Ryan Maxwell Photography Blog

Headshots. Production. Engagement. Wedding.

YPT – New Play Festival 2015 First Read

Every spring, Young Playwrights' Theater produces a festival of some of the most challenging, unpredictable plays the DC theatre community has to offer. The plays are written by elementary-through-high-school students in DC-area schools, and the playwrights always write stories constrained only by their imaginations and not what is realistic or producible.

For every festival, the first rehearsal is a special, magical moment when the students, actors, directors, and dramaturgs gather for the first time to read the plays, and the student-playwrights hear their words coming from professional actors who are fully committed to their characters and beginning to bring to life the worlds these kids have created with their words.

At the end of March, I was lucky enough to be in the room for one such group of readings to take these shots.

Helen Hayes Awards 2015

For the last three years, DC Theatre Scene has sent me to cover the Helen Hayes Awards, a massive celebration of the the theatre community referred to by its members as Drama Prom. In any year, there is never a single room in DC that houses such creative energy, community spirit, and joyous abandon. For people that usually work in small groups in isolation, this is one night where everyone explodes together in celebration of the best of all of us.

Smokey Joe’s Café @ Arena Stage

Jay Adriel and Austin Colby

I was fortunate enough to be asked to document the rehearsal process of Smokey Joe's Café at Arena Stage. I worked with the marketing and social networking team at Arena, we decided on a raw and vintage look for the shots, to call to mind the photographic style that documented the early days of rock 'n' roll and the creation of the music that makes up the show.

Ashley Blair Fitzgerald

Kara-Tameika Watkins