I am a firm believer in getting to own everything that happens to me and this was one of those things. We were two weeks out from performing our show at the new Buddy Holly Hall in Lubbock, Texas. This was really important because it was going to be the first local theater thing that would be on the stage.

We were two weeks out from the show when we were told that because we didn’t sell enough tickets, we were not going to be able to perform and the show was cancelled. It was devastating. We were ready. It was going to be my first play.

Well, then the cast got back together the next day without the director. Our lead had done some research and unfortunately that wasn’t quite the truth. None of the rights, the space, the builders, nothing had been paid for. We were shocked. We had trusted our director and he had not followed through and lied about it.

So we had a choice. The lead had talked to Buddy Holly Hall and had made an agreement that we could perform there as long as everything was paid for. MTI was willing to work with us to and had the contract rewritten for the rights. The paperwork was ready to sign, but we needed to decide how to proceed or if we even wanted to.

It was unanimous. We all wanted to do the show. We had done so much work for it. As we sat there, our Liberty Valance turned to us and he said,

“We are making history here. The Cast Who Saved Liberty Valance.”

The universe heard him. I know it did. The chills went through all of us. We were changing our story and we were going to do this, not because we had to, but because we wanted to and knew that this show was important.

We decided to give ourselves one more month to get everything ready and pay everyone who needed to be paid. We had a benefactor that believed in this project so we were blessed enough to be able to build our show correctly.

Everyone from the original cast took on a role. Some were building the set, props, costume, hair and makeup, and me, I took on taking photos for everyone. I did everyone’s headshots, the promotional photos, and of course, the stage photos. It was a lot of work. But this was a worthy story and we needed to tell it.

So, we brought in a few more people to help because we were directing ourselves, but we needed a stage manager, a makeup artist, different things like that. When we were able to tell our story to the public, everyone rallied behind us. Lubbock Community Theatre donated our props and costumes. LAB built our set. Buddy Holly made sure we had the date and as much information as we could about the space. Kris who painted our set. And of course, our host bookstore where we held all of our rehearsals.

We made a lot of changes to the design of the show since we were making it ours. We also got real music that went with MTI’s right release to us. We brought in more cast members, who were so kind to jump in last minute like this.

It all came together so fast and then we were in the space. We would only have two shots to do this. We had the black box for four days. One to build. The next to rehearse and then the shows itself.

I had already done the promotional shoot by that point. We were blasting it everywhere with The Cast Who Saved Liberty Valance all over everything. They were such good photos with the right reds and browns that made the cast shine. But now it was time for quick photos of the show and I was going to film the show as well.

The people at Buddy Holly were so nice to work with. We tried figuring out a way to hook up to their systems and just recording straight from there, but the only thing we could do was get audio. Which was great for overlaying over the videos later. Unfortunately, I was only able to take photos of the first act of the show. But still they are some of my favorite shots.

I loved the idea of being onstage with them and taking photos. It was up close and personal and made you really feel like you were in the show. Not just watching it, but like you were in that bar with these people. I loved that I could get close with the design of the set and the props and the people so you could really see everything that they were trying to express and feeling.

This was really when I fell in love with taking photos for productions. I loved getting to show this story through my photography. This was what I was missing from my other shoots. I wanted to be an artist and tell stories and I could do that with photos.

Dance and the Theater will always be my first love. I couldn’t imagine my life without it. But I know there is going to be shows where I don’t necessarily need to be cast in, but I can still give my talents and help them become successful in sharing their stories too.

The process was beautiful. I had the quickest turnaround by date at that point to get these photos out there. Already having my presets set was a lifesaver to make this successful for me.

The community just adored the show and then after two days it was done and it took us two hours to take it all down. It was a completely surreal show. I couldn’t believe how the community came together all around us to make sure we had a show, and not just that but a wonderful show. It was a rollercoaster from start to finish, but we all created something we were really proud of.

I am proud to say that I was part of The Cast Who Saved Liberty Valance.