Photos in Technicolor: Laurel Highlands’ Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat

There are certain productions where you can feel the energy before the curtain even goes up. This year’s Laurel Highlands High School musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, was one of those shows.

I have been deeply involved in Laurel Highlands musicals for a long time now in a variety of ways. My sister, Lauren Stewart, directs the productions, and for over a decade, I have photographed each show, played trumpet in the pit orchestra, and for the last few years designed their program booklets. I’ve even contributed to some of the props by printing them on my 3D printer.

This year was mostly the same, but the instrumentation for the pit orchestra did not call for a trumpet, so I didn’t get to do that part. However, that meant I had the rare chance to step away from the music stand and focus entirely on photography and program design for the production.

There is an even deeper family connection woven into the Laurel Highlands shows. My mom, Kathie Groves, who is also a musician, has regularly played in the pit orchestra and is a part of the team of costumers. When I was growing up, she was a stay-at-home mom who ran a side business as a seamstress, so Lauren regularly calls on her expertise for costume development. This year, she made the technicolor coat worn by Joseph on stage. If you know the show, you know that coat is practically a character of its own, and this one was no exception. Seeing it come to life on stage after weeks of work behind the scenes was one of those quiet moments where the family threads running through the production became impossible to miss.

Over the years that I have been photographing these shows, I have learned to recognize the rhythm of how they come together every spring. There is always a buzzing sense of excitement backstage and nervous energy before the first full run. Then there’s always that moment when the rehearsals are done and the performances start.

And yet, every show still has its own personality. At its core, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is built on color, movement, and momentum. There really isn’t any spoken dialogue. The show is almost entirely sung, and the staging moves quickly from one scene to the next. For a photographer, that kind of production creates a playground of visual moments. Bold costumes, bright stage lighting, and large ensemble numbers mean that every few seconds something new is happening somewhere on stage.

The challenge is keeping up with it. One of the performer’s moms told me she was impressed that I was able to get photos of just about everyone on stage. She asked how I was able to make that happen, and I told her that usually I have the added advantage of knowing the show’s ins and outs ahead of time from sitting in on pit rehearsals. I said that it’s like seeing the picture before you take it in some cases. I also said that, especially without that foresight this year, it really comes down to pointing the camera in as many directions as possible and taking TONS of photos. I also know the space very well at this point, so I am familiar with good angles and places to shoot from. And while none of that enables me to guarantee a photo of each student, there’s a really good chance most of them appear somewhere in the gallery.

Photographing a musical rehearsal is very different from photographing a single staged moment. Nothing stops. There are no second takes just for the camera (although sometimes I do request that a certain pose be held if I know it will make for a great image). Scenes flow into one another, lighting cues change instantly, and performers are constantly moving through the frame.

That is exactly what makes it fun. My goal when I photograph a production like this is not just to document who was on stage. It’s to capture what the show felt like from inside the room. The big ensemble numbers, the quieter character moments, the lighting that shapes the mood of a scene, and the small details that audiences might miss while watching from their seats.

Over the years, those images have grown into something bigger than just a gallery of photos. Each year, I produce a hardcover photo album containing all the photos I took from that production. Together, these books have become a visual archive of the entire program. My first time photographing a show for Laurel Highlands was their 2015 production of The Phantom of the Opera, and I’ve photographed every show since then. The casts change, students graduate, new performers step into the spotlight, but the story of the program continues year after year.

The photo book for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is now in development now and will soon join that collection. Like the shows before it, the book captures the production from the inside out. The full ensemble numbers, the lighting and costumes that give the show its unmistakable look, and the details that bring the production to life on stage are all on display in these archives.

For everyone involved—the students, set builders, musicians, directors, choreographers, makeup artists, and so many more—the musical represents months of work. (Many of these people were already working on this show when I published my first blog post way back in November.) These shows always exemplify the kind of teamwork that only happens when dozens of people are building something together.

As the show photographer, my job is to freeze those moments before they disappear because once the final curtain falls and the set pieces come down, what remains are only the memories.

And sometimes, the next stage is already waiting. Just a few days after the final curtain closed at Laurel Highlands, I found myself stepping into another theater environment entirely. This time, it was the Duquesne University Opera Workshop preparing for their production of The Magic Flute inside Pittsburgh’s historic Union Trust Building.

Different performers, different music, and a completely different setting, but the same goal behind the camera: capturing the moments that tell the story of the performance.