Key Art for Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train with City Lit Theatre Company

This week on The All Worlds Traveller, we share a look at the poster for City Lit Theatre Company’s Jeff Recommended production of Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train, written by Stephen Adly Guirgis and directed by Esteban Andres Cruz. Distant Era photographed the key art for the poster and program, and Lisa Maraldi created the graphic design. Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train officially opened last week and runs through September 7, 2025.

Here’s a synopsis of the play from the City Lit website:

A cage-rattling prison drama from Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis (Between Riverside & Crazy) that boldly examines faith, dignity, and our system of justice. Angel Cruz is a young Puerto Rican man incarcerated for shooting cult leader Reverend Kim. When the Reverend dies during surgery, Angel suddenly finds himself facing murder charges. His only companions at Rikers Island are Lucius Jenkins, a serial killer turned born-again Christian, and Valdez, a sadistic corrections officer.

Photography

City Lit artistic director Brian Pastor sent a stock image showing what they were looking for on the poster. We wanted to create a version of this image featuring actor Lenin Izquierdo, who plays Angel Cruz in the City Lit production. I studied the image, noted the quality of the light, as well as its color. The image used a classic blue-orange coloring, often seen in movie posters—bright blue wash of light from behind, with orange subtly filling the shadows.

We created our image before a rehearsal one night in July. To recreate the mood of the stock image, we placed our lights according to the direction they appeared in that image until our shadows and highlights looked similar to our inspiration. We took a number of shots with variations, and then we wrapped our shoot so the actors could get into the space and begin rehearsal.

Post

Afterward, I cut out the actors to make compositing easier for graphic designer Lisa Maraldi, who placed bars behind the subject. The result: a new image inspired from the original.

Many thanks to Brian Pastor and the cast and production team of Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train for your cooperation and kindness during our session. I’m very much looking forward to seeing the production soon!

Tickets for Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train are available here.

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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.