Hairspray - Portraits
'Hairspray' opened up this weekend at The Playhouse. Their season closer, LOTS of folks have been waiting for this gem to arrive!
When the CEO/Artistic Director, George Green, and I were discussing what to do with the portraits for Hairspray, the word that he said that struck me most was "loud".
We had some back and forth with a few different proofs but some of my initial ideas were not loud enough. After a few tweaks and a few more proofs sent, I got the go-ahead and started working in earnest.
I'll say that these were the most intense images that I've created in a long time. Each one took about an hour just for the final editing and all the shooting, reshoots and batch editing took several days on their own. Well worth it though. I truly love helping a show and its team succeed by getting the patronage excited with these portraits.
Based on the packed houses and standing ovations that they received at all three shows this weekend, I know for a fact that the patrons were pleased.
Congratulations to Director Omar Leos and his team for ending The Playhouse's 2016-17 Season with a smash hit!
As the 2016-17 Season is on its last show, very soon I'll be posting my favorite portraits from each of the 9 shows in the season and another post with my favorite show images. Stay Tuned!
Loud enough for ya? I think so.
Hairspray runs at The Playhouse San Antonio through Aug 6. Tickets and info can be found HERE!
All is Calm - Character Portraits
The Playhouse San Antonio has just announced that All is Calm has been added to their 2016-17 Season and I couldn't be more pleased as I have a fond history with that production
My new theater, The Playhouse San Antonio, has just announced that we're adding All is Calm: The Christmas Eve Truce of 1914 to the 2016-17 Season as the Christmas show. I'm extraordinarily pleased to hear this as I was quite sad that I'd miss The Modern Theater's 2016 presentation. I've grown to love all the folks involved with the show and had great plans for this year's portraits.
I'm excited that I'll be able to apply those plans to this cast, albeit with a twist, but I won't reveal those plans to anyone but a select few and then only in the days leading up to the shoot. It's fair to say that I intend to give this cast my very best efforts.
In the first season that we presented AIC, the cast of 11 blended perfectly and created a thing of such beauty that I can't properly describe. Words can be cheap when trying to explain such a thing but I'm sure you've all experienced such a reaction to something so exquisite. Directed by my dear friend Abbey Crawford and with Music Direction from Zach Baker (the one with the cigarette), they had the distinct honor to perform the piece to a packed house at The Bing on the 100th anniversary of the event from which the piece came.
For 2015, we lost two of our young stars to their college aspirations but picked up Nicholas and Jace, a classicly trained opera singer and a local cabaret star, respectively. Again, they created a show of near perfection and I was lucky to have been able to capture them again.
For 2015, we even made a few videos. You can see this and one more on the Modern's Youtube site.
Every show that I've shot has afforded me new opportunities to learn and improve. I'm very happy that I get to be part of this show again as I had some great successes with this show yet there also a few aspects of its weight and beauty that I feel I missed.
Soon, I'll have the chance to try again.