Closing Ceremonies

I have photos from one last Fringe show still to edit Shakespeare's Women, but today is a travel day and I'll have to squeeze it in when I can. For now, a few shots from the festival's closing ceremonies in the Grandel Theater. Executive director Matthew Kerns and technical boss Kevin Bowman first,  followed by stars of this year's productions and, in the last two, what's to come next year.

I'm writing this during a layover at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport. Flying on soon to Grand Junction, Colorado, and driving to Moab, Utah, late this afternoon. Arches National Park tomorrow. No steel versions there.        

The Everest Game

As you can tell, I've been trying desperately to learn theater photography. Sometimes my existing skills are enough, sometimes not. One thing I've learned is that the stage lighting makes a big difference. Broad lighting in a new space is a snap (see earlier posts on A Song For Vanya). On the other hand, the small space in the Kranzberg Studio Theater can have very uneven light. How to expose when one actor, or a part of an actor, is in the spotlight with the rest in semi-shadow? There is Photoshop, of course, but even that's often not enough.

This was the challenge in shooting The Everest Game. Veteran St. Louis actor Joe Hanrahan finds a magic lamp and releases a genie, who grants him a single wish. (Times are tougher than they used to be.) He chooses to go to London in 1970 to prevent the breakup of the Beatles. Hanrahan approaches BBC news reader Brenda Diamond, who announced the horrific event. Through a series of improbable meetings, Joe persuades John, Paul, George and Ringo (all played by women) to give it one more try. Yoko Ono goes along with the plan. The name of the show comes not from the mountain, but the brand of cigarettes a sound engineer at Abbey Road smoked.

I've been listening to Sgt. Pepper as I write this. My sister and I saw the Beatles second concert at Shea Stadium, quite near where we lived in Queens. Must be dating myself.       

Dead Gothics Society

As described in a small local newspaper, The Ladue News,

Several famous writers who dabbled in the horror genre, including Dante, Mary Shelley, Goethe, Bram Stoker, Lord Byron, Christopher Marlowe, Edgar Allan Poe, Horace Walpole, the Marquis de Sade and The Brothers Grimm, compete against each other as they present their selections of the grisly and macabre. The winner gets a ticket out of purgatory skyward into heaven, while the loser heads to Hades.

Satan presides over the ceremonies and the audience picks winners and losers. I don't remember who won but de Sade's act got pulled off the stage.

       

Please Remain Calm

Very late post today. Bad, bad week at work. Didn't get anything done for City Daily Photo theme day either. Should I care to, there will be plenty of opportunity to photograph photographers next week.

Another show from the Fringe festival, Please Remain Calm by O'Fallon Theatre Works. The show was hilarious but a little hard to explain. Seems a pesticide called Kill Magic (it also knocks off flamingos) has caused much of the population of Lloyd Bridges, Indiana, (what?) to turn into zombies. Many of the high school students are herded into a supply closet. The scene drifts back and forth to meetings, perhaps out in public, perhaps in the school, involving the mayor, the chief of police, the principal, the president of the PTA, the school nurse, the girls' gym teacher, parents, a tipsy neighbor and a representative of Kill Magic urging everyone to please remain calm. Kill Magic is safe as can be, we think. But it looks like the zombies win out in the end. Don't they always?

This show was visually rich. There are more images in my Flickr Fringe album here.

Meatball Seance

 

This Fringe show was, um, unique. The festival description says that "John Michael needs your help with his mom's meatball recipe to raise her from the dead so she can meet his new boyfriend. Join JM, as he learns how to have relationships with the living and the dead." Well, that and more. Cooking meatballs on stage, throwing fennel at the audience, drawing people out of the audience "to be my boyfriend," and swizzling beer. Fringe executive director Matthew Kerns made a cameo appearance at the end. You had to be there.

Afterwards, I told John Michael that his enormous smile and the plasticity of his face reminded me of Jerry Lewis. He said that pleased him.    

Compass Improv

 

Sorry no post yesterday. **%#@$ work is getting in the way of my photo editing. Anyway, back through the individual Fringe shows. Next up is Compass Improv. These people can do amazing things with their faces and remind us how much of communication is non-verbal. The group is having an improv festival in October. I may have to show up.

I took an improv course years ago. Not fast enough. Photography suits me better.     

Fringe Family Day

Back to the beginning. I'm working my way through the performances at the St. Lou Fringe that still need photos edited. This is from Saturday, August 19, when things were getting rolling. The festival sponsored a Family Day in Strauss Park, the central square of the Grand Center district. Kids hanging out, kids and teens performing, plus top spinner extraordinaire Hiroshi Tada and the Fringe's own Tracy Busalacchi Bono.