“Firstborn” – Original Play by Tiffany Golden

“Firstborn” was originally a concept for a feature film that was adapted into a play, which premiered at the Black Repertory Group in Berkeley. It’s also where I discovered that focal lengths made for crop sensor cameras such as 17-50mm don’t work quote well for my style, even though I am shooting on a crop sensor camera – a Canon EOS 7D . I’m almost never at the wide end , and sometimes I found myself wanting to be able to zoom in a little more for some tighter crops, even after using my legs to bring me as close as possible to the action.

Speaking of moving around, I always, always, shoot these productions during a dress rehearsal. I never shoot while a crowd is present. I believe that a theatre-goer’s experience is one that shouldn’t be marred by the clicking of a shutter, or a figure running around in the dark and jumping over seats. Usually, it’s the final dress rehearsal before the show opens or previews, because that’s when the set, wardrobe, and makeup is in place, and this naturally makes for the best photographs.

Notably, this play had some stage combat that I was somewhat prepared for; even though I had never seen a run-through, I did read the script, so I knew when an important bit of action was coming up. I always prefer to see a run through, but that’s actually a rare privilege, so in this case I just had to make sure to be a the ready.

See the whole set here.