Rochester Civic Theatre’s opening production for the 2013-2014 season was the spectacular Les Misérables. This is a show the theatre has wanted to produce for some time, but you have to wait for the owners of the show to make it available. It’s a huge show – nearly 40 cast members and a full orchestra of 30 or so. It’s also hugely popular for both theatre-goers and actors.
The auditions were swamped with people, and the final cast list included many new faces. That’s great for the vibrancy of the theatre with many fine actors and great voices. Hopefully, many will return for shows in the future. With the show opening in early September, rehearsals consumed the latter half of summer, so you can imagine how much everyone wanted to do this show.
It was important for the theatre to do this up right with costumes, set, and lighting fit for the show. I was excited to see the show on opening night, and the photographer in me was paying close attention to the lighting. Ben Hain, the technical director at the RCTC theatre, designed the lighting. I loved it and couldn’t wait to do the show photos.
I wrote a post about a live dance event I shot out at RCTC a while back (click here to see it). Ben did that lighting as well. So my expectations were high. Although we stage the shots at RCT (versus live shooting I do elsewhere), we use the lighting program for the scene we’re shooting. There were only one or two times we bumped a light a tad for the photo, perhaps when we want to move the actor(s) a bit for composition. All of these shots were taken using the designed lighting as is.
I think some of my favorite shots involved the barricade (assembled by the young rebels to ward off the king’s army). The crew created a very convincing barricade. Particularly in the darker, moodier lights, it just looked great. It made a wonderful backdrop for the actors. The barricade scenes are emotional and powerful, so the photos needed to be, too.
The lighting played an important role, the actors did their part, and I just had to find the picture.
I’m able to move around and find the shot, and the stage and house setup at RCT allows me to get a low vantage point from just in front of the stage, or move up a few rows for a more direct or slightly down-looking viewpoint.
Of course, the dim light in some scenes makes shooting somewhat trickier. Even with the good low-light capability of my camera, I still try to keep the ISO (which controls the light sensitivity) at a setting I know will produce good quality shots. Then I need to balance my exposure settings and hold the camera still. Not always easy, and sometimes the actors are moving, as well. That’s less of a problem here than doing a live shoot, but people do move.
One advantage of doing staged shots is the ability to create just the look Greg, the director, wants. We can move folks around at will. Being actors, they give us believable expressions, but they also have a habit of breaking each other up. Then you wait for everyone to stop laughing so you can get the photo. Actors!
The RCT schedule for this season include five shows, four of them musicals. Should be an interesting year. They are already in rehearsals for the next show. One more show at Riverland in what’s left of 2013, too. Since late summer, I’ve shot Spamalot, The Rocky Horror Show, The Wizard of Oz, and Les Misérables. All I can say is, wow! Great fun, for sure.
