The performance opened with how Paige was created. She did an impersonation of how her parents met with the classic 1970’s soul music playing in the background and showed off all of the old school dance moves. This gave the audience time to try their hand, myself included, at singing with some of the classics being played by Nickthe1da. Hernandez demonstrated the whole process from the simple invitation for a dance, to the “boob grab” to her birth. This was definitely one of the highlights of the show from an acting standpoint.
The performance grew more interesting as Hernandez performed on a game show titled “What you Say When you’re Young, Dumb & in Love.” This was the comedic relief of the show as many of the lines were thoughts women have, such as “he can sleep with all the women he wants to as long as he comes home to me.” It was hitting close to home with some of these lines.
The realness continued throughout the show as she portrayed her experience dealing with an abusive boyfriend while she was a teenager. With such lines as,“I am going to hurt you so nobody will want you,” spoken in her abusive boyfriend’s voice, you could hear many women in the crowd’s hearts drop just a little more.
All this being backed by soulful music and hip hop made it worth the time to see, and it ended with an appropriate standing ovation.
The 9th Annual DC Hip Hop Theater Festival continues through July 17th . For more information, visit http://www.hhtf.org.
