Peggy and I enjoy writing reviews of local plays and performances, as well as personally enjoying live theatre. We really enjoyed it when my cousin Lavinia Moyer Hart was living in Pierce County again. Lindy and I grew up almost as sister and brother, our mothers being identical twins. She has a great history with live theatre. Both of us began acting in high school. Me at Clover Park High School and her at Puyallup High School. For many people acting begins in High School.
Lavinia founded and was the Artistic and Producing Director of the award-winning Attic Theatre in Greektown, Detroit. She has been an actress, director, producer and workshop presenter in fight, vocal expression and many movement theories. Livinia directed in many theatres and was the performance instructor for the Senior theatre arts students at Wayne State University. When she came back “home”, we were delighted. However, Lavinia moved to L.A. to be near her daughter Jaimie Moyer, also an actress, improv trainer and workshop leader. We miss her as we go on our theatre pilgrimages.
Peggy is a fantastic reader and writer as well as a lover of theater. We have been writing play reviews for years and hope to continue. Our reviews are posted on Facebook, but first go through the fantastic information center of The Suburban Times in Lakewood with a readership of 30,000 to 40,000 in Tacoma-Pierce County which also reaches out to the Olympia area and as far north as Burien and Renton which sometimes overflows to the Seattle area as well, plus an excellent group of actors on Vashon Island, just across the ferry landing from Pt. Defiance.
Live theater in the Seattle area with it’s much larger population is a lot more competitive and gets photographs sent out to us almost immediately.
We’ve been shooting video and taking photographs since we had a studio in downtown Tacoma in the ‘80s. We moved our studio back to our home after our studio collapsed on our huge open spaces and offices. We felt a roof at home might be better suited for us.
One of the joys of writing reviews and recognizing actors and meeting new ones is the backlog of productions, talents and productions we are privileged to attend. The images that the theatres provide to us to accompany our reviews are paramount to convey the action, fun and character of the productions. This also helps to catch the potential audience members’ eye and get them into the theatre.
We love our local theaters in Pierce County and in Olympia and South King County and as well as Vashon Island. We want them all to be successful. Photographs of the actors acting in different scenes are great avenues for pulling possible theater goers into the box office. Return viewers usually have their favorite actors they enjoy seeing. Harlequin Productions out of Olympia boosts their productions with early sharing of photographs, which help capture the eyes of potential ticket buyers.
Tacoma Little Theatre is one of the oldest live theaters in the Western half on the United States. Dennis K Photography shoots teasers at TLT well before opening night. Peggy and I often worm our way into the final dress rehearsal, which allows us to see the action and choose the appropriate images for a review of the latest production.
Harlequin Productions, in different guises has been a favorite of ours for thirty years. Currently they are on top of the world with images of the latest productions (in different aspects) well before opening night and weekend. Their play selection has always been superb. For their next opening weekend we will already have their photographs. We already have some photos to hype the production. What is also impressive about Harlequin is their use of video for actor interviews about their current productions.
Kat at Tacoma Musical Playhouse does a great job of shooting scenes and gathering images that will continue to fill the huge theater. And who doesn’t love a musical?
CenterStage in Federal Way, has a nice way of introducing their actors. They include an image of the actor as well as sharing some of their history. Very homey indeed. And their annual Christmas time Pantos are hilarious for adults and kids.
Joseph Walsh, the new manager at Lakewood Playhouse, gives me images of the cast in action well before opening night. This certainly helps potential theatre goers get hints about the production and encourages reticent theatre audience members to recognize the cast as well as hints about the production. In addition, Joseph uses images for gatherings about new possibilities and comments about future entertainments. For their production of Niceties we had images for the review before we had even seen the live production.
All in all, reviewers depend on the theatres to put on great performances and the theatres depend on the reviewers to give a fair notice of what is good to the audience members. Photographs enable us to share memories as well as hype for their latest local productions. Quite often even current audiences don’t recall the names of their favorite actors, singers, dancers. Photographs fill those gaps. The quicker we get photos and details and review, the sooner we can spread the word and help fill the seats.
In addition to sharing details of local productions like The Suburban Times, we also feature four of our own websites you might be interested in: https://seattletheatretoday.com/, https://tacomatheatredirectory.com/, https://eating-out-tacoma.com/, and https://www.nwadventures.us/
Don, I learned something once from one of the Attic’s regular photographers. She finished a dress rehearsal photo shoot but couldn’t find a few perfect live shots. She talked with me briefly about the “blocking” picturization. It was always a fun conversation. The goal was to see if there were ways to sharpen or refresh turning points in the storytelling. So the long and short of it was flat photo call = flat story telling. Seems obvious but it it’s a great check and balance for a director or play doctor. How are character lives different after this moment and how can the audience see that change through what they see rather than what they’re told.