Written by Ezra Estranero
In 2021, Batch Cuenco-Santos launched the first online recitals in PHSA history. To Whom It May Concern is a collection of productions that confronted narratives of the body, histories of the self, faces of phases, and memories of places. The performances were attempts at reconstructing the disassembled hypertextualities of the student-artists as they create in isolation during the pandemic.
APOSTROPHE
Apostrophe is a back to back Theater Arts Event featuring Faith Prepares by Louis Faith Gayatao and Hypertextual Archives by Philip Jao Catarus. Apostrophe is an exploration of one’s story, the body and its experiences of being involved in a performance. Faith Gayatao marked the plurality of her individuality and confronted the ghosts of her memories through the creation of an autobiographical piece. Philip Catarus worked with collective archiving as a post-performance method that activated the role of the audience and the act of witnessing.
ELLIPSIS
Ellipsis is both a physical and virtual exhibit of Batch Cuentos’ Creative Writing students. Danielle D. Castillo’s Visiting Hours is an assemblage of texts and images that attempted to translate and respond to encounters with loss and grief. Margaret Mil’s there are cracks in the ceiling is a hypertextual multimedia work that sought to acknowledge and examine her relationships with fear, fantasy, and escape; Bianca Ysabel Rabe’s Sa araw-araw na ginawa ng diyos aimed to map geographies of faith, myth, and history, sewn and bound together by narratives of family and tradition.
REVELATIONS
Revelations is a series of dance films that celebrated the narratives of the seven Batch Cuentos dance majors. The dance films aimed to send out a message that art is a safe space for the bareness of our bodies—in revealing vulnerabilities, complexities, and curiosities. Krisylnn Buri’s Tago(s) is a dance film that focused on people who incarcerated themselves and their emotions due to fear of rejection and biased judgment. Jon Ferrer’s drenched in thought told a story of one's behavior and thought process when confined in a personal space. Mamingaw Di Man by Gaby Montallana is a research documentation on a young dance scholar as she interpreted aspects in the life of modern Taclobanons amid the rise of technology in the form of contemporary folk. Carlo Señeres’ PEPE(?) was an attempt to interpret Rizal's notable last poem, “Mi Ultimo Adios” or “My Last Farewell” to capture Rizal's last moments from prison and to his execution. Reanne Nicole Tangalin’s Of Venus confronted the struggles and sufferings of growing Filipino female ballet dancers. Jovit Diño’s Memoire recollected his past performances to discover how dance turned him into the dancer that he is today.
SEGUNDA VEZ
Seguna Vez is a sequel and culmination of the graduating music students from their Grade 10 recital series titled Primera Vez (meaning “first ending”) as they reach another end of their musical journey. Soprano Leanne Tavita, in collaboration with artists Mariel Ilusorio and Jem Tangalin, performed the works of Hanel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Kasilag and Flaherty. Violist Julian Bernal, alongside collaborating artist Gabriel James Frias, performed on the second day of Segunda Vez with 20th century repertoire of works from Forsyth, Bridge, and Telemann. This was followed by Violinist Kaya Pabico who performed the works of Wieniawski, Bach, Beethoven, and Sarasate with collaborating artist Mary Anne Espina. Bandurria player Nikki Obmasca, in collaboration with artists Rongel Angelo Ezperanza and Nelvien Pancho Madrid, closed it off by incorporating Filipino sound to her Romantic repertoire of works from Schubert, Abelardo, Scarlatti, Chopin and Vivaldi.
ONCE LIVED IN FLESH
Once Lived in Flesh is an online exhibit by Batch Cuentos Visual Arts students that confronted traditional beliefs and conservative values toward religion, gender, and sexuality. Ang Altar ni San Bdoi by Rain Balane illustrated Catholicism’s shadow of violence that humanizes the hierarchy of pain that manifests through the collective trauma of the Filipino family. Amara Averion’s Layer By Layer is a series of box installations that peers through queer identities and the complexity of oneself. Lastly, Sherry Kagalingan’s Dissection of a Mermaid is an installation of an anatomized form of a woman’s body merged with a tail of a mythological creature that criticizes societal issues of female subjugation and intersectionality.
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