Fernanda Kelly reincarnates Frida Kahlo in her portrayal of the iconic artist in this stirring surrealist performance featuring live music and dance performances
Actress and Emmy Award-winning host Fernanda Kelly, will finally get to play one of the women she most admires, the iconic artist/feminist and advocate, Frida Kahlo, in the worldwide premiere of the English interpretation of I Am Frida Kahlo. This play, which has been previously performed only in Spanish, will be presented in English for the first time in Los Angeles beginning Saturday, October 29 with additional performances on Sunday, October 30; Friday, November 4; and Saturday November 5. This will be the first public theatrical performance at the newly inaugurated Cerritos College Performing Arts Center, a state-of-the-art facility featuring a 400-seat theater.
Fernanda Kelly has an accomplished career in theatre of nearly 20 years. Some of her credits include Are You Bringing Something From Mexico? with Off The Tracks Theatre Company and AmorEs and Ramera, with the prestigious Nirvana Theater Company. Her most recent television credits include the Peacock drama-series Bel Air executive produced by Will Smith; the FOX action-thriller drama 9-1-1; Amazon’s original crime drama Too Old To Die Young; and Hulu’s sitcom Black Jesus. Kelly also has a successful 20-year career as a television host and journalist in the US Hispanic market earning two Emmy Awards and three Telly Awards for her work as the host of the hit national morning show LAnzate on Univision network.
“Having the opportunity to do I Am Frida Kahlo is a dream come true for me as an actress. I have been yearning for a role like this my entire career and now that I finally have the opportunity to give life to such an iconic Mexican idol, I feel extremely humbled, Fernanda Kelly shared. “I feel an immense sense of responsibility to do justice to a woman who has inspired so many Latina/es like me, to live life unapologetically and with purpose.”
I Am Frida Kahlo is an original play written and directed by Cerritos College Spanish Professor Froylán Cabuto, who recounts Frida Kahlo’s story as never seen before. The surrealist performance has Frida Kahlo telling her own story as she sees it. It will delve into the artist’s tumultuous life through eight extraordinary monologues performed by Kelly. The storytelling is enhance through expressionist dance, used help visualize Frida’s memories, taking the audience on a journey between the world of the living and the dead. The live orchestra and digital media elements will help immerse the audience in her beautiful journey.
Kahlo was fragile in stature and “broken”, as she often self identified, but the strength with which she lived her life is explored as well as the creative process through which she developed some of her most outstanding works of art while giving light to current social and political issues.
I Am Frida Kahlo is choreographed by Beatriz Eugenia Vásquez, with original music and musical arrangements by Otto Cifuentes.
For tickets to this highly anticipated new show CLICK HERE.
Fernanda is currently one of the co-hosts of Univision radio’s Levantate con Ysaac Alvarez, a syndicated morning show on Uforia’s K-LOVE 107.5 PM in Los Angeles. She is also an entrepreneur in the fashion industry as CEO of the female clothing line NYTAQ and founder of The Medical Gown Project. As a passionate activist Kelly has dedicated her time to uplifting and giving a voice to the voiceless within the Latino community and fighting for immigrant rights nationwide.
