The making of theatre is more often than not a private process. Within the walls of the rehearsal room directors, actors, designers, writers and crew gradually develop the work from a small notion or a written text into a full production. Although the artists involved are almost always aware of what they are striving for, they rarely have any tactile knowledge of the final result. It’s a process that requires enormous creative risk and the rehearsal room is therefore a fiercely protected place.
I was given rare access to this sacred space when invited to observe and document rehearsals for Next Stage’s Money Shots. An exhibition of the images ran with the opening of the production, with it being the first exhibition of its kind in Australia, that being the prints handcrafted from digital files and printed in the Lith process.