Nasty Women
My current project is an opera inspired by the women’s rights movements, paying homage to the women who came before us while exploring the voices of women who fight for equality today. The opera combines written music with guided improvisations to explore the words of women such as Sor Juana Inez de la Cruz, Abigail Adams, and Sojourner Truth, among others. Performers also use improvisation to share their personal experiences with gender based discrimination as women.
Keep checking back to learn more about this project, as it is ongoing!
Why We March
As a part of the CalArts Opera Theater class, I composed and premiered an excerpt of my opera under the title “Why We March”, using the first three movements: “Introduction”, “Hombres Necios”, and “Improvisation”. The piece was included in “NeurOpera”, a CalArts production which is described as “an original opera that unfolds along a series of virtual neural pathways revealing stories of despair, remembrance, justice, and hope. These stories work together in a way that weaves the experiences of many creative minds into one potentially universal human experience”. (NeurOpera Website)
My piece includes video editing by Olivia Popejoy and Katelyn Maheia, and was performed by Rosa Evangelina (Hombres Necios), Gabriella Padilla (Hombres Necios), and Tracy Thompson (Improvisation).
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“Remember the ladies.”
— Abigail Adams
“Why Me?”
As part of the opera, I developed a questionnaire meant to guide the performer into a place of reflection on their experience. The questions explored emotions, times a person has felt discriminated against, hopes for the future and ways to discover the self. Once a performer has answered the questions, she is meant to reflect on her answers and create a space she feels represents her experience. Then, in that space, she improvises in a way to vocalize her experience, however that is interpreted. In order to understand how this questionnaire would work for a performer, I went through the exercise myself as a performer, instead of as the composer. The result was an improvisation I titled “Why Me?”
This performance does have a content warning: it includes profanity, mentions of sexual harassment and sexual assault, and may be triggering to individuals who have experienced similar traumatic events.