CURRENT SOLO PROJECT:

This solo is at its core about my two grandfathers­—both of whom I never met—and discover what it means to be their grandson. I only have stories I have been told of my grandfathers and a few pictures. From these stories and images, I hope to draw a line through dance, text, projections, music mixing, and props from their experiences to what it means to be a gay, mixed-race, cusp of millennial man.

“Lolo” means grandfather in Tagalog/Filipino and I am currently dividing the word into two parts: my two grandfathers. Though I know only very little about the two of them, a major underpinning of this work will be investigating how the violence they perpetrated and witnessed while fighting in World War II (my dad’s dad fighting for the US in France and Germany and my mom’s dad fighting against the Japanese as a guerilla fighter in the Philippines) has been passed through my parents to me and how it implicitly affects my relationship to others and the world.

I hope for this to develop into a substantial solo work that could be performed in a theater setting. I am also documenting the process of creation and creating video collages that could be their own creative product and that would be used in the performance.

​

I was awarded a residency at The Residency Project @880 in Pasadena, CA, in March 2021 to begin the creative process.