SISID’s ‘HALO-HALO: Art-making Festival’ Showcases Contemporary Theater Projects This July
SISID is set to stage HALO-HALO: Art-making Festival, a one-day event bringing together contemporary theater and performance projects from independent artists this July.
Conceived as a gathering of diverse artistic practices, the festival aims to highlight emerging and established projects while creating opportunities for artists and audiences to exchange ideas and celebrate different creative processes.
The festival opens with TANGHAL x ALTERNATIBO, a platform showcasing alternative forms of contemporary performance-making by independent artists. Running alongside it is TURO x TALAKAYAN, a series of workshops and discussions on visual art, performance-making, event production, and other creative disciplines.
Established in 2024, SISID is an arts collaboration group founded by independent producer and theater artist Gerald Manuel, with the support of mentors, peers, friends, family, and fellow creatives. The group aims to cultivate greater interest in diverse forms of artistic practice—from writing and performance to visual arts—by creating open and accessible spaces where artists and aspiring artmakers can gather and collaborate.
To further its mission, SISID has partnered with organizations including Kislap Connect, Likhaan: UP Institute of Creative Writing, and other artist-led initiatives. Its previous flagship projects include Sketches & Ladders: Projects in Progress, Pira-Piraso: Workshop Series, SALU-SALO: Literature Festival, and ESPASHOW: Open Mic Sessions.
This year’s lineup features four performances, each highlighting a different approach to contemporary performance-making from community and independent theater practitioners.
Watashi (私) La Institución: State of the Artist ng Bayan-gei（芸） by JHE Project
JHE Project presents Watashi (私) La Institución: State of the Artist ng Bayan-gei（芸）, directed by James Harvey Estrada and performed by Estrada alongside Rhon Dave San Diego, Anne Vigilante, and Kurt Niel Jan Cortez. The musical lecture-performance traces Estrada’s three-year artistic journey as he performs as the institution itself. Drawing from research on pre-colonial Babaylan practices and his experiences working across Europe and Asia, the work explores cultural exchange, neo-colonial structures, and the realities of sustaining an artistic practice rooted in local communities while participating in international collaborations.
Get Ready With Us for a 1 Gay Show (Isang Performance Lecture)
Created by the 1 Gay Team, with Gio Potes, PB Maraña, and Jasper Villasis serving as writer-directors, Get Ready With Us for a 1 Gay Show (Isang Performance Lecture) features excerpts from Ang Kagila-gilalas na 1 Gay Show, performed by Johanne Dale Reyes, presenting three stories of queer individuals navigating love, struggle, and growth across different stages of life.
The collective, composed of LGBTQIA+ theater practitioners from across the Philippines, also shares insights from Staging Change, its community theater initiative developed for the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus.
Within and Without End by the Langgam Performance Troupe
Langgam Performance Troupe presents Within and Without End, directed by Jenny Logico-Cruz with dramaturgy by Blonski Cruz. Performed by Opaline Santos, the meta-devised work is framed as an open rehearsal, inviting audiences to witness the creative process through actor warm-ups, improvisation, run-throughs, and conversations between the performer, director, and dramaturg. The accompanying lecture, A Rehearsal of Becoming: Methodology of Within and Without End, explores the company’s Open Rehearsal framework, including the approaches, devices, and strategies behind the production, as well as the lessons and insights gained from the project.
Pahaulian by Miel Marka El
Rounding out the lineup is Pahaulian, written, performed, and co-directed by Miel Marka El, with co-direction by Julienne Depatillo. Through the lecture-performance Paghimo sa Pahaulian, the artist traces the creation of a solo autoethnographic work rooted in her Siquijor heritage. Drawing from ethnographic research, oral histories, and embodied knowledge of the mananambal, the presentation explores theater as a means of cultural preservation, restoration, and personal reconnection with a discontinued healing lineage.
HALO-HALO: Art-making Festival takes place on July 11, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Nocturne Studio PH by Kohi in Maginhawa, Quezon City.
Tickets are priced at P450 for the early bird rate (available until July 4), P600 for regular admission and walk-ins, and P450 for students, senior citizens, and persons with disabilities. Reservations may be made through the festival’s registration form.
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