Bob Clendenin in ‘Wait Until Dark’
June 2, 2010 at 9:41 am Tina Hay 2 comments
We’ve got a story in our forthcoming July-August issue about actor Bob Clendenin, whose face you’ve no doubt seen in many TV shows, movies, and commercials. Clendenin ’90g got his MFA in acting at Penn State. In the course of editing the story, I discovered that he was slated to appear in the Pennsylvania Centre Stage production of the thriller Wait Until Dark, which opens this week. So I thought it would be cool to go to see the play and write my column about it and tie that into the feature story in the same issue.
I went to last night’s dress rehearsal so I could get photos to go with the column, and then tonight I’ll attend the preview. (There are previews tonight and tomorrow, with Friday being the official opening night.) Of course, having watched a full run-through last night with full costuming and lighting and all that, I kinda know what happens in the play now. But I know I’ll get more out of it the second time.
It’s a terrific production, and I highly recommend it. Clendenin is great as the bad-guy Harry Roat (the role played by Alan Arkin in the 1967 film version), and so are the two other Equity actors headlining the play: Vanessa Reseland ’05 as the blind woman Susy Hendrix and Alano Miller ’08g as Roat’s partner in crime, Mike Talman. In the slide show below you’ll also see Penn State grad students Joseph Barone and Lance Beilstein as Sergeant Carlino and Sam Hendrix, respectively, and a young girl, Gloria, played by Penn State undergrad Christina Jackson. They all were first-rate.
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As a side note, I just love having the opportunity to photograph stuff like this (and the student opera production of Marriage of Figaro, and Romeo & Juliet last fall, and the Greek Sing in Eisenhower Auditorium, etc.). It’s fun and challenging and I’m constantly trying to get better at it. Last night was my first time shooting a play—as opposed to an opera or a concert—so I was trying to capture key scenes while trying not to click the shutter in the tense moments. I also tried using a relatively new lens that undergraduate photography ace Andy Colwell recommended: a 35mm f1.8 that allows me to shoot at much wider apertures and thus get faster shutter speeds. And afterward, there’s the challenge of trying to correct the color balance in Photoshop to eliminate the yellowish cast from the stage lighting. It would help if I were savvier about how to control the color balance in the camera in the first place. But that’s all part of my learning process.
Anyway, go see the play. You’ll love it!
Tina Hay, editor
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Entry filed under: The Penn Stater magazine, Penn State alumni, Famous Penn Staters, College of Arts and Architecture, Campus events. Tags: Bob Clendenin, Pennsylvania Centre Stage, Wait Until Dark, Vanessa Reseland, Alano Miller, Susy Hendrix, Harry Roat, Mike Talman, Joseph Barone, Lance Beilstein, Sam Hendrix, Christina Jackson.
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1. Next Up for Pennsylvania Centre Stage: ‘CTRL+ALT+DELETE’ « | June 23, 2010 at 4:50 pm
[...] that I’ve seen Bob Clendenin ’90g perform in Wait Until Dark, I’m suddenly a lot more aware of Pennsylvania Centre Stage, which offers [...]
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[...] roles in the course of the evening. In one scene, Lance Beilstein (whom I first saw last summer in Wait Until Dark) is a wild-haired, wild-eyed guy with an excruciating toothache; he stumbles into the [...]