Camden People’s Theatre in London celebrated its thirty years of existence with a private fundraiser and a show.
Performers who had been nurtured by CPT and gone on to fame in the wider world reprised the first part they performed when CPT gave them their start.
Before performing, each of them talked about the supportive atmosphere at CPT, where artistic expression was respected and valued, where encouragement had given them the confidence to do things in public they never thought they could do.
Then the people behind the scenes outlined what CPT did, and asked the audience to give them money so they could continue doing it. Times are hard, they said, with ventures closing down. So it was all the more important to support CPT.
I was invited to photograph the evening, the social mixing before the show and then the show. I shot everything with the Canon RF 28-70mm f2.8 lens. The lighting was a real mix and low and I shot everything at 6400 ISO. It’s been a while since I have taken photos according to someone’s requirements, and in such poor lighting.
The Photos Are In The Papers
When going for an interview my mother would say, don’t hide your light under a bushel. It means of course, not to hold back but to describe one’s capabilities so as to give the other party a full picture. And of course, that carries with it the danger that one starts to aggrandise oneself. It’s a narrow bridge, as most things are.
All of which is a lead-up to saying that the photos made the papers.
The actress in the photo is Frankie Thompson, and in the background is the signer, the person who signed the words to anyone in the audience with differently abled hearing. There were actually two signers, and one took over while the other rested.
This is a photo I took of Frankie in the social mixing bit before the show.
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