Outdoor Theatre Project, part 2 – Streets, Houses, Families


I really like the idea of outdoor theatre where the audience moves from scene to scene and becomes a part of the play itself. In part 2 of the series, Nightjar’s photos are done in black, white and sepia tones and have an antiquated feel to them in keeping with the play. I’ll let Nightjar explain the artistic choices behind each photo:

 

Photo 1, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

This is one of the most dynamic and beautiful scenes and took place in an old and narrow street filled with props, although the public can’t see everything right away because of all the hanged clothes blocking their vision.

 

photo 2, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

White clothes and wooden clothespins gave the street a properly antique look. Plastic just wouldn’t have worked.

 

photo 3, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Not an actor and not part of the crew. Originally. I took this photo before one of the rehearsals, and I was convinced the public would scare the cats away. That was not the case. They even showed up in my recording of this scene, running along in front of the actress. Well, the scene is about houses and streets, I guess the cats concluded it could be about them as well.

 

photo 4, ©Nightjar, all rights reserved

Near the end of the street things get a bit more personal as you can see. Families are remembered and everyone gets a good laugh when we get to a list of family nicknames. Me, I am somehow still from the “pinenuts” family. I do not however belong to the “vinegars”, “onions” or “garlics”, definitely not to the “howevers”, “glories” or “fourteens”. I will admit to a bit of “turnip” blood and the “mouths” are still my distant cousins. I think for most of these silly nicknames no one has any idea how they came about, just that they have passed from generation to generation and when put together whole sentences can be made out of them.

 

Comments

  1. rq says

    These are beautiful, and certainly have a historic feel to them -- and the cat (and the cats during the show!) are the perfect (purr-fect?) accent.
    I like that tradition of family nicknames. I bet there’s a super-secret, action-packed reason for them, like codenames of some kind. I think my favourite is the “howevers”, I have two theories -- either someone really liked debating both sides, or they never had a real plan on how to get something done. I hope this tradition gets carried along for generations yet to come!

  2. Nightjar says

    Cats make everything better. Earlier this week I met with the actors and the director to show them the videos and everyone loved the fact that I caught the cat on camera during the show!

    rq,
    The “howevers” has always intrigued me. Some I did not include because I couldn’t find an adequate translation. This scene ends with a nickname that is an interjection used to express annoyance. I guess the closest equivalent in English would be “damn!”. The actress closes by saying “damn, so many nicknames!”, and everyone recognizes that “damn” is itself a nickname. :D

Leave a Reply