Over the last couple of months you might have heard me or Erica talk about the "real play, with words you have to memorize" that she's been rehearsing for. Well, tonight is the opening night of Camenae Ensemble Theatre Company's production of Dido, Queen of Carthage by Christopher Marlowe.

I went to the tech and dress rehearsals over the last two nights to take publicity photos and I have to say that I was really impressed. I was at the first read-through of the play and, I have to admit, at that time I kinda thought, "oh great, 16th Century language about tragic figures from 9th Century BC. Yawn-town." But Sara's direction and the fine cast have really brought this play to life. And the lush costumes really pop on the simple stage, which made it easy to take beyutiful pictures.

And speaking of those pictures, I tried a little directed-publicity experiment. When I was shooting, I didn't just focus on the principals, but I got photos of everyone. So last night I made the offer that if anyone had a blog or LiveJournal or whathaveyou, I would send them a URL of a photo of their own self that they could post to help publicize the show. I was expecting 2 or 3 people to take me up on the offer. Twelve cast members came forward and gave me their emails. A number of them have posted pictures, and I see from perusing their blogs that they were already, of course, plugging the show, but every little bit helps and it was easy enough to crank out 12 web-quality photos while watching Project Runway last night.

The Dido cast blogs:

bdar
birchfire
dancing blue
duck2ducks
Erica Reid
hssst
miss sherri
misterholt
xandra_lj