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A page in Vanity Fair! – Part 1

AUG 8, 2011

A page in Vanity Fair!

The creative team and leading cast members of the American Repertory Theater’s new production of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess were asked by Vanity Fair magazine last May to take a portrait that would run in the September issue— just in time for the opening of the production at the A.R.T.’s home in Cambridge. Director Diane Paulus, adaptors Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray, choreographer Ronald K. Brown, and leads Audra McDonald, Norm Lewis, and David Alan Grier agreed to take time out of rehearsal to be dressed, groomed, and prepared for a photo shoot that would take place in Uptown Manhattan.

Now that the magazine is on the stands, here is an insider’s peek into the amazingly detailed process — from 9am to 6pm, not to mention all the advance research that international photographer Mark Seliger made to set the scene he wanted to create — that it takes to generate a single photograph in the magazine.

At 9am, eight clothing racks were rolled into the rehearsal studio next to the one where the cast was rehearsing at 42nd Street Studios, and several tables were installed that would contain all the accessories, jewelry, hats, scarves, belts, etc…as well at least a dozen pair of shoes for each subject. The back of the room was the makeup and hair department.

Continued in Part 2 and Part 3