Rose | Chris Pearsall Photography

As the Rose Theatre in Kingston is now just over two years old, I thought it would be interesting to go back and see how things looked when we were first commissioned to photograph the main auditorium in August 2006. Channel 4 had been due to come in and film, but the director had taken one look at the dark concrete shell (lit only by four 60 watt bulbs) and said it was far too much work to light for TV ! Undaunted, Karen and I turned up a week later with a car load of lighting and several hundred feet of cable and set to work. It took three hours to place and set all the light heads before we discovered that each time they were triggered they tripped what turned out to be a very rudimentary electric circuit. Undaunted we made a few subtle modifications to the electrics and finally managed to get all ten flash heads firing at once without setting the building’s alarms off !

In September 2007 we returned to photograph the installation of the supporting metalwork frame for the (unique) lozenge-shaped stage.

In December 2007 we finally captured the heart of the Rose as it blossomed to it’s full glory. It’s an inspiring, yet surprisingly intimate, 900 seat space that has given the South a brilliant new theatre, and as house photographer I’m fortunate to visit the Rose regularly to shoot both publicity and production images.

It continues to grow and flourish, drawing some of the country’s finest directors and actors to it’s unique charms . .