Author: Odalys Nanin Paperback: 114 pages Language: English Price: $15 (see below for discount)
By Elia Esparza
This play explores the mental, emotional and physical condition during the last week of Frida Kahlo’s life. Frida: Stroke of Passion peels away the secret cover up and reveal what or who killed Frida Kahlo.
Book Signing Party — Sunday, August 19, 2018, 5PM to 9PM
The Plunge Bar at Broadwater Theatre
6324 Santa Monica Blvd.
Admission is Free
RSVP Required to purchase book at discount for $10 per book
The award-winning playwright and actress, Odalys Nanin until recently, managed and produced at the MACHA Theatre in West Hollywood, CA, a company she founded years ago. After writing and producing nearly a dozen plays, Nanin presented as her last production at the MACHA, another original play she wrote about Mexico’s most controversial artist, and one of the world’s most famous painters, Frida Kahlo. Frida: Stroke of Passion, enjoyed a three-month long run last fall and received rave reviews and awards.
While many movies, television dramas and stage productions made on Kahlo, none of these stories had ever dared to explore the woman’s last week of life. Her death has been an open-ended and unanswered question mark– many believing that there was a cover up. After extensive research, Nanin recaptures the days leading up to Kahlo’s death, and offers an answer to what has long been rumored.
I wanted to show a part of Frida that no one knows about—her mental, emotional and physical state of mind the week before she dies,” said Nanin. “I explored her pain, fears and lovers—her bisexuality, fervor for Diego and her paintings. But, most of all I explored and reveal the cover up behind her death.” — Odalys Nanin
Nanin has written a book capturing her play in print– a story that goes far beyond Kahlo’s Mexican and European Surrealism, and her indigenous Mexican culture influence. At all levels as a woman, Frida Kahlo hated societal rules and traditions that she felt shackled women and kept them from progressing.
The main players are Kahlo’s tormented husband, Diego Rivera, the love of her life. But her passion didn’t just start or end with Rivera, there were several women in-between and one other man who also captured her heart, and during her final days, they all came visiting– taunting and haunting her with the memories they each represented. Women like Mexican singer Chavela Vargas, Mexican movie star Maria Felix, cabaret singer and dancer Josephine Baker, famous model and photographer Tina Modotti, and Cuban revolutionist/spy Teresa Provenza. There was also the ghost of Leon Trotsky, a man she admired and loved and whose murder haunted Kahlo all of her remaining days.
“Frida: A Stroke of Passion” is clever and fresh portraying a side of Kahlo never before told. This is a gem of a book and Frida Kahlo fans will love it! A production that should be on stages everywhere!
About Odalys Nanín A multi-talented actress, writer, director and producer, Nanín, who until early 2018 was the producing artistic director and founder of the Macha Theatre/Films in West Hollywood, CA. She has written ten plays to date. She’s a graduate of The Drama Studio London and Rutgers University and has earned a stellar reputation for writing, directing, and producing theatre in Los Angeles. Her 2000 production of Blood Wedding received Critic’s Pick in Backstage West, as did her second play Garbo’s Cuban Lover, chosen as one of the best ten plays by the Advocate Magazines. Her other plays: The Nun and The Countess, chosen one of the best plays by the Advocate; Beyond Love, which received a Curve Magazine Award for Best Play; Skin of Honey; Naked in the Tropics; Lavendar Love; The Adventures of the Lieutenant Nun; and more recently, Love Struck. Ms. Nanín has appeared in many MOW’s, soap operas, TV series, and in at least 30 theater productions on both coasts. She’s the recipient of three Drama-Logue Theatre Awards for direction, performance, and production of Vargas Llosa’s La Chunga. She has directed for the Post Oscar Showcase for Women in Film, The Celebration Theatre, and The Ivy Theatre. She produced her new play Frida: Stroke of Passion, in 2017 and ran for three months.
“Odalys Nanin’s work is a very important contribution to the American Theatre. She is a go-getter, who has been the author of her own destiny since the beginning– since before LGBTQ stories and characters were applauded by the mainstream. She has made it her mission to tell authentic Lesbian stories for the female gaze with a feminist point of view. Her writing is both profound and hilarious with ironic twists.” — Josefina Lopez, Playwright of Real Women Have Curves & Artistic Director of Casa 0101 Theater
Update on MACHA Theatre: It may be at different venues, but it continues to produce amazing new plays. Stay tuned for the newest production to open in November 2018. Details to come.
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