intimate confines of the Shaw Mansion won’t work in a socially distant time.)

The Connecticut College Arboretum, where Flock has performed the past 25 summers, isn’t available; with the coronavirus in mind, the college canceled all public programming for the summer in the Arbo.

But there is good news: Flock is now planning to do a live production of Aristophanes’ comedy “The Birds” starting in late August in Wilcox Park in Westerly.

On Monday, the Wilcox Park Committee voted to allow Flock to perform that show at the site. The most likely dates are Aug. 27-30, at 7 p.m. As with all Wilcox Park events, admission is free, with a suggested donation (donations will be collected at the venue and at www.flocktheatre.org).

Flock is also trying to figure out a way to do “The Birds” in New London as well, possibly at Mitchell College, where it is the resident theater company.

With outdoor performances, social distancing for audience members is fairly easy. But the tough part with the originally scheduled Shakespeare plays is keeping actors the prescribed distance apart while still serving the text.

Greek plays are easier to present in a coronavirus world. Most Greek plays have no more than three speaking characters onstage at any one time, notes Flock Executive Artistic Director Derron Wood. And those plays are stylized in a way that works with social distancing.

Key to the process is the masks that “The Birds,” which is a big, broad comedy, will feature. Flock is using some of its own giant bird masks, and Wood says there is material in front of the performers’ faces that works like the regular masks that people wear now to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Flock is using other puppets, too, and is borrowing some bird hand puppets that esteemed puppeteer Fred Thompson created for a production of “The Birds” at Yale Rep. (Thompson built the Ariel puppet Flock used years ago for a production of “The Tempest” as well.)

Greek plays also tend to be shorter than Shakespeare, and Flock might do “The Birds” without an intermission, so people wouldn’t mingle or have to queue up in lines at the porta potties while waiting out the break.

“People can come, and they can really feel confident and comfortable that they can enjoy live theater and … we are minimizing (risk) as much as we can,” Wood says.

“The Birds” is already cast, and the first rehearsal was held last week.

The adaptation Flock is performing is by theater critic Walter Kerr.

“It’s a very bright, funny (play), and the story really revolves around two people that are so fed up with society that they decide to escape into the land of the birds,” Wood says. “It’s very apropos with what’s going on presently. They’re tired of politics, they’re tired of religion, they’re tired of real estate agents and lawyers and taxes.”

He says it lends itself to a lot of the humor and the frustration that people all have right now.

And doing performances like these will be “great as we move forward just to remind ourselves of what the arts do — they do bring us together,” he says.

All is not lost for the previously planned productions.

Flock is finalizing the virtual release of “Romeo and Juliet” and “Much Ado,” with the former possibly being available as soon as Friday. The Garde Arts Center is co-hosting those video links. A video version of “Jane Eyre” is in the works, too; the actors have been filmed, and Flock is now working on shadow puppetry to add to the piece.