Tag Archives: tony perez

Tony Perez: A Playwright Who Paints [with photos by Hedwig de Leon]

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As part of the Tanghalang Pilipino’s retrospective of  plays written by Tony Perez, he and I did a joint exhibit at the Little Theatre Lobby of the CCP. The festival lasted from 30 September to 23 October, and to my biggest chagrin, I was away on location shoot the entire time! I’m sharing it, anyway.  Unfortunately, I don’t have photographs of the paintings by Tony Perez.

About the Exhibit

 

Antonio Benjamin Silva Perez: Novelist, poet, playwright, painter and teacher.  How does one document someone whose work gets done mostly inside his head?  There, the challenge lurks, skulking in utmost patience, until it lunges and threatens to fling one to despair: as a writer dreads that blank piece of paper, so does a photographer feel the terror of a blank wall waiting to be filled with images she takes. As a poet wrestles with her very marrow to produce a line of verse, so does a photographer struggle to capture an image that has in it the harmony and dissonance,  the light and the darkness, the yin and the yang.

Or, as Tony Perez would put it, the Eros and the Thanatos. Only after such misery does the Muse relent, and be it poem or photo, the images come. Then, and only then, is the challenge met.  Hopefully.

*Photos chosen from over two hundred, taken over a period of nineteen months.

Post-Quest, inside a classroom

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The quest proceeded quite smoothly, with most of the “spirits” agreeing to “move on,” while the ghost of  a La Sallian brother has assigned himself as caretaker of the chapel. I was expecting, or at least ready, for some “irregularities,” like perhaps capturing some images of spirits in the shots. Other than the orbs, there was none. As far as I can tell anyway.

After the quest, Perez gave a short lecture on psychology in one of the classrooms at the main building.  And that was when my perfectly functioning gear — I simultaneously  shot with a 5D and a 30D, handheld, natural light — began getting trippy.  Initially, I couldn’t get my meter readings right, and that was quite annoying, because the shoot at the dark chapel during the quest was far more difficult and yet I encountered no major hitches. But here inside a bright classroom?

Anyway, when I finally viewed the post-Quest photos, I kind of understood why. Well, not really. But maybe those colored bands and pillars of light messed with my settings. Or gear. Whatever. 

Spirit Quest at DLSU

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Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament, LS Building, DLSU. I suppose every La Sallian has heard of the stories of hauntings and sightings at the Chapel. It goes back to World War II, when some families from nearby areas sought refuge at then De La Salle College. The brothers accommodated them; the group and some brothers were in the Chapel when the Japs came in, and killed everyone, children included.

Finally, DLSU called in Tony Perez, a playwright, painter, and shaman, to conduct a Spirit Quest. A quest is not a ghost-busting job in the movie sense; it really is a loving ritual–the spirits are sent love and light and encouraged to “move on.”

These are photos taken during the quest at the chapel. Note that my gear measured up to the job, in a chapel lit practically by just a few candles. I say that for a reason other than bragging abut gear, as the post-quest photos will show.