Rehearsal Photography : Treasure Island - Hull Truck Theatre

Yesterday evening I popped across to Hull and Hull Truck Theatre to photograph rehearsals for their Christmas show. I love it when it gets to this time of year as lots of theatre companies are gearing up for Christmas and it really gets me in the festive spirit!

This year Hull Truck Theatre are staging ‘Treasure Island’ and if rehearsals are anything to go by it looks like an action-filled musical treat!

Artistic Director Mark Babych says:

“Hull Truck Theatre Christmas shows are all about providing magical adventures in storytelling that all the family can enjoy. Highly visual, with great original music, our team creates that extra special bit of Hull Truck magic to bring familiar and wondrous stories to life in the intimate, welcoming surroundings of our beautiful theatre. Debbie Oates has created a sparkling new version of a great tale.”

Rehearsal Photography - The Snow Queen - New Vic Theatre

This is some rehearsal photography from last week of 'The Snow Queen' at the New Vic Theatre in Staffordshire.

I'll be returning at the end of the month to photograph the dress rehearsal, and if the rehearsals are anything to go by it looks like it's going to be a corker!

Theatre Photography : The Gaul at Hull Truck Theatre

The second part of the Hull Trilogy recently opened at the Hull Truck Theatre and I was lucky enough to go along and photograph it.

From their website:

Kay’s Dad and brother both work on the ships, so having them come and go is part of the ebb and flow of life. Even so, as she helps Dad to pack for his next trip on the Trawler Gaul, Kay slips her Sindy-doll into his bag, just for luck.

When the 36-man crew is lost off the coast of Norway the close-knit community cling together in the search for the truth. Was the Gaul the victim of a storm, or a casualty of Cold War hostilities? Or is this a case of fault and blame? As the mystery ripples through the years and life moves on, Kay struggles to free herself from the tragedy and all that remains unanswered.

No trawler tragedy has caused as much controversy as the loss of the Gaul in 1974. This new play by Hull-born writer Janet Plater explores the journeys of the wives and relatives who were left behind, through the discovery of the wreck by a TV documentary crew in 1997 and the government inquiry in 2004 to the present day.

Rehearsal Photography : Kitchen Sink : New Vic Theatre

In the week when the New Vic Theatre celebrates it's 30th anniversary it was great to go back and photograph rehearsals for their next play - Kitchen Sink.

From the website:

"An irresistibly funny and huge-hearted play about marriage, families, making ends meet – and dodgy plumbing. One of the biggest hits of 2012, it helped Tom Wells win both the Critics Circle and the George Devine Awards for Most Promising Playwright. 

In their down-at-heel Yorkshire seaside town, things aren’t going to plan for Martin and the family. Bits keep dropping off his milk float, son Billy’s obsessed with Dolly Parton, whilst daughter Sophie’s dreams of teaching ju-jitsu are fast disappearing down the plughole. And something’s up with Kath’s kitchen sink.

Amid the dreams, the dramas and the dirty dishes, something’s got to give. But will it be Kath or the kitchen sink? And, if they all carry on as they are, maybe Martin’s milk float won’t be the only thing falling apart."

Rehearsal Photography : Peter Pan in Scarlet - Oxford Playhouse & New Vic Theatre

Here is some from rehearsal photography from the forming premier production of the sequel to the classic children's tale 'Peter Pan - 'Peter Pan in Scarlet'.

The official sequel to J M Barrie’s Peter Pan by the three-time Whitbread Children’s Book Award winner, this awfully big adventure has been adapted for the stage in her trademark all-action style by New Vic Artistic Director, Theresa Heskins.

It’s 1929, Wendy and the Lost Boys have all grown up. Then, suddenly, 20 years after they left, they begin to dream of Neverland – of pirates and mermaids, war paint and crocodiles. Something is wrong and Peter Pan needs their help.

So Wendy, John and the Lost Boys put on their children’s clothes and, armed only with fairy dust, fly back to Neverland to join Peter for one last adventure. But everything has changed. And the dangers they meet are beyond their wildest dreams.

Performance Photography : Hull Truck Theatre - Educating Rita

This is the production photography I did for the Willy Russell play 'Educating Rita' at Hull Truck Theatre (unsurprisingly in Hull in England). 

