GSC's bittersweet Romeo & Juliet

For the first three years of presenting live theater productions in the MacAllister Amphitheater at Garfield Park, the Garfield Shakespeare Company was extremely fortunate in avoiding bad weather. No performances had to be postponed or canceled.

GSC artistic director Joe Cook would boast about that luck in his welcoming addresses to audiences before each show. Alas, the string of good luck ended in 2012, and a string of bad weather has dogged the troupe's full outdoor schedule ever since. I don't think a year has gone by since 2012 that one or more of the outdoor shows has had to be rescheduled or canceled by rain and/or cold.

But this year's weather dealt GSC an unprecedented setback: It forced cancellation of the entire opening weekend of shows of "Romeo and Juliet." Hence, this Friday and Saturday (Aug. 26 and 27) will serve as opening weekend. It will mark the second time GSC has presented this Shakespearean romantic tragedy; the troupe performed "Romeo" in its very first season as well.

While the cancellations already have left their mark on "Romeo" 2016, the show promises to be bittersweet for another reason.

Cook (left) told me recently that he and associate artistic director Bradley A. Jones, also GSC's longtime costumer, will depart the company when "Romeo" completes its run of performances. "Romeo" has four more shows scheduled for MacAllister and an abridged version to stage in late September at the annual Clayshire Castle Medieval Faire in Bowling Green. Ind. Cook said he thought it was appropriate that he and Jones say farewell with a play they produced to help launch the all-volunteer theater company eight years ago.

Cook and Jones co-founded GSC four years after moving to the Garfield Park-South neighborhood of Indianapolis. In a way, GSC was a revival of the park's Shakespeare in the Park series that had run for several years in the 1980s before shutting down well before the new millennium. Until GSC came along, there had been no park-based theatrical company in the interim.

Cook, a retired Spanish and Latin teacher at Ben Davis High School (where he was not involved in theater productions), has been involved in Indianapolis community theater for a while. Two troupes he previously founded, Hendricks Civic Theatre, based in Danville, and Spolight Players, Beech Grove, are still in operation -- just without Cook's participation.

Jones (right) has already departed the troupe, although before doing so, he contributed some work on "Romeo." Both men and Kassy Cayer, who has served as GSC marketing and publicity director for two years, also left the GSC Board of Directors, a group whose membership currently stands at five. Cook had been its president. Cook said he doesn't know who will take over as artistic director.

The likely candidate is board member Chris Burton (left), who co-directed "The Tempest" in 2013 and directed "Antigone" in 2014 and "The Importance of Being Earnest" this spring. Burton  is directing two more GSC shows this fall -- "Twelfth Night" (the troupe's entry in the second annual Bard Fest in Carmel, which runs in October) and "The Waverly Gallery," a contemporary drama with comedic elements written by Kenneth Lonergan that will be staged at the Garfield Park Arts Center sometime after the Bard Fest. (Note: The cast for "Twelfth Night" has been named, but auditions for "The Waverly Gallery," a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2001, will be at 6:30 p.m. Aug. 30 and 31 at the arts center).

In the past year or so, GSC obtained certification as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, qualifying it to receive grant money and enabling all contributions to the troupe to be declared as charitable deductions for income tax purposes.

On to the show ...

The "Romeo" cast features a good mix of veterans (12 people have performed in previous GSC productions) and first-timers (14), as well as a novelty -- two women were cast in the role of Juliet to allow for one or the other to be out of town for at least one of the performances. Consequently, for the official photo archive version of the show, I shot both nights of dress rehearsal -- one featuring Bita Eisenhut Paige as Juliet, and the other with Sabrina Duprey in the role. When Bita is Juliet, Sabrina takes a non-speaking role.

Remaining performances of "Romeo and Juliet," which pits the Montague and Capulet families against each other, are at 8 p.m. Aug. 26-27 and Sept. 2-3. No rainout dates had been planned as of this writing. As always, admission to all GSC productions is free, although the troupe eagerly welcomes donations and has receptacles at the amphitheater access points to accept any.

For a gallery of all my images of the shoots, visit my site at SmugMug.com. Because I shot two performances, I am still working on processing many of the photos, so the gallery is not complete, but I'm adding to it daily.

Leading off the post is a photo from one of several combat scenes in the play. This swordfight features Tybalt (left), played by Andrew Ohning, and Mercutio, played by Andy Sturm. Lurking in the background is Romeo, played by Joel David Bonitz.

