
It’s Sunday, May 29th. We are 11 days away from opening night and John Lamb is in for a visit. And today we’re taking pictures.
John does all the photography for Clayton Community Theatre and several other groups. When you come, you will see his pictures on display in the “lobby.” Those aren’t the pictures that he’s taking today, though. He is here to take “publicity pictures” and “head shots.”
First, the head shots. We all file past him and get an individual picture taken. These actually will be on display in the lobby – come to think of it. You’ll see a close up of each of us with our name underneath. But the action shots that you will see will be shot later. John will come back during one of the dress rehearsals and take pictures of the actual show. Sometimes he comes twice.
Publicity shots are a different animal. Several of the principles will be posed in – what we hope will be – intriguing shots. Nothing that comes out of this will be very much like the actual show. You may see some of these in newspapers in coming days.
On the plus side, publicity picture day gives us a first glimpse of some of the costumes.
Here is the Judge:

And the counsel for the defense:

And then there is Rachel.

Rachel might be as close as this show has to a protagonist – in the classic sense. None of the other main characters really change much – their individual existentialist moments not withstanding. In general, it is actually the townspeople of Hillsboro who make the major character journey of the play. But Rachel is the kind of focal point of everything that goes on with the rest of the town.
And while all of these pictures are being taken, the rest of us wait:

We understand, of course. It’s all part of the process. It is funny though. A process that began several weeks ago with a lot of waiting, has returned to waiting.
After the pictures came the runthrough. Less and less the cast members are watching the show from the seats and more and more we’re spending the show backstage.
This means more waiting

And more waiting:

Tech week is coming up, so there is more waiting ahead.