New semester.

New assignments.

New faces.

New rules.

Try new things.

Make light the organizing principle.

Shoot weird.

Let things lead to other things.

Have fun.

I’ve started off my year and my return to New York City after a birthday trip to Disney World with two shows: The Barber of Seville, for which I got to make a fun, last-minute, two-day trip back to Northampton, and BAD HUSBAND, BAD HOMO, which is in Brooklyn but stars my newest theatre client, Ryan Conarro.

Stylistically, they’re very different, but beyond that? One is a love story gone wrong; the other is a love story gone right. Both heavily feature bald and balding male leads.

And both feature two of my favorite clients.

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.