HEADS UP

More images from Circus Flora. A young man with what I assume is a deliberately wacky hairdo avoids a club on the nose. In the middle, a multi-talented woman entertains the crowd with an electric violin while entwined in cords high above the floor. Below, the same dancer-acrobats we saw yesterday strike a pose that reminds me of a scene from Bob Fosse's All That Jazz.                

UNDER THE BIG TOP

One of the nice things about The Lou is that we have our own permanent circus company, Circus Flora. It's been around for 33 years and has its own sophisticated big top tent in the Grand Center arts and education district. I had never been there but we took Ellie on Saturday.

What fun! It was a long show with many acts, all performing feats that you and I could never dream of doing. Plus a little comedy thrown in. More of this to come.            

ART AND SKILL

 

The subject matter of Elizabeth Townsend's play Count Time is so somber that I decided to edit some of the photos in monochrome. Townsend is a great talent, both as an actress and a writer. Those of you in Missouri owe it to yourselves to read the summary of the case in the link just above. The last picture shows her wearing a scarf and head warmer that Patty Prewitt knitted for her as gifts.

I get a lot of satisfaction from theatrical photography, working with talented, fascinating people. The result sometimes captures the depth and breadth of their art.         

COUNT TIME

 

I first met Elizabeth Townsend and saw her searing play Count Time while shooting for the St. Lou Fringe in 2016. It tells the story of Patricia Prewitt, who was sexually assaulted and her husband murdered in rural Missouri in 1984. She was wrongfully convicted of his murder and sentenced to 50 years in prison without parole in 1986. It was one of the most awful miscarriages of justice in the history of our state. Townsend and many others have worked tirelessly for her release ever since. The link above sets out the mountain of lies and negligence that brought Patty to this place.

Townsend performed the play again last night to a large audience at a local church and asked me to photograph it once more. It was my pleasure and honor to do so. (If you scroll down her gallery page to this play you will find my pictures from the Fringe.) There was a large television to stage left and it occurred to me to shoot Elizabeth in its black surface. Perhaps it captures some of Patty's nightmare.       

HISTORICAL COINCIDENCE

The St. Louis Blues were established in 1967, when the National Hockey League grew from six to twelve teams. By coincidence, that is the year I left NYC and showed up at St. Louis University. Fifty two years later, the Blues finally won the championship and I'm trying to retire. I'm not sorry life set me down here.

Running low on material. Got a theatrical production to shoot tonight.       

THURSDAY ARCH SERIES

Blues fans on a gray day. The semicircular structure on the lower left is the entrance to the Arch's wonderful underground museum.           

ALL THINGS COME TO THOSE WHO WAIT

https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/all-things-come-to-those-who-wait.html . Maybe. If you know something about probability, some events may take an awfully long time to come around. But it's wonderful, though, that this happened here, now.