Shooting a theatre production is a lot like shooting a dance recital and can be easily as challenging.

There’s the stage lighting that is often LED panels with heavily saturated colours such as red and blue that you’re shooting from a darkened theatre which can make getting a good image very tricky. And that stage lighting that the lighting tech and the director of the show meticulously designed for every scene is all you have to work with because using a flash in a theatre is not only strictly forbidden, it’s actually dangerous to the actors on stage who could be blinded by that unexpected burst of light.

There’s also the occasional scenes where there is frenetic action upon the stage and keeping up with what’s most relevant can get your heart thumping.

What really sets taking pictures in a theatre dress rehearsal apart is that it’s usually much more intimate than a dance recital shot from far away in the rear of the theatre. A dress rehearsal is up close and personal with the actors taken very close to the stage because so much of their acting is in their expressions and how they’re physically interacting with their fellow actors on stage which can make or break the image.

Dress rehearsal photos are also useful for a theatre to have a photo archive of how the production sets were put together and the costuming and lighting so that should they put on the same production in the future, they’ve already got a good starting point for the show.

If you’ve got a theatrical production you’d like to preserve in pictures, we’d love to work with you! 🙂