Whatchamacallits!

The Tomatokick Reading Series

Tomatokick, Tomas Morato

From August to December 2016, the Tomatokick Reading Series presented a double-bill presentation every month. All were stripped down readings of plays by Mixkaela Villalon, Arlo de Guzman, Erick Dasig Aguilar, Luna Sicat-Cleto, Rogelio Sicat, and also mine. All were accompanied by live musical performances. I directed all of the plays. There were sparse props, the staging rule that I set being, whatever objects found in the space must be used. A return to the most basic theatrical props, tables and chairs.

All poster design was by then frequent collaborator, actor-turned documentary filmmaker, Eshei Mesina.

I supplied the collages.

Kulitan Nights

Catch 272

Kulitan Nights 2017-2018 was a hit or miss kind of deal. It was a platform I setup to experiment some ways to get folks to discuss whatever it is they find pertinent discussing, with either performance, reading, or exchange, or any combination of those as take-off points. Eventually, I just grabbed at the opportunity of a free and malleable space that was frequently lent to me by Catch 272 to test my works. Tatlong Monologo and Brujas was mid-wifed by Kulitan Nights. There was also the failed, in my opinion, discussion cum-performance, Daldalan. During Pride month in 2018, Kulitan Nights launched Butiki/Baboy: A Pride Conversation Series, a week-long discussion of queer, trans, non-binary issues less talked about in mainstream LGBT discussions. Butiki/Baboy is something I plan to explore further in the future.

Tatlong Monologo and Daldalan posters by

Eshei Mesina. Butiki/Baboy and Reading: Brujas by Mara Bernaldo.

Standby April!

Summer travelling performance

Standby April! was actually generated from a status update. I was excited by an idea and so I posted STANDBY APRIL! So in April 2018 with my smut Tatlong Monologo and Mixkaela Villalon's crime noir Streetlight Manifesto, TambayTimes Kids toured three spaces with a double-bill, Monologo/Manifesto. That summer we performed in our usual haunts, Tomatokick Morato and Catch 272, but in between we found ourselves in two strange spaces: a clothing store, Suez and Zapote, and an advertising office, MullenLowe Philippines. As in Tomatokick Reading Series, same rules applied, we bring in minimal props and use whatever objects available in the space.

We developed a kind of method: we setup and strike, go in then leave without a trace, like ghosts.

Our tagline read: Catch us if you can.

Poster by CJ Silva.