AS YOU LIKE IT Character Portraits with Midsommer Flight

In our previous edition of The All Worlds Traveller, we showed the photographs for Midsommer Flight’s 2026 production of As You Like It.

Director Beth Wolf suggested we might have time to capture some character portraits before the play, and we did! In this week’s Traveller, we’ll take a look at those character portraits.

Improvising with Nature

One hundred percent of the character portraits Distant Era has made for theatre companies have thus far been created with studio flash. Prior to 2026, they all used backgrounds I brought with me to the shoot. In this way, I’ve been able to control the light and background for consistent results.

This year, I’ve started to incorporate onsite backgrounds, especially at times when I can’t bring my own. In a sense, this is the way I always used to shoot prior to flash; at the same time, this year I’ve been more deliberate about the onsite background elements I’ve chosen to shoot against. It’s like training the eye to see, or find, background elements that might work well, which takes practice.

Fortunately, we photographed these portraits in the Chicago Women’s Park and Gardens, which contains several visually interesting locations. As each subject became available, I asked which locations inspired them or spoke to their character, and we wandered the gardens, shooting in these settings.

It was a bright, partly cloudy day, so sometimes the weather blessed us with perfect diffuse light, and sometimes we shot in full sunlight or else sought some dappled, shady areas in the park.

Certain locations (the tiger lilies, the fountain) proved so popular, we photographed multiple characters in those locations.

The Portraits

Without further ado, here are the portraits we made for As You Like It. We photographed far more, so choosing one of each costume to share on the Traveller was no easy task.

FIRST ROW: Connor O. Locklin, Triniti Cruz, Jack Moorsovillo.
SECOND ROW: Stephanie Mattos, Thomas Russell, Brandon Beach.
THIRD ROW: Riley Samuel Merritt, Connor O. Locklin, Ebby Offord.
FOURTH ROW: Ebby Offord, Ian Voltaire Deanes, Barry Irving.
FIFTH ROW: Chase Wheaton-Werle, Jennifer Mohr, Barry Irving.
SIXTH ROW: Stephanie Mattos

Midsommer Flight’s production of As You Like It runs through August 2, 2026, at parks in Chicago. Check out Midsommer Flight’s website for a full list of performances and to reserve a space at one of the performances.

Many thanks once again to director Beth Wolf and the whole cast and crew of As You Like It. It was a pleasure spending the afternoon photographing Shakespeare in the park—one of the most fun and memorable days of this summer!

Cast and Staff

Here’s the cast and staff as listed on Midsommer Flight’s website.

Cast

Brandon Beach* (Silvius, he/him), Triniti Cruz (Phebe, she/her), Ian Voltaire Deanes (Oliver, he/him), Barry Irving* (Duke Frederick/Duke Senior, he/him), Connor O. Locklin (Charles et al., he/him), Stephanie Mattos* (Rosalind, she/her), Riley Samuel Merritt (Amiens et al., he/him), Jennifer Mohr (Audrey, she/her), Jack Morsovillo* (Jaques, he/him), Ebby Offord* (Celia, she/they), Thomas Russell (Orlando, he/they), Chase Wheaton-Werle (Touchstone, he/him), Robert Wood Frank (U/S Silvius/Touchstone, he/him), Alexander P. Garza (U/S Duke Frederick/Duke Senior, he/him), MJ Handsome (U/S Rosalind/Celia, she/they), Jerome Michael Jones (U/S Orlando/Oliver, he/him), Matt Keeley (U/S Amiens/Charles et al, he/him), Siyi Wang (U/S Audrey/Phebe, she/her)

Staff

Beth Wolf* (Director), Hailey Piorek* (Stage Manager), Joshua Pennington (Assistant Director), Chloe Stueber (Assistant Stage Manager), Courtney Abbott (Intimacy Director), Jeremiah Barr (Scenic and Props Designer), Bryson David Hoff (Vocal Coach), Becca Holloway (Casting Director), Jack Morsovillo* (Music Director), Rachel Sypniewski (Costume Designer), Will Wilhelm (Text Coach)

*denotes Midsommer Flight ensemble member

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Steven Townshend is a fine art/portrait photographer and writer with a background in theatre, written narrative, and award-winning game design. As a young artist, Steven toured the US and Canada performing in Shakespeare companies while journaling their moments on paper and film. In his transition from stage to page, Steven continued to work as a theatre photographer, capturing dramatic scenes while incorporating elements of costume, makeup, and theatrical lighting in his work. Drawn to stories set in other times and places, Steven creates works through which fellow dreamers and time travelers might examine their own humanity or find familiar comfort in the reflections of the people and places of a distant era.