Ryan Heffington photographed by Eric Schwabel
I was recently asked to be a part of an interesting performance project. An adaptation of “the Stronger” from the play by August Strindberg. The piece was part of Creative Director Terence McFarland’s artist-in-residency at UCLA. Terence is a former fashion editor at Details and Interview.
This version, titled “Stronger” was adapted by Denis Smeal. Ryan Heffington (pictured top) choreographed a dance/fight sequence between two of the actors.
So what was my part… Well… In this adaptation, the monologue cycles through different sets of couples, using 5 actors. The actors are transformed both emotionally through the performance, and physically as they do their own whiteface and then full clown makeup on stage. My role, as such, was to play photographer in this experiment, and photograph the couples on stage as they entered and exited their scenes. Additionally, I was posting the images live via Twitter to the audience as they were shot, unedited. I did this all assistant-less on the Mamiya and my MacBook. The audience could, and was encouraged to comment as the performance and shoot went on.
Director Terence McFarland photographed by Eric Schwabel
Most of my and Terence’s friends on facebook were alerted of this. I think we also found a way to make Terence’s facebook page live update, but I was also told to blog during any off time between shoots. The shots were posted to my twitter account, which I have to admit, is mostly just links to this blog. If you’re interested in these occasional projects that I do though, you should hit up my facebook fan page.
These first three shots are of the behind-the-sceners, so to speak: McFarland, Smeal, and Heffington. Tomorrow I will post a selection of my favorites and discuss what it’s like to post your work freely and immediately to the world without editing… An awesome task for sure.
Dennis Smeal photographed by Eric Schwabel