This was my 11th season working with 34 West Theater, who are based in downtown Charleston, South Carolina. Over the years we’ve grown be be good friends and I always look forward to seeing what we create together. What I love about them is their willingness to improvise. Though I suppose that’s an element that most actors celebrate, it’s not always the case that I’m given such a broad range of creative freedom in a shoot. They always come to the shoot with a broad range of outfits, props, and some general ideas for where they’d like the images to go, but they ultimately leave it up to me to transform their ideas into images that they’ll use for promoting their upcoming shows.

For the first set I decided to light them with a hard light creating bold, crisp shadows, which I filled in with a cyan light to create bright, colorful images. As Stephen began posing with a mirrorball I decided to channel the iconic Annie Leibovitz / Demi Moore pregnancy shoot for Vanity Fair. The results were as ridiculous as they were fun.

After that we went even more vintage, going for Hitchcock and Aretha Franklin vibes. I used half a yellow gel on my key light to shift the aqua-colored backdrop to a more vintage teal color. To get the darker shot I added a snoot to the key light and added a soft fill light to keep the rest of the image from going completely black.

Next up were the 80’s, so I went bold with the colors, shooting on an orange sweep with magenta and blue accent lights.

This next set ended up being my favorite of the day. They told me that the idea behind this next play was a 1950’s diner that was invaded by zombies. I immediately thought of the aesthetic behind Mars Attacks!. Not necessarily the movie but all the art. It’s dramatic, over the top, and as funny as it is scary. I decided to light the actors from below (monster lighting) with two hard lights (one green, one neutral) to create crisp shadows with green accents. Then they did a series of poses where they use commonplace items as weapons.

Finally, they wanted to take a group shot of the whole company. In their theater is an iconic red sofa that’s been there for years. We’ve used it in previous shoots before and decided to use it again. I happened to look out of the window and see gorgeous light and shadow on the wall of the building across the street and asked if they’d be open to moving the sofa to the sidewalk for the shot, in the vein of The Cranberries. After shooting a number of arrangements on the sidewalk I asked if they’d be willing to take the couch to a spot below the famous Charleston bridge. One of the actors knew of the perfect spot. It was a perfect end to a perfect collaboration.