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Freewill Shakespeare Festival

The seasons

Promotional photography for the Freewill Shakespeare Festival: As You Like It, the 2019 company, Much Ado About Nothing, and the red-lit promo for Macbeth.

Client
Freewill Shakespeare Festival
Photographs
Ryan Parker

  1. 01As You Like It

    Two performers in waistcoat and blouse, one holding a moustache on a stick
    A performer in a waistcoat and tie behind a moustache on a stick
    A performer in a white blouse and loose tie, a prop held to her mouth

  2. 02The 2019 company

    Five performers leaning together against a background split blue and pink
    Four performers grouped on pale blue, one crouched at the front
    A performer in a red top and denim overalls standing over a small dog

  3. 03Much Ado About Nothing, 2020

    A performer in a straw hat and pale blue shirt, arms crossed, against tan
    Two performers against tan, one holding his straw hat, one in a floral dress and headwrap
    A performer in a floral dress, pink headwrap and white sunglasses, a hand on her hip

  4. 04Macbeth, the promo

    Macbeth promo, one exposure in red light: a witch in a crown of twigs and baby’s breath, the face smeared down the frame, mouth open
    Macbeth promo, one exposure in red light: a witch in a blond wig and a crown of twigs, shouting, the pointing arm streaking toward the camera
    Macbeth promo, one exposure in red light: a witch in a spiked crown of dried grasses, hands raised and blurring upward
    Macbeth promo, one exposure in red light: the three witches in crowns of branches and dried flowers, hands raised and blurring

How it got made

The brief, the room, the frame.

I acted with Freewill for about four seasons, and during those runs I made a series of backstage portraits. They became part of Backstage, my series on the lives of actors, which hung at the Miller Art Gallery in 2023 in The Human Experience, a group show with Curtis Trent and Larry Louie.

Later I shot their season images. For 2020, Much Ado was bright, tropical and summery with a 1950s feel, and Macbeth was pretty, supernatural and dangerous. The witches were lit red, and that blur is a single exposure, strobe and continuous light together. Then the pandemic cancelled the season, and both shows moved to the next summer.

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