Photo geek stuff: I shot both rehearsals with my Canon 6D equipped with a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. I used shutter priority mode throughout. For most scenes, the shutter was locked on 1/250. I boosted the shutter to 1/640 for the combat scenes. My ISO varied throughout the performance, which started at 7 p.m. with decent daylight, at which time I used ISO 240 and/or thereabouts. In post-processing, I addressed spot overexposure from direct sun hitting pockets of the stage by moving the highlight slider in Camera Raw software to significant levels below 0. If that wasn't enough, I also lowered the saturation slider. I then tried to make up lighting elsewhere in the frame by boosting sliders for shadows and, occasionally, exposure, though I tried to keep the latter to a minimum. As dusk settled in, I had to raise ISO levels. If the action occurred on the majority of the stage, the ISO rarely inched past 1600. But if it occurred on the stage's extreme sides or at the very front, where stage lighting was not good, I had to push the ISO to as much as 6400.

Above and next two below: Bita Eisenhut Paige will handle the majority of performances as Juliet. Above, she interacts with Friar Lawrence, played by Rich Steinberg.

Above: GSC veteran Joel David Bonitz (Romeo) struggles with Knicholas Grimes, who makes his debut with the troupe in the role of the County Paris. 

Above: One of two short, simultaneous scraps in an early scene.   

Above and below: Bonitz in a scene with Zoe Cunningham, who plays Benvolio, Romeo's cousin ... and an unsuccessful peacemaker. 

Above: Ohning and Cunningham in an early scene tussle that does not end in any casualties. 

Above and next four below: Mercutio, Romeo's best friend, is neither a Montague nor Capulet, so he easily frolics among members of both clans ... at least until he tangles with Tybalt.

Above and next two below: Sabrina Duprey in the Juliet role in scenes with her nurse, played by Peggy Herrod, and in a solo scene ... preparing to take a sleeping potion she obtained from Friar Lawrence.

Above: Duprey and Bonitz in a late scene in which Romeo finds Juliet and thinks she is dead. 

Above: After seeing Juliet and believing her to be dead, Romeo takes a dose of a lethal potion he purchased from an apothecary. In this photo, and the one below, Eisenhut Paige plays Juliet. 

Above: Juliet finds Romeo dead in her bed. 

Above: Romeo moments before the end of his struggle with Tybalt.  

Above: Lady and Lord Capulet, played by Erin Hamilton and Bill Baker, reacting to news of their daughter Juliet's death.  

Above: Prince Escalus, played by Guy Grubbs, is the voice of authority in Verona and appears on the stage thrice -- each time to administer justice after major developments in the Montague-Capulet feud.   

Above: Eisenhut Paige in a scene as Juliet with her nurse (Herrod).

Above: Duprey (left) in her non-speaking role when Bita Eisenhut Paige is playing Juliet.

Bonitz as Romeo and Eisenhut Paige as Juliet (above) and Duprey as Juliet (second below). 

Above: Bonitz in a scene with Friar Lawrence (Steinberg).  

Above and below: An example of how a quick change of focus directs/redirects the focal point in a photo, a technique that utilizes depth of field to help accomplish the goal. 

Above and next two below: Bill Baker in his breakout role as Lord Capulet. I could run a montage of Baker facial expressions (and I have at least a score of them!), but I'll let these three examples make the point. 

Knicholas Grimes as County Paris in three scenes -- in conversation with Juliet (above), upon beholding a lifeless Juliet (below), and briefly hiding behind Juliet's bed as Romeo enters the room (second below) in the distance.

 Above: Mourning the loss of Romeo and Juliet. 

GSC delights with its turn at Oscar Wilde's earnest pursuit of the name Ernest

Since its inception in 2008, the Garfield Shakespeare Company has focused primarily on the works of Shakespeare when drafting its annual schedule of productions. In recent years, however, GSC has occasionally strayed into more contemporary works so patrons can experience -- and enjoy -- variety in local free theater.

There was Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" in 2011, and Thornton Wilder's "The Matchmaker" in 2013. The "straying" expanded in a significant way in 2014, when GSC took a full year's hiatus from Shakespeare, presenting Jean Anouilh's "Antigone" in the spring and the Lerner and Loewe musical "Camelot" in the summer.

After devoting all of the 2015 schedule to the Bard ("The Merry Wives of Windsor" and "Othello"), GSC is back to straying with its spring 2016 production of Oscar Wilde's "The Importance of Being Earnest," an entertaining farce directed by GSC veteran Chris Burton. "Earnest" features a splendid cast that nails all the nuances and emphasis of Wilde's clever writing, leaving few lulls in laughs for the audience. GSC will return to Shakespeare this summer with "Romeo and Juliet" at the park's MacAllister Amphitheater. It also has other plans on its 2016 program; for details, visit the announcements page of the troupe's website.

