Richard III Preproduction

In late 2022, Chicago’s Babes With Blades Theatre Company produced Shakespeare’s Richard III at the Edge Theater in Edgewater.

Several months before, some of the cast members gathered to photograph some preproduction images for the show’s advertising and marketing. We have a long history making images together: Babes With Blades and I have collaborated on preproduction photography since May 2010, and one of those sessions directly inspired Distant Era.

From Sites to Studios

In the old days, we used to look for locations where we could photograph our preproduction images. Sometimes we had basements, sometimes park buildings, sometimes a former funeral parlor. Back then, we shot with whatever lights we had available—sometimes the overhead lights in the room, sometimes a pair of plug-in lamps handheld by the artistic director. I’d edit the photographs to make them look good and fix any issues from the available light or environment. Whatever the case, we got by.

Nowadays, we shoot evenly exposed images on a gray background under studio lighting. A representative from the company directs the session, chooses the looks, and poses the subjects. Since we no longer have to worry about dim exposures or distracting background elements, those photos go right to the graphic designer, and that’s the end of my involvement. The designer composites them into ads and materials. Below, you can see what the beginning and end of that process looks like, starting with some studio images and resulting in the digital postcard using the images from the session.

The Shot

In any theatrical production time is tight, and the same is true of preproduction sessions. However, we did have a small window in our Richard III session where I played with some specific lighting. The end result had Richard III emerging from the darkness and clutching Queen Elizabeth like Count Dracula. Ali Dornheggen, who directed the session, lifted Richard’s cloak in a way that made the character look even more vampiric. It wasn’t right for the show’s preproduction imagery, but I really liked the image, and so I present it here as my memory of the session.

Richard III closed October 15, 2022. Check out BWBTC’s work and current season on their website here.

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