The De La Salle College of Saint Benilde’s Arts and Culture Cluster has an upcoming production featuring Ronnie Lazaro. Curiously, the award-winning actor is not taking a character role. Lazaro has decided to open a page of his old photo albums to take a look into his personal performances as a pure visual artist. With students in arts management, he is preparing to reveal Breathless taking place on July 21, 2018, 6:00 to 8:00 PM at the 6th Floor of the Saint Benilde’s School of Design and Arts Black Box theatre located at 950 P. Ocampo St., Malate, Manila.
One of his most memorable performances happened in 1996 entitled Bayang Ginigiliw which took place at Luneta Park where he was joined by a roster of celebrated Filipino artists such as Nonoy Froilan, Denisa Reyes, Grace Nono, Roger Endayam, Karlo Altomonte, Noel Aguila, Jess Aveju, Aries Antonio, and many more. After more than two decades, he came back to the same venue to give a tribute to it via Pagsibol ng Hiling last May 17, 2018.
Lazaro was exposed to performance art in the late 1980s witnessing performances by Jean Marie Syjuco. His first attempt in the genre was entitled “Fear of the Red” at the Pinaglabanan Gallery in San Juan, followed by “Fear of the Red II” at the Sining Kamalig Gallery in Manila. He previously did performances at Muntinlupa Bilibid Prison and at the Australia Center in 1995.
The passionate artist has delved into different paths of the art industry and continues to do so. Apart from his outstanding movie and television production experience, he directed some stage productions such as Hiblang Abo, Pugakhang and ZZYX band show. He has displayed his versatility behind the camera in his art direction for films. As a self-taught photographer, he had several local group photo exhibitions back in 2007 at Silverlens Gallery and has also exhibited internationally.
Despite different spotlights he has stepped into all throughout his career, Lazaro takes pleasure in reviving performance art also to enhance his thespian talents. Not to be confused with theatre, Breathless will focus on exploring the limitations of the human body as most performances do—a once-in-a-lifetime event that should be witnessed in the flesh.