"Earnest" completed its first weekend of shows with a matinee on Sunday (March 13). Three shows remain -- Thursday, Friday and Saturday (March 17, 18 & 19), all at 7:30 p.m. There is no admission fee, although visitors are invited to leave donations to help the troupe finance future shows and endeavors. Bags of chips and cold non-alcoholic beverages (soda and water) are available for purchase for $1 each during intermission. Although admission is free, attendees are encouraged to call the arts center beforehand (317-327-7135) to ensure/reserve seats.

I photographed "Earnest" at its March 9 dress rehearsal. It was the 11th GSC show I have photographed since "Macbeth" in 2010. You can find a full gallery of images from "Earnest" at my SmugMug site.

I lead off the post with a shot from the play's first scene, one featuring Algernon Montcrieff (played by David Santangelo), left, and Jack Worthing (played by Spencer Elliott), longtime friends and eligible bachelors in Victorian society who are spirited, playful antagonists in a quest for identifying with the coveted name "Ernest." Each man also strives to win the affection of women who, as it turns out, are highly attracted to the gentlemanly name "Ernest" (yet another curiosity).

Photo Geek stuff: I shot the entire rehearsal in RAW format -- and with available light -- with my Canon 6D and mostly with my Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L lens. For a short period in the middle of the shoot, just to get a variety of perspective, I used my Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS lens, but found myself stepping back to get things into the picture frame when using that lens. I set the camera shooting mode to shutter priority, selecting 1/160 as my speed of choice to allow for freeze action but also to capture some movement in key spots where movement was critical to depict. I used ISO 3200 most of the time, adjusting it up slightly in the extreme right and left corners of the stage, where the provided stage lighting dropped off considerably. I used automatic white balance, and because that choice delivered images on the warm (orange/yellow) side of the color spectrum, I slightly adjusted the color level in most images to cooler temperatures during the Adobe Camera RAW stage of post-processing on Photoshop Elements 13. I made reduced copies of my images for use online using the batch feature of Irfanview, increasing the sharpening percentage to 70% (in the advanced settings area of the Irfanview menu) rather than sharpening reduced images individually, which I'd done in the past. I sharpen reduced-sized images because I've found through the years that images tend to lose some sharpness when their size is reduced.   

Above: Mike Harold, playing Algernon Montcrieff's manservant, provides a deft assist to return a hat to Spencer Elliott, who plays Jack Worthing, when the hat took an unscripted topple in an early scene. Worthing is chatting with Montcrieff, played by David Santangelo. Below, the same three characters in a different moment of the same scene, and below that, Santangelo once more. 

Above and below: Kate Ghormley enters the scene as Lady Bracknell, Algernon's aunt and a societal snob who married into the upper class. Lady Brackness is trying to find a suitable bride for her nephew. He eventually falls for Cecily, Jack's 18-year-old ward. Above, she applies a stern hand to her nephew, and below, she faints after Worthing tells her he is interested in marrying her daughter, Gwendolyn, played by Ashely Chase Elliott (far right in photo above).

Above and next three below: Christy Walker (above, left) entertains in a secondary role as Miss Prism, the governess/tutor of Cecily Cardew (right), Jack's ward, the 18-year-old daughter of his adopted father, Thomas Cardew. Cecily is played by GSC newcomer Bita Eisenhut.

Above and below: Rev. Canon Chasuble, played by John Garlick, enters the story when Jack and Algernon petition the minister to christen them. Miss Prism takes a quick liking to Chasuble. 

Above: Another shot of Bita Eisenhut as Cecily, during a conversation with Algernon.

Above: Ashley Chase Elliott, as Gwendolyn Fairfax, Lady Bracknell's daughter and object of Jack's affection.

Above and below: If you haven't gone to the play yet but plan to do so, keep a watchful eye on Jack's butler, Merriman, played by Bill Baker, in the Second Act (after intermission). His antics as butler while standing in the background (including helping himself to his guests' tea and snacks) and his facial expressions while he observes the untangling of the cast's confusion and secrets, are bound to conjure smiles -- if not outright laughs.  

Above: Algernon loves muffins, and he keeps dangling them in front of Jack, much to the latter's consternation.

Above: The moment after Gwendolyn accepts Jack's proposal for marriage. 

Lady Bracknell (above) as Jack informs her of his ward Cecily's imminent fortune, immediately changing Lady Bracknell's stance on Cecily's suitability for her nephew Algernon, and (below) after she gives her enthusiastic support of their union.

Above: Jack and Algy, in the throes of another playful tiff. 

When Jack learns of Miss Prism's critical role (and Lady Bracknell's confirmation of such) in ascertaining his true identity, he excitedly embraces her (above) and Algernon (below).

Above: Jack's critical moment of discovery.