Following it’s success last year in both in Scranton and Ballina, Ireland, Scranton Fringe’s hit Ulysses of Scranton is back for another run! And just like last year, the initial performances will take place in Scranton before traveling abroad, this time to a month of performances in the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland!
The cast has already started rehearsals for their local performances at the end of July. I met with them a few weeks back to shoot new promotional photos. The challenge this time was to recreate the look of their original promos, which were shot in a red backdrop in a studio. With the change in casting, new photos were necessary, but Scranton Fringe wanted to remain consistent with the look and style.
So we got a 9′ roll of red seamless backdrop paper and got to work, with a strobe + shoot-through umbrella to either side and running at nearly full power. Fringe’s space at the Sanctuary Theater in North Scranton works just as well as a photography studio as it does a theater venue, and there’s something about being on their home turf that I think helped the cast feel comfortable. We worked through our shot list, recreating poses from last year, and then as inevitably happens when creative folks start having fun, we went off script – the next thing I knew, the cast was taking turns jumping so that I could catch them mid-air!
We grabbed new headshots for the cast member as well, using the same setup as for The Glass Menagerie‘s headshots. This is a single strobe with a shoot-through umbrella to camera right, with our subject standing loosely in a neutral-colored corner. It’s as simple as it gets, but when you find something that works, you stick with it – and this particular corner is great for portraits!
I’m looking forward to seeing the new, revised version of the show – I thought it was excellent the first time around, but I’m hearing from the cast and crew that it’s even better now. And I’m just hugely excited for these great folks and their upcoming adventure at Edinburgh Fringe, and am so please to be able to support them!