Your server seeking out theatrical opportunities for your pleasure If jazz is the broom Africans jump over to become Americans, then what is hip-hop?
Playwright/poet, dancer/rapper and hip-hop historian Marc Bamuthi Joseph asks and answers that question in "the break/s," a dynamic display of facile wordplay, percussive music and phenomenal physical movement.
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Joseph's new work, the fourth production to open in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, is a journey of self-discovery that Joseph juxtaposes with the birth, growth and diversification of hip-hop.
The 90-minute show begins with Joseph twisting and twirling his entire body on the Bingham Theatre stage as if he were an LP revolving on a turntable. It's capped with a breathtaking, faster-than-the-eye flurry of dance and vocal agility called beatboxing.
In between, Joseph takes the audience on a trip with him to Haiti, Japan, Senegal, Paris, Bosnia and even Wisconsin, where he teaches and performs hip-hop. "the break/s" allows the audience to experience hip-hop afresh and see how cultures around the globe have adopted and adapted this quintessential American urban music to express their own views.
Joseph commands the stage with his autobiographical poetry slam and, in doing so, gives this year's Humana Festival a kick of excitement.
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If jazz is the broom Africans jump over to become Americans, then what is hip-hop?
Playwright/poet, dancer/rapper and hip-hop historian Marc Bamuthi Joseph asks and answers that question in "the break/s," a dynamic display of facile wordplay, percussive music and phenomenal physical movement.
|
Joseph's new work, the fourth production to open in this year's Humana Festival of New American Plays at Actors Theatre of Louisville, is a journey of self-discovery that Joseph juxtaposes with the birth, growth and diversification of hip-hop.
The 90-minute show begins with Joseph twisting and twirling his entire body on the Bingham Theatre stage as if he were an LP revolving on a turntable. It's capped with a breathtaking, faster-than-the-eye flurry of dance and vocal agility called beatboxing.
In between, Joseph takes the audience on a trip with him to Haiti, Japan, Senegal, Paris, Bosnia and even Wisconsin, where he teaches and performs hip-hop. "the break/s" allows the audience to experience hip-hop afresh and see how cultures around the globe have adopted and adapted this quintessential American urban music to express their own views.
Joseph commands the stage with his autobiographical poetry slam and, in doing so, gives this year's Humana Festival a kick of excitement.
Hip-hop, rooted in African and West Indian music, grew out of New York block parties where groups break-danced with an MC rapping lyrics. Joseph's show traces the music's evolving history as he reveals his own evolving emotional life. With humor and passion, he shares his nervousness about performing for an African village, his incredulity at not making an impression at a Japanese hip-hop club and his difficulty committing to the woman he loves.
Joseph's script, which he performed flawlessly, takes a salacious turn with a curious story about the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci and Prince, the rock star. His impression of Prince was funny, but I'm still wondering about the meaning of that tale.
With turntable expert DJ Excess of Queens creating scratches and San Francisco music artist Tommy Shepherd, aka Soulati, contributing percussion and a rapping backbeat, Joseph, a past National Poetry Slam Champion, respected, related and represented in the Bingham Theatre. In today's hip-hop world, you can't ask for more than that.
Joseph's kinetic music history lesson teaches that if jazz was the broom that Africans jumped to become Americans, hip-hop is a sweeping instrument that allows people of every ethnicity to find common ground.