Reeverb12 Day Thirteen: Best Photo of Me

tyunglebower ♦ December 13, 2012 ♦ Leave a comment

Please post your favorite picture of yourself from 2012, self-portrait or otherwise!

Me, as the Duke of Buckingham before his execution.

Does it count if the best picture of me in 2012 was taken as I portrayed someone else? It counts today. Here I am in what is not only one of the best pictures of me from this year, but one of the best of any year. Probably because it is in medias res as I do something I enjoy.

This summer I was in a local production of Richard III. I was assigned the role of Duke of Buckingham, key ally to the evil Gloucester as he plots his illegal ascension to the English throne. I wasn’t thrilled with the role at first, as I find it is often a throw away part, despite it having among the most lines in the play aside from Richard himself. Usually Buckingham is played as a lap dog to Richard, with little depth. I was determined to change that with my portrayal.

Instead, I played him as a man who essentially wanted to be left alone to his own devices. A man who was weary of all of the civil war and even more weary of court life. In Richard he sees a man determined and strong enough to assert a solid peace over the land. A peace which will allow Buckingham to at last go back to his lands and live out his life free of distraction and interruption. So he make use of his talents and influence to help Richard become king.

Until Richard crosses a line, and, well, Buckingham is done with that.

The picture above is during Act V during one of the few monologues that isn’t Richard’s. He comes to terms with having been wrong about Richard, as well as having played a game that he lost in a tragic way. A loss that, in the scene you find in the photograph, he accepts and perhaps almost welcomes. He’s done, and he knows he’s done. He embraces the irony of being executed on All Soul’s Day, and walks off with a bit of a smile after this moment.

I am quite proud of this performance, and of this scene in particular. In it I found and used shades of other Shakespearean characters. Hamlet. Richard II. A bit of Lear, even. I don’t know if this show constitutes my best performance ever, (as a few people suggested), but this photograph no doubt constitutes one of the best pictures of me in performance mode, and probably the best picture of me overall from 2012.