Professor’s one-woman show hits deep in the heart of Texas
Andrea Baldwin is more than a lecturer of communication; she shares her passion for performance studies with her students in and outside the classroom. Baldwin performed her one-woman show at the UHCL Bayou Theater April 24.
Baldwin teaches Public Speaking (COMM 1315), Selected Topics in Communication, Storytelling and Oral Communication (COMM 4391) and will teach Media Writing (COMM 3321) in Fall 2017. She graduated and earned her Master’s Degree from University of North Texas. Baldwin also earned her Doctorate from Southern Illinois University and has been at UHCL since 2015.
“Lone Star Feminist” is an autoethnography that is broken up into multiple parts that represent a storm with videos to indicate a shift in Baldwin’s performance. Baldwin’s performance highlights the importance and popularity of feminism and race. Baldwin believes that both issues are important in everyone’s lives and should be discussed with others.
“I believe there is work to be done on both ends, it is a never-ending development,” Baldwin said. “I believe that educating yourself and aligning yourself with individuals who are like minded in this growth will help both causes.”
Prior to her UHCL performance, Baldwin performed her show in Washington and noted a difference in the energies between the two states.
“The audience in Washington state are semi familiar with some Texan-isms but not all,” Baldwin said. “A student in the Washington audience noted that she was unaware of all the Texas figures but now wanted to know.”
Baldwin also noticed a difference in her pre-performance anxiety between the two colleges.
“The energy was different at UHCL,” Baldwin said. “Performing always causes some anxiety, but to perform for colleagues and students who have not seen that side of you heightens the potency of anxiety, but it’s all manageable. It was really nice to see all the people you know in the audience.
The show reflects how different Texas is compared to other states. For instance, Baldwin talks about Texan pride and how unique it is when other states do not share the same pride. With that pride comes knowledge. Baldwin engages with the audience by asking if they know the name of Texas’ state flower, state bird and state song.
Baldwin also explains why feminism is a big part in her life. She mentions Ann Richards, Wendy Davis, Leticia Van DePutte, Barbara Jordan, her mother and grandmother. Each woman receives dialogue on their influences on Baldwin’s life. To combine Texas with feminism, Baldwin dedicated a scene to Beyoncé that included a hidden miniature fan to give Baldwin Beyoncé’s flawless appearance.
She recognizes that her mom and grandmother were the first influences of feminism in her life. Baldwin tells an emotional story about her grandmother helping her neighbors during a scary night.
Baldwin hopes to continue performing throughout her life.
“Performance Studies is my research line, I will perform as long as the universe allows,” Baldwin said. “I’m working with a group of former students of mine to create a group performance to perform here at UHCL in October and at the Petit Jean Performance Festival in Arkansas.”
Also published on Medium.
