Charles III
Projection Design
If you follow the English Royals at all you understand the constant pressures the family is under. It is incessant, especially for the main family.
There are two primary aspects of this pressure:
Internal pressures of the monarchy, the expectations of the family and the legacy of ancestors and their portraits hung around the walls.
External pressures from tabloids constantly following them around and looking for every opportunity to profit on the smallest misstep or slip of the tongue
To be clear, this isn’t to apologize for the Royals, but these pressures are profound. Charles III was written before Queen Elizabeth passed and was set in the time immediately following her funeral as the new King Charles is assuming the throne. Charles earnestly wants to improve things in his country, but comes to a reckoning fairly quickly that indicates he may not be the best man for the job.
While the play is contemporary it was written in a Shakespearean style.
The voice of projections in this piece is intended to represent the pressures on the Royals from within and without.
Here Charles makes his first address as king. You can see the various portraits hanging behind him as well as our “TV screens” above. We utilized live camera feeds to give the feeling of being in a TV studio.
The portraits were constant throughout the show. We would adjust their brightness to match the look of true painted portraits in every scene so that we could surprise the audience with them being video surfaces. More on that later.
Here we see a scene change into the coronation. We’re using our “TV Screens” (really rear projection screens from two projectors upstage) to display the headlines from the various tabloids as representation of those external pressures.
Ah yes, Magical Realism enter stage right. Here is where we play with the portraits. The ghost of Princess Diana makes various appearances throughout the show as Charles and others realize their place in the post-Queen Elizabeth era. Not only did we have an actress play the ghost to make these appearances, but their presence was made known through the portraits, they would distort and react to her presence.
This project is a favorite of mine because it illustrates how projections can be used effectively without stealing the show. There is a perception that projections will cause a drastic mood shift in the production no matter how you use them. This project disproves that.
Director: Kevin Rich
Scenic: Stephen C. Jones
Lighting: Katie Gruenhagen
Costumes: Meghan Anderson Doyle
Sound: Jason Ducat