Arts & Entertainment
From ‘snowmageddon’ to art exhibit
Photos inspire new business line for local designer
Sometimes inspiration comes in unexpected places.
Local gay designer Ernesto Santalla found it in the snow with his camera.
“It’s what I did for days as it snowed and snowed and then snowed some more,” Santalla, president of Studio Santalla, Inc., says. “I took black-and-white photos for years and didn’t stop using film until ‘snowmageddon’ last February, when all I could get my hands on was a point-and-click digital camera.”
Instant digital gratification became photographic disillusionment when the fruit of trekking through mounds of snow was a heap of mundane images.
“That’s when I got the idea to make collages,” Santalla says. “A single image is flipped and repeated four times. What emerges is a fascinating kaleidoscopic photograph, which gives the viewer a very personal interpretation, like inkblots.”
On Jan. 20, a show titled “Ernesto Santalla Symmetries” opens at Long View Gallery in Washington, which presents Santalla’s view of D.C. in the midst of the blizzard and buried under snow.
“I’ve incorporated my photography into Studio Santalla’s interior design projects in the past, but the collages created an area of expansion for my business,” he says. “In the design industry, the most logical area of expansion is for a designer to introduce a furniture line, or when an architectural firm is also the builder. … As a business strategy it is often referenced as ‘brand expansion’ or ‘white space,’ whereby a company adds a division in a related field to grow its business.”
As the interest in acquiring the photographs has increased since last year from individuals and corporations, Santalla started a new company, Ernesto Santalla Photography LLC, which sells limited, signed editions of the images.
“Because of the power of mega-pixels, the prints can be very large, which adds to the dramatic effect of the collages,” Santalla says.
“Ernesto Santalla Symmetries” runs through Feb. 13 at LongView Gallery.
CAGLCC Programs and Events
We want your opinions. Each year, CAGLCC recognizes outstanding individuals and organizations that have contributed to the economic, social and cultural fabric of the LGBT community in the Metro D.C. area. It is no small task to cull through the many accomplishments of members of our community and our allies.
This year, CAGLCC will recognize a select group of deserving honorees at CAGLCC’s annual Gala and Awards ceremony on April 8 at the Park Hyatt Hotel in Washington.
CAGLCC recognizes people and organizations based on their accomplishments: leadership, professional success and advocacy of LGBT economic and business issues. Past honorees have struggled to gain equality in the workplace for themselves and others, some demonstrate noteworthy success and professionalism in their careers, while others have been allies creating a supportive environment for LGBT employees.
The categories for the 2011 awards are Outstanding Business Person, Outstanding New or Young Business Person, Volunteer of the Year and Corporate Ally.
The Board of Directors of CAGLCC needs your help to identify qualified candidates for these honors. You can nominate individuals and organizations by providing a brief description of why you feel your candidate(s) deserves the award. Submit nominations to [email protected]. For more information on the awards, go here.
Member News
Congratulations to Gus Elfving, principal of Pet Peeps, who is celebrating five years providing professional in-home pet care services.
Christopher Brown, Esq. joined Ackerman Legal PLLC. His practice areas include commercial litigation, franchise and distribution and real estate.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
PHOTOS: Petal Release Party
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
PHOTOS: Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade draws hundreds of thousands
Madonna to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam
BLADE ENDORSEMENT: Susan Stewart for mayor of Rehoboth Beach
PHOTOS: Lambda Legal in the Pines
Calendar: July 31-August 6
