Camelot caps special year for GSC

 
Presenting the Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot" this summer was a significant accomplishment for the Garfield Shakespeare Company, which had never ventured into the realms of a musical until this.

Camelot concluded a season of all-contemporary theater -- no Shakespeare -- for the all-volunteer GSC in Indianapolis in 2014, and even though the troupe scheduled six performances for the production -- two more than usual -- one show was rained out, and another show was cut short at intermission because of threatening weather.

Still, the show(s) did go on, and the Southside theater company was able to add another feather to its cap. GSC decided a year ago about this time to put aside Shakespeare for a full season and perform two contemporary productions. GSC started the year with Jean Anouilh's Antigone in spring, and threw its energies into Camelot for the late-summer show.

Jay Brubaker, Desiree Law and Joshua Law were cast in the lead characters of King Arthur, Guenevere, and Sir Lancelot, respectively. The Laws are husband and wife. Their children, Evan and Destiny, also were in the cast, as was Brubaker's daughter, Eirene.

The Symphonic Youth Orchestra of Greater Indianapolis provided instrumentation for the show; Shawn Goodman conducted, and Linda Parr was musical director. Goodman's daughter, Katie Pinkus, also was in the cast.

I dropped in on the Aug. 21 dress rehearsal to take the images you see in this post. A full gallery of images from the shoot can be found at my site at SmugMug.

GSC already has announced it will return to the bard's repertoire for both shows in 2015 -- the comedy The Merry Wives of Windsor in the spring, and The Tragedy of Othello, Moor of Venice in late summer.