Here's the review from 'The Stage' by Will Ramsey

"Great stacks of books dominate James Turner's set. They bulge from the shelves and the piles heaped above the door frame makes you fear for whomever dares to enter. It's a fitting metaphor for how Rita is about to have her life shaken up in Hull Truck’s revival of Willy Russell’s play – a little learning can be a head-turning thing.

Mark Babych's production of Educating Rita is lithe and leanly-muscled. In the mouths of the two leads, Simon Armstrong and Taj Atwal, the words flow like poetry. A lot of work has gone into getting the rhythms of the speech right – lecturer Frank's exacting turns of phrase and the Scouse inflections of his student Rita. They’ve been honed to the point where they feel completely natural; it’s as if we're listening in on them.

As the destructive Frank, Armstrong keeps his character's fears beneath the surface. There are points when, whether silently staring into space or sharply reacted to Rita after she tells him about the young students she's been speaking with, we sense of the deep disappointments buried in him.

Rita brings joy back to his life. As played by Atwal, she is sparky and engaging, but her performance is more than just a humorous turn. We sense the sharpness of the character's intelligence, the hopes that she holds that this course of study could change her life.

The themes of the play seem more pertinent now than ever, given the financial pressures involved in taking a degree. Babych nods to this with a brief snatch of a radio report - it sounds like the dulcet tones of John Humphries – about the strains universities face. It makes you wonder what Rita – and others like her – would do today."

Rehearsal Photography : Educating Rita - Hull Truck Theatre

Yesterday it was across to Hull to join Mark Babych and the cast of 'Educting Rita' in their rehearsal room at Hull Truck Theatre. 

Simon Armstrong and Taj Atwal play Rita and Frank and I spent a happy hour their whilst they ran scenes and polished what promises to be a terrific production.

From their website:

"Rita is a twenty-something Liverpudlian hairdresser with a hunger for knowledge. Frank is her Open University tutor, a cynical failed poet who hides the whisky behind the Dickens. Captivated by her honest and enthusiastic approach to Chekhov, Eliot and Lawrence, Frank finds his love of teaching returning, until Rita’s newfound independence leads her away from him and into cultural limbo.

A British theatre classic, this hilarious comedy about the clash of two sections of society is as relevant today as when it was originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1980. The play won the Society of West End Theatres award for Best Comedy and Best Play and the film version, starring Julie Walters and Michael Caine, was Oscar-nominated and won three BAFTAs."

Rehearsal Photography : The Mountaintop - New Vic Theatre

It was across to the New Vic Theatre gain this week to photograph rehearsals for 'The Mountaintop' which opens in a week.

From the New Vic website:

" Intimate yet epic, winner of the Olivier Award for Best New Play and a huge Broadway hit, The Mountaintop is a heartbreaking, powerful and surprisingly humorous re-imagining of events in the hours before the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

April 3 1968. The Lorraine Motel, Memphis, Tennessee. Tomorrow, it will be the scene of a nation’s tragedy. But tonight, it’s just another stopover motel room for Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

With a storm raging outside, a young maid arrives to deliver his cup of coffee. As they talk, King
is forced to confront his past, his ideals and his hopes for the future. But who is this mysterious young woman? And what is the true purpose of her visit? "

Theatre Photography : New Vic Theatre - Talent

Last night I photographed the Dress Rehearsal for the New Vic Theatre's latest offering Victoria Wood's 1978 play 'Talent'. Performed in the round by a cast of five.

From Wikipedia:

Talent centres around two friends, the plain, overweight Maureen, and her more glamorous friend Julie, who has entered a talent contest. According to Screenonline:

"Julie is one of the hopefuls - a 24-year-old secretary and young mum caught between her youthful dreams of showbiz glamour and the realisation of her more likely future: soul-crushing domesticity and drudgery with upwardly mobile boyfriend Dave. With her for support is the awkward, frumpy Maureen, long in the shadow of her slimmer, better-looking friend."

Have a peek at this great production - 

Performance Photography : Staffs University - Pericles & Richard II

As well as fully professional productions I do occasionally photograph both amateur and student theatre. This week I went along to Staffordshire University Drama Department to photograph their 3rd Year productions of Shakespeare's 'Pericles' and 'Richard II' - the latter, as you'll see, transposed to a women's prison. Take a peek -