My biggest piece of advice would be to shoot during the full dress
rehearsal.  The main lights as well as stage lighting.  Especially if you
don't want to use flash.  You also get to stand where you want without
obscuring view of audience.  This will not be a problem if you are the
official photographer.  You may even get help or requests from the show
director of anything particular to shoot.  You will be less of a distraction
and put them under less pressure during rehearsals and the troupe are used
to you from the get go.

Flash may be ok for shooting individual cast members, or groups, but not
if depicting the show itself, where stage lighting sets the mood.  You
have a problem there with film though, you can't really use the same
film for stage shots and flash because of the color balance question.
You should use tungsten-balanced film for the stage shots, or daylight
film with an 81A filter - but you lose film speed.

If this shoot is important to you for portfolio or business reasons, I
would suggest you beg, borrow, rent, or invest in a digital slr camera
for the job.  It takes care of the color balance issues, it will give
you ISO speeds of at least 1600 with far better noise/grain than even
400 ISO film will, you can get far more shots (hundreds) on a flash card
than a roll of film, it's quicker to change a flash card than film when
necessary, and you can check immediately if you got the shot you
wanted.  At the dress rehearsal, if you're the 'official' photographer,
reviewing the shots in camera will allow you to re-do a shot if
required.

Personally, I wouldn't even consider doing a stage show with film these
days.  I have done stage shows in earlier years, with grainy film, bad
color balance from mixed lighting - dimmed floods and spots go red,
etc.  RAW digital will allow you to deliver better color, more shots to
choose from, sharper images thanks to higher ISO speeds.  And with
appropriate software and a digital projector, you can deliver a slide
show that will knock their eyes out.

Last, go buy a few theatre or acting magazines and study the shots they
publish, to get an idea of what's acceptable or expected.

Colin D.

Hi,

See this would be somethin for you -
www.flash-slide-show.com

Hi,

See this would be something for you -
www.flash-slide-show.com

Oh, gosh ...  In 1959 - 1962 I was the main photographer for my college
newspaper and shot, among many other things, the Players' productions for
it.  Of course, I used a Speed Graphic with mainly Tri-X sheet film and
flash but infrequently I splurged on a roll of Royal-X Pan (ASA 800-1600,
usually pushed to 3200) to shoot available light.  Always shot at the dress
rehearsals since earlier I couldn't rely on there being any costumes and
after that were the actual performances and nobody wanted flash going off
then.

Today ... First choice would be a Digital SLR that went to (at least) ISO
1600 with as fast a lens as I could use or rent.  With my Nikon D70, I'd
rent the 85mm f/1.4 and I'd have a really good chance of getting good
pictures with the stage lighting.  My 50mm f/1.8 would usually be too short
for good shots of the really dramatic scenes between 2 or 3 performers but
would provide some good overall shots.

If I had to use film, I'd go with the fastest negative (color) film I could
get.  ISO 800 is readily available and there are a few 1000-1600 too.
Nothing is too fast.  For most stage lighting, an f/3.5 lens is only
marginally useful unless it (or the camera) has active vibration reduction
or you shoot from a tripod and time the shots to the (mostly) stationary
points in the action.

Since I'd shoot with stage lighting, I wouldn't count on any film giving
good color reproduction.  That's why digital would be the first choice.  If
I had to use film, I'd just get the fastest film I could and plan on
scanning it and fixing the color in Photoshop (or similar).

Flash will not only give the wrong lighting (that's why stage productions go
to such great lengths to assemble vast quantities of lights and filters),
but would also disturb the actors.  If flash is your only choice, get scene
moments restaged after the rehearsal.

   Norm

Are you going to be on stage?  If not, you'll definitely be needing longer
lenses.  70-200 would be a good place to start.

Hope this is not to late but comes from lot's of experience with film for
concerts.

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~coreya/yashica/tlxsrvtc.html

I do this all the time... First do a rehearsal..
Second I use film..   Stage lighting is good, but not always that good.
I am concerned about noise int he inevitable underexposed corners.    
I will venture in with my digital some time in the near future.

If use ISO 200 or 400 Slide Film.   200 If I can get away with it.  
Print film is OK if you scan and can set edit digitally to inusre
correct color.  You can also do this if you have a lab you trust.  I
will often shoot a gray card as fram one under the brightest scene
light as reference point for the processor.

I use my 80-200 F2.8   (Fast is important here, for exposure in your
case, for AF in others),
50 1.8 and 20 2.8   .     The 80-200 is my favorite. Lets me get
facial expressions, isolate actors from the background and all round
flexibility.  The 20 gets used for scen shots and the 50  when 80 is
just too long.
I

DON"t USE TUNGSTEN FILM.   Tungsten is balanced for 3200K  Most modern
theater lighting is much cooler than that (but no where near as cool as
daylight) .  Use daylight film.  It might be a little warm, but that is
better than the effect of the opposite.  I know.. made that mistake
once.

The director or stage manager (or even the cast) will chase you out of
the theater with what ever instrument is at hand if you use flash.   If
you are taking posed or stills for a purpose (promotion, lobby or
picture board shots) , then ignore this rule, and use studio lighting
if available.  Otherwise, use two flash.  Many theaters have lots of
black which eats up light.  But if you are shooting live action, flash
is a huge annoyance and you will wash  out the atmosphere so carefully
created by the lighting and set designers and annoy the actors.