Theater During Shutdown

One of the things we have learned from the pandemic is that NY theater – specifically Broadway – is not the center of the universe.

Broadway was closed for over a year, yet theater kept being made. If we wanted to see theater we could – just not live and in person. We could, and did, see a great deal of filmed theater.

I was thrilled that the critic of the Wall Street Journal, Terry Teachout, searched out these performances, evaluated them, and brought them to the attention of an audience starved for theater of any kind. It showed that Broadway is not the center of the theater universe. Instead, it is more like a parasite that survives by living off the health and vitality of theater around the country.

Theater is a Socially-Conscious Art

Because our focus at Rhymes Over Beats’ is on new work, largely non-traditional new work, knowing who else out there who might be doing similar work is vitally important.

But we can’t depend on just one person to review smaller productions around the country. All of us have a social media account and can keep us posted of new and exciting productions that you find.

I want to make an appeal to those people who think that theater is important – specifically theater that brings attention to issues of importance, written by BIPOC creators, and influenced by the hip hop aesthetic – to tell us about  the theaters near you that are creating socially-significant plays and musicals. We want to contribute to their success.

We are always looking for like-minded individuals and organizations.

We know you know who they are. Please hook us up.

Can a Play Be Hip Hop?

In the past I’ve talked about hip hop musicals – particularly about what makes them good, or at least makes them the kind of work that Rhymes Over Beats wants to produce.

“Frankie and Annette rap at the beach” is not what we want to do. We believe in the value of hip hop music as an art form and as a method of social change. This is also true for hip hop musicals.

But what of works of theater that do not include music? Can a play be hip hop?

We believe it can be.

What Is a Hip Hop Play?

Hip hop is a response to a culture of oppression. The response can be defiant, as is in the case of graffiti. It can be a call to action, like most of the songs of Public Enemy.

Hip hop theater has as its themes the many different types of responses to a culture of oppression.

If you are a member of an oppressed group, what can you do? What should you do? The exploration of these themes, which is about how different people respond to oppression, is what makes each play unique.

Almost twenty years ago I produced a play called The Exonerated. It documents the true stories of six innocent individuals who were convicted and sentenced to death because they were poor, and or black. They were later exonerated because their response was to never give up. They persisted.

To me, this is what makes The Exonerated a true hip hop play. The response to oppression was to never give up.

What plays do you think are hip hop? What plays do you think should be produced by Rhymes Over Beats?

Let me know. Or better yet – write one yourself and send it to me.