Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening is a show dealing with emotional trauma throughout these people’s lives and how it would have been so different if these people had been born today. God it was just so heartbreaking all around. I had not seen the show before I walked into that theater but they just presented it so beautifully I couldn’t imagine it any other way.

It was a very quick process and another passion project (are you seeing a theme here?). My boyfriend was part of the process so I was getting updates as the rehearsals progressed. They performed at the Edge in Lubbock, Texas. And with such a small cast and having a newer company, this was the perfect place.

There is not a bad seat in the house.

Rachel Biggs had contacted me early in the process, asking what my pricing was for a project like this. I told her, and unfortunately it wasn’t in their budget. Really it is a good policy. Always pay your people. We are all artists and deserved to be paid for our work.

Personally, this was too important for me to pass up.

The week of the show, I was not going to be working on my own theater production. I had the week off, and just needed to do something that was not necessarily theater but still something that I enjoyed. And of course I knew they still needed photos.

So, Alejandro invited me to go with him to one of his tech rehearsals. I sat in the back with my camera and managed to grab Rachel Biggs and Travis Burge and asked them if it would still be okay to be in the audiences and casually take photos. They said yes and were so excited.

I really did try to keep in the audience. I really did. But is is so much fun getting onstage with the actors and taking photos. Luckily, Travis made an announcement before they started to watch out for me, and he did warn me that there would be running. Almost got plowed over once or twice but that’s okay.

It was my first time seeing their show and it was beautiful. They had everything done, and already running in costume. About halfway through though,

I had to have conversations with the cast members and ask them if they didn’t want specific parts of the show photographed, or limits on where I need to be.

Honestly I think this is so important. I didn’t know everything going on with the show, and I wanted them to feel safe and comfortable. I think this is a conversation that we should always have with the actors and performers about being photographed or where we should stand. Like I had one actor to stand behind the first row because they were having an emotional death scene.

Whenever that scene did come though, my camera was loud and I didn’t want to trigger the actor so I took one photo and that was it. It was so emotional and heartbreaking, when I finally got to go in and edit the photos, one said it all.

It was my quickest turnaround to date. I managed to download all of the photos up onto my Lightroom the same evening and then I had photos edited by noon the next day. I was really proud with how all of these turned out.

I wanted to make sure I was abiding by what the directors and cast were asking for, but I also wanted to abide by the lighting designer. The lighting was so important in this show including the colors. Everything was specifically designed for aesthetic and to make it soft and mellow. So when I was working on the edits for the production, I made sure to keep the colors true to the lighting design.

I had the privilege to photograph for the cast twice, and delivered them by the next day, and then I also did three videos of their productions so they could have it for their archives.

This was a passion project all around, from the cast to myself. I loved getting a chance to create photography for this cast and give them a chance to have it for their records. As it was their first production, I couldn’t have been more proud with how my photos turned out, but really it was all them. I just had the privilege to document it.

I can’t wait to work on more productions and wish Horizon’s Roundtable Theatre Troupe the best of luck.