Welders – Happiness

Two months ago, Bob Bartlett, one of the Welders, posted a teaser about his upcoming show: Happiness (and other reasons to die). I immediately sent him the picture above, which I took three years ago, and we were both a little astounded.

I've posted about the Welders before: How they are a group I love to collaborate with because our creative sensibilities meld so well and lead to the creation of interesting, engaging work. Well, in this case, our sensibilities not only were a spot on match, but also, I created my part of the work long before they needed it, in fact, before the play and even the theatre company existed.

So now this picture is a part of Bob's promotion of the show going forward, and I couldn't be happier with this creative partnership that keeps growing, even backwards in time.

Previews start tonight, and you can get tickets for the show here!

Headshot Outtake - Alison Daniels - May, 2015

Eastern Market, DC

The great thing about working with actors who know how to play to the camera is that even your castoff shots end up looking pretty darned good...

NYC Subway - April, 2015

I don't shoot for my subway portrait project nearly as often as I did when I was a train commuter.

But every trip to New York is a feast for the candid subway portraitist's eye.

Smokey Joe's Café Mugshots – Arena Stage

This time last year, I was working as assistant director to Randy Johnson on Arena Stage's production of SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE. It was a fantastic room to be in, full of some of the most talented singers and dancers in the DC theatre community. During technical rehearsals, someone came up with the idea of projecting late-50's-style mugshots of the actors during JAILHOUSE ROCK.

After few minutes in the green room with my iPhone, the actors, and Arena's costumes, hair, and makeup crews, we had the base shots, which I then composited and finished in Photoshop.

When the images below were done and I showed them to the cast... Well: I've never seen anyone so happy to see themselves arrested.

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.