La Calle- Issue 1, Volume 1, Summer 2008
Feature Artist: Paula Rivera

Actress & emerging playwright talks about her new play, "Every Girl Wants a Skirt Like Frida's"

I was born in Mexico City. I came to Canada in 1999 because while I was in Mexico I was dedicated to other things that were not related to art and I was very unhappy. So I decided to quit University and become a modern dancer, since dance was something I have done since I was a little girl. I was accepted as an apprentice in a reputable Mexican dance company. Soon after starting my professional training I got an ankle injury, which kept me away from dance for a while. Months of depression came, when a friend from Vancouver called asking me to join her in a Jennifer Mascall summer workshop. I had no idea who Jennifer Mascall was but I decided to take the workshop. I was in deep need of a change.

When I arrived in Vancouver I was young and inexperienced and the idea of living abroad for a while, without my family’s expectations, was very strong so I decided to turn the week stay into a month, then into a year, then into two and finally into almost ten. Through dance I discovered theatre and since then I haven’t stopped learning and finding ways to do what I love. I moved to Toronto a couple of years ago and loved this city from the moment I arrived. In a strange way I felt closer to my country, to my culture. I felt that I was not so far away from my family, my country, and that I that finallywas going to be able to integrate both my Mexican/Latin culture and Canadian culture into my life.

As a performer I love how present and alive one feels when performing for an audience. I love that in every performance the energy is different and that you can’t ignore it because it is determined on the night of the performance. As a spectator I love when a piece takes me to a different reality and that I can relate emotionally without feeling forced to do it. I love when many days after the show, I am still thinking about what I saw.

Right now I am working on Every Girl Wants A Skirt Like Frida's. It's my first work of writing for the stage. It's a one-woman show that speaks about all those common things that happen to immigrants in a new city (like re-definition of identity), but it also speaks about personal demons (the dark stuff inside you that follows you no matter where you are). The premise is quite simple: the character, Honoria Delgado drinks Tequila, dances and opens herself up while she waits for her friend Jane to pick her up to go to a Halloween party in Vancouver. Even though Honoria is dressed as Frida Kahlo, she has a special dislike for this mythical Mexican figure that has become the source of inspiration for too many women. The rest, well come and see it!