October 21: Take Me To Church

Recently, I had the privilege of photographing Ryan Conarro’s SAINTS OF FAILURE, a one-hour, one-man show set in a church.

In the play, Ryan describes his long process of coming to terms with his identity as a gay man and his understanding of his Catholic faith. His monologue explores his experiences with rage, trauma, and loss in his life.

Over the course of the show, he covers himself with paint, glitter, charcoal, ash, mud, and other substances to make the trauma live on his body in a very visual and visceral way. 

Verbally and visually, this is a very haunting show. 

I’ve written before about other LGBT shows that have touched my heart, but this one had another reason beyond its content – it represented a significant career milestone for me.

Generator Theater Company is the twentieth performing arts organization (which includes theatre, dance, music, opera, film, and historical performance) in my client portfolio. 

Starting grad school has come with its challenges, but now that I have this under my belt – not to mention, plenty of Instagram content for the next few weeks – I can breathe a little bit as the semester winds to a close.