PERFORMANCES
Portraits
“PORTRAITS was a provocative, interactive experience that reinterpreted the lines between art and spectator through an inventive fusion of traditional theater and audience participation. This special version invited the audience to consider the connections between cultural impact and personal perspective, serving as a tribute to the transforming power of art."
- HikariHues
"Portraits promises a contemporary spin on Wilde’s 1890 novel by channeling the hedonism around Dorian’s portrait into a critique of social media and selfie culture. These references lend currency to the performance, but at certain moments, also dilute it (or at least water down its Dadaist fire). Much more interesting to me than the many parallels drawn around portraits, mirrors, and the digital age, is queerness. By spotlighting male bodies in its quartet of actors, Portraits generates the electricity suppressed in Wilde’s work, the wonderful queerness that buoyed the novel but damned the author."
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- Pristine de Leon, The Philippine Star
Photos by: J.A. Sarmogenes & Blonski Cruz
Portraits was a devised immersive performance piece that explored the discordant relationship between self-image and societal expectations, particularly investigating into the impetus, whether internal or external, which drives a person towards self-demoralization. Inspired by the incisive observations on societal expectations and human psyche in the 19th century novel The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde, Portraits extended the book's classical themes into our contemporary terrain as it endeavoured to reflect upon the immense value present-day society places on projected winsome image, no matter how little resemblance, if it all, this façade bears to reality. Portraits asks: How wide can the discrepancy be between what is seen and what is true. what is ideal and what is real, and what is constructed and what is natural before a person's sense of self unravels?
Portraits was a residency project under Calle Wright during the year 2023. It performed in the Calle Wright Gallery from October to December 2023.
Concept & Direction: Rico del Rosario
Performance: Jay Crisostomo IV, Robert Joshua San Luis, Jemuel Cedrick Satumba, and Kyle Confesor
Dramaturgy: Blonski Cruz
Technical Director/ Production Desinger: J.A. Sarmogenes
LPT Producer & Consultant: Jenny Logico-Cruz
Calle Wright Program Director: Gary Ross-Pastrana
Producer: Silverlens Gallery
Stage Management: Maia Obnial
Marketing & Social Media: Jacq Nacu-Garcia
Graphic Design: Phoebe Lina
Research & Development: 2022-2023
Performance Period: October- December 2023
