Actress and writer Kerisse Hutchinson premiered her tribute show to Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes on Thursday, exposing fans to her lesser-known personal struggles.
What We Know:
- The one-woman play, 2 The Left: A Tribute to the Life of Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopes, premiered August 1 and will run until August 11 in Atlanta, Georgia. The show is written and performed by Kerisse Hutchinson, who spent her whole life being told she looks like Lopes and should create a project based on Lopes’s life.
- In an interview with Fox 5 Atlanta, Hutchinson explained that the show focuses on the lesser-known, emotional sides of Lopes’ life, even tackling controversial moments in her life from a personal perspective. Hutchinson spent two years researching Lopes’ life which ended up being a ten-year production process of what became a sort of personal passion project for Hutchinson.
- Lopes’ sister, Reigndrop, got involved with the show after she saw a performance of it and realized how well Hutchinson had captured her sister’s emotional journey. Hutchinson also reached out to and involved Left Eye’s brother Ronald, who advised her to go to Honduras to mimick Left Eye’s journey to find herself. Hutchinson’s sister had just completed a sex change transition when she took off for Honduras, making this journey to find Left Eye a personal journey of exploration as well; Hutchinson explains this trip allowed her to find a personal connection to Left Eye’s spiritual journey and better understand the script she was writing.
- Lopes was a four-time Grammy-award winning member of the R&B girl group TLC, in which she rapped, sang, wrote, and creatively contributed to projects. Lopes also produced the girl group Blaque, who went on to score a platinum album and released a solo album.
- Lopes publically suffered a difficult personal life, admitting to struggling with alcoholism after suffering an abusive, alcoholic past. She was also arrested for setting fire to Andre Rison’s house, a controversial moment that Hutchinson tackles in her play. Lopes tragically died in a car crash at age 30.
While many projects have been made in Lopes’ honor, this project takes on an emotional and personal tone with the contributions from Lopes’ siblings.
