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This month, two actresses will take on the role of Frida Kahlo in 鈥檚 production of 鈥淭o DIE: GO in Leaves by Frida Kahlo.鈥�
Maryam Baig and Frida Espinosa M眉ller each bring their own take on Kahlo. Baig wrote the original play in 2003 and now almost 20 years later, M眉ller has rewritten Baig鈥檚 original play in Spanish. While the two women were born on opposite ends of the globe, they found commonality in Kahlo.
鈥淪he [Frida Kahlo] has a universal appeal and she is so deeply, transparently vulnerable that we all can find a piece of ourselves in her,鈥� Baig said.
Baig, who was born in Karachi, Pakistan and grew up speaking Urdu, will play the English-speaking role of Kahlo. M眉ller, who was born in Mexico City and grew up speaking Spanish, will play the Spanish-speaking role of Kahlo. M眉ller and Baig are quick to point out that their dual approach to the role is reminiscent of the popular work 鈥淭he Two Fridas,鈥� Kahlo鈥檚 famous double self-portrait.
Kahlo鈥檚 work often explores the idea of navigating different identities as a gender fluid and mixed-race person with disabilities. So, having two women play the role allows Baig and M眉ller to reflect Kahlo鈥檚 multi-dimensionality through their own perspectives and life experiences.
Baig wrote 鈥淭o DIE: GO in Leaves by Frida Kahlo鈥� for her senior thesis while studying visual arts at UTD. At that point, she knew little about Kahlo鈥檚 life. So she dove into Kahlo鈥檚 diaries, letters and artwork like 鈥淎 Few Small Nips,鈥� 鈥淕irl with Death Mask鈥�, 鈥淲hat the Water Gave Me鈥� and 鈥淗enry Ford Hospital.鈥� Baig said she intentionally shied away from biographies, films or newspaper articles on the acclaimed artist.
鈥淚 love biographies, but often biographers will make comments or suppose how something had happened, thus coloring it with their own paintbrush,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted to know what Frida wrote, what happened to her body and what she painted.鈥�
Initially, Baig created a timeline of the artist鈥檚 major life events and transposed her own life map onto Kahlo鈥檚.
鈥淚 was trying to feel her in my own body and in my own life and see what I might have done at that age,鈥� she said. It was a way for Baig to 鈥済rasp this larger than life icon.鈥�
M眉ller, who鈥檚 been an actress at Cara M铆a Theatre since 2005, brings her own sensibility to Baig鈥檚 original work. After translating the play, like Baig, Mueller went back to Kahlo鈥檚 diaries for inspiration. She ultimately revised the script with fragments from the artist鈥檚 diaries and letters.
Both Mueller and Baig noted how moments of their early life connected with Kahlo. When Baig was about six, she got very sick with the mumps, similar to how Frida contracted polio when she was six.
M眉ller, like the painter, was born and raised in Mexico City and is mestiza with indigenous, Spanish and German roots. One side of her family is from Oaxaca, similar to Kahlo, and she even shares the same first name as the artist. Named after her mother, M眉ller was used to hearing her father say 鈥淚 have my two Fridas.鈥�
Through her translation, M眉ller was able to tap into her own culture as a Mexican woman. She said Kahlo lived during the time after the Mexican revolution when people were getting in touch with their indigenous roots and forming our modern-day understanding of Mexican culture.
鈥�With the Spanish performance, we bring the Mexicanidad of who was Frida from the time and places that she lived,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t is not only Spanish flavor, but the Mexican flavor because we have many different countries, many different cultures that speak Spanish.鈥�
While M眉ller and Kahlo both speak Spanish, she said there鈥檚 a specificity to the way each person talks. That鈥檚 why she worked to convey Kahlo鈥檚 distinctive voice.
鈥淲e hear her own way to put together words and ideas, which I think is very beautiful and very unique,鈥� M眉ller said.
Baig also uses words and imagery to bring her own style to the play. Her writing鈥檚 unfiltered openness is an effort to recapture the feeling of being a child.
"I'm hoping deeply that the audience will leave with a sense of adventure and a sense of how they felt when they were seven years old and playing with the kids on the street,鈥� she said.
Baig wants to reflect that youthfulness, but she also has a newfound appreciation for the way aging 鈥� and its aches and pains 鈥� has helped her understand the health challenges Kahlo faced.
鈥淢y own writing is revealing itself to me and I ask myself, 鈥榃hat point do I stop talking about [the physical pain and suffering]?鈥� Baig asked. 鈥淚 can't for now, because my own body affects my art, and I can totally see how it affected hers.鈥�
M眉ller too has come to connect to Kahlo in a different way as she鈥檚 gotten older. As an angsty teenager, she remembers connecting with Kahlo鈥檚 鈥淭he Wounded Deer鈥� which depicts a young deer with Frida鈥檚 head that has been wounded by several arrows.
鈥淣ow I connect much more with paintings like 鈥楳y Nurse and I鈥� and 鈥楾he Love Embrace of the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego and Se帽or X贸lotl鈥� because I am more connected in my age with nature and universality,鈥� M眉ller said.
When Baig first created the play, she said her decisions on how to tell Kahlo鈥檚 story were made largely by resource constraints.
With the Internet still in its early stages, Baig turned to books and images at her university library in 2003. She also worked with her former classmate David Lozano, now executive artistic director at Cara M铆a Theatre, and his company to adapt the play for the Festival of Independent Theatres with no budget.
Today, Baig is acting in the play with more resources and life experience than she did 20 years ago. Plus, she has another Frida to share the story in Spanish. But her original determination to do more with less mirrors Kahlo鈥檚 ability to produce vivid paintings as she faced depression, chronic pain, fatigue and a leg amputation.
M眉ller said the artist had the 鈥渃apacity to enjoy life, to find her beautiful imagination, the place to survive, the place to create, the place to endure and somehow transform whatever was happening with her into something beautiful.鈥�
Cara M铆a Theatre鈥檚 production of 鈥淭o DIE:GO in Leaves鈥� runs from Feb. 18 to March 12.
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