Solo Works

CHOPPING ONIONS

An immersive musical performance

premiered Saturday May 7th, 2022

“Chopping Onions” is an immersive, one-person, musical performance about Anaís Azul’s relationship to the kitchen as it plays out within themselves, their communities, and their grandmothers. Throughout the work, they share memories, reflections, and questions about their relationship to the kitchen all while preparing a meal. These include anecdotes they have of feeling traumatized in the kitchen and questions about gender roles, and machismo. “Chopping Onions” heavily reflects on the emotional load of being socialized as a woman and what that means especially in the context of Latin America.

“Chopping Onions” features vocal looping, amplified cutting board, and piano to tell the stories of the kitchen and the heart. All of the music and sounds are produced on stage live.

The performance seated all the audience members at dining tables where they would find laminated shopping lists and ingredients used in the meal Anaís went on to cook. There were also volunteer waiters who handed out menus (programs) and pens that were wrapped in napkins so audiences could write their own memories of the kitchen. Those anecdotes were then woven into an improvised song included in the performance.

Visually, the focus is on highlighting everyday movements in the kitchen: chopping, stirring, peeling.

The intent is to open a portal to talk about the emotional load that the kitchen can hold and how gender and generational trauma can be so heavily linked to this.