TDPS alumnae to perform solo shows in B-FLY BACKSTAGE series
This blog post is by Emily Schweich, junior broadcast journalism major.
Three University of Maryland School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies alumnae – Paige Hernandez (BA Theatre Performance ’02), Anu Yadav (MFA Theatre Performance ’13) and Caroline Clay (MFA Theatre Performance ’13) will perform excerpts from their solo shows at B-FLY BACKSTAGE: Diverse Solo Shows for Women this Saturday, April 18 at Atlas Performing Arts Center.
“I think that putting our work out there and showing what we think…how we do what we do is really taking a stance for all women and girls to be able to show their mind as well.”
Hernandez, who owns B-FLY ENTERTAINMENT, said she launched the B-Fly Backstage series to bring the audience a “buffet of artistry.” Each show will feature performances from four artists from a different genre, followed by a roundtable discussion about topics ranging from their work to politics to pop culture.
“Diverse Solo Shows for Women” features an excerpt from Hernandez’s solo show, Paige in Full: A B-Girl’s Visual Mixtape, which she has been touring for the past five years. She describes the performance as an autobiographical coming-of-age story about her experiences growing up in Baltimore in the 1980s.
The inaugural B-FLY BACKSTAGE performance also features performances by Anu Yadav, Caroline Clay and Jjana Valentiner. Yadav and Clay presented their theses together in February 2013, and Hernandez met both women when she directed Yadav’s senior thesis project, Meena’s Dream, which tells of a young girl whose mother can’t afford the medicine she needs.
“She has these fantastical dreams as a way of wrestling with the powerlessness that she feels around mortality and fears about her mom,” Yadav said, “and also kind of her own dreams of the kind of world we all should live in where everyone has their own …opportunity to thrive.”
She looks forward to sharing her work and ideas with the audience in the post-show discussion.
“I think there’s a lot of unconscious messaging in our culture around the trivialization of women’s minds,” Yadav said. “I think that putting our work out there and showing what we think…how we do what we do is really taking a stance for all women and girls to be able to show their mind as well.”
Hernandez said she also enjoyed collaborating with her friends to create the show.
“We didn’t want to sit around and wait until someone cast us in a show together, so we really got up and made it happen,” Hernandez said. “That’s really what is empowering -- if the work isn’t there, then you can create the work."
B-FLY BACKSTAGE: Diverse Solo Shows from Women will be at Atlas Performing Arts Center on Saturday, April 18 at 8PM.