STICK

Visionary Bay Area choreographer and performance artist Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos presents the world premiere of STICK on March 12-21 at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory. De Hoyos brings together a fearless queer male cast that subjects their bodies and their deepest secrets to the voyeuristic eye of the audience. The result is a confrontation with MSM attraction that both shocks and lures the viewer into examining one’s own desires. STICK is a journey through and beyond homoeroticism that asks what forces are at play when two bodies meet? What does it mean to want to watch? What does it mean to want to be watched? Spectators become active participants in this intimate, violent, and tender world where everyone is searching for the answer to what makes us stick.

In collaboration with fellow Bay Area performance artists Jesse Hewit, Nathaniel Justiniano and Ernesto Sopprani, De Hoyos mines the tumultuous experience of MSM desire with an aesthetic inspired by the surreal imagery and physical abstractions of the artist Pina Bausch; the fractured, cerebral aesthetic of filmmaker Jean Luc Godard; and the chaotic condition of our post-modern, high-speed, globalized society. The cast risks more than the revelation of their flesh, but their very own private dreams and profane imaginations in an unfiltered performance that is at times combative and fragmentary, at other times mired in solitude, but always relentlessly authentic.

A new voice in the San Francisco dance and theatre worlds, Jorge Rodolfo De Hoyos was awarded a D.I.Y. Residency at Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, the city’s new home for emerging queer experimental artists, to support the development of this original work. Over the last year De Hoyos has collaborated with veteran Bay Area performance artists Erica Shuck in After All and Keith Hennessy in Delinquent, both performed at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum to critical acclaim. Most recently, he was invited to be a resident artist with Galería de la Raza’s Jotos and Homeboys Project where he created and performed scraps, a one-man autoerotic fantasy ritual exploring the desire to find communion with one’s iconic obsession.

About Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory:
Mama Calizo's Voice Factory is San Francisco’s EPI-Center for Queer and Activist Performance. Our mission is dedicated to nurturing the development of Queer Performers, Educators and Activists by providing them with Artist in Residence Programs and Arts programming. We believe that the process and product of creative activity have equal value, that all talent is worthy of development, and that artistic expression is essential to our community's health. We place special emphasis on supporting the work of Queer People of Color, Trans People and artists living with HIV/ AIDS. The centerpiece of our arts programming is the D.I.Y. Residency Program. It is designed to provide cutting-edge Bay Area emerging artists with a home to develop their vision and voice. We also instill a sustainable model that encourages artists to think, not only as art makers, but also as entrepreneurs. We mentor residents to develop the skills necessary to sustain a lifetime of art making. The D.I.Y. Residency Program culminates in a world premiere, new work by the participating artist.