Gorgeous Avatar by Jules Horne

A Picture Tells A Thousand Stories?

(Posted by Andy Catlin, Marketing Manager, Traverse Theatre)

Whilst the creative team knuckle down to actually making Gorgeous Avatar, I thought it would be a good time to wind the clock back a little and explain a little about the photo that is gracing the poster, brochure, leaflet, website, etc, etc. A detailed lesson in why show business is less exciting than you might think...



So... its the first week of January 2006 and we've got Euan Myles (ace photographer responsible for many of the Traverse's striking publicity images) standing on a stepladder in his garden. The light is fading light and the temperature is falling. He's taking pictures of a woman sitting in his front room in front of a laptop being covered by fake snow. Having previously taken pictures for the Traverse of a pig in a dress (Homers), half a woman surrounded by kettles (Melody) and a drowned man on a beach (The Found Man), he's not even fazed by this scenario.



I'm standing next to him shivering with a walkie talkie. Inside all cosy and warm is Pauline Knowles who is playing the role of Amy in the play sitting in front of my iBook. Euan's Assistant Chris is out of sight on one side of the window (holding a reflector) and the stylist Angela is standing on the other side of the window (with handfuls of fake snow).



Euan cues me, I cue Angela, Chris and Pauline using a walkie talkie. Angela throws fake snow in the air, Chris reflects light, Pauline looks Amy-like and Euan takes a photo. Ridiculous? Bet your life. On the positive side, 30 minutes and its all done. This doesn't feel remotely glamorous. As Lou Reed said: 'only believe half of what you see and none of what you read'...

More stories from the rehearsal room soon...


[Look what they did to my iBook!]

posted by Andy Catlin @ 4/20/2006 04:25:00 PM