by Cindi Boiter
Last night, I popped by Earlewood Park amphitheater to scope out the situation for our little party that is seeing South Carolina Shakespeare Company's Titus Andronicus tomorrow night (and to get hugs from my kids). I only stayed 30 minutes, but wow. Full disclosure that director Chad Henderson is my son-in-law, but I’ve got to say that he and his team have really pulled off something brilliant with this production. It’s absolutely out of the box —innovative and surprising and a little surreal.
For example, in the photo below, we see Jennifer Hill in the role of Tamara, Queen of the Goths, but behind her we see the imposing face of Darion McCloud as Aaron, her lover, projected onto the draped screen as he delivers yet another menacing line.
In this photo we see Catherine Hunsinger, in the role of Lavinia, the daughter of Titus Andronicus, on the actual stage but also projected behind her giving the audience a larger than life look after an unspeakable act has befallen her character. Evidently this is the work of videographer Adrian Williams with Megan Claxton pulling focus.
The cast also includes Stann Gwynn (as Titus), Tracy Steele, Richard Edward, Christopher Cockrell (as Saturnius), Marshall Spann, Chris Aimone, Brandon Martin, Dakota Walker, Tristan Brown, young Aden Cobb, Sunni Greene, Brittany Bierman — you probably know many of these folks yourself. But Bonnie, my daughter, was explaining that every night of this multi-media production, all these actors - the whole cast and crew, plus some noble volunteers - have to break down the stage and load out all the equipment, only to load it back in the next afternoon.
If this isn’t dedication to one’s art, I’m not sure what is.
And by the way, the event is free. All you have to do is roll up like I did last night. Parking was easy in the lot and there are designated spots along the road. Head to the small covered pavilion with picnic tables and then just follow the winding sidewalk down to the amphitheater. It’s a short walk. The amphitheater has concrete seating so I’m taking a tailgating chair and, since it’s supposed to be fall Saturday night, I’ll take a blanket, too as well as some vino (Vino Garage is 2 minutes away) and cheese and stuff for a nice pre show picnic. I hope we get to see a lot of friends there!