by Patrick Blake, Artistic Director
[Editor’s note: This is the speech that Patrick gave at our Fundraiser/Benefit on April 30, 2018.]
What is Rhymes Over Beats?
Thank you, and welcome to the first of what we anticipate will be an annual benefit and fundraiser for the Rhymes Over Beats Theater Collective.
Since this is the first, I want to briefly tell you who we are and what we are about.
Where We Started
Almost sixty years ago popular music and theater music split apart, to the detriment of both. I was in a cab with Donna Hart talking about this a few years ago when, like the deus ex machina from old Greek plays, the idea just popped into my head.
We believe a living theater, a vital theater, a theater that is not just for the very few, needs the connection to the culture popular music provides. That tells its stories using popular music. This is why we are a hip hop theater collective that tells seldom-told stories of the community.
As a result, we are about –
- Increasing, as Hamilton did, the number of roles available to a diverse group of actors.
- We will increase the number of stories told by a diverse group of creative artists by creating a three year residency program where playwrights can develop the stories that need to be told.
- Finally, backstage, we will increase the diversity of the pool of directors, designers, stage managers, and front office personnel.
We’re All About the Work..
Last year we co-produced The Assignment, a play about the effects of gun violence, and produced Ursula Rucker’s one-person show My Father’s Daughter. We are also involved in the documentary When Reagan Killed Roosevelt, a story about how and why Public Enemy became Public Enemy.
For the future we are developing projects with Deaon Griffin-Presley, Masta Ace, and Freedom, a musical I wrote with the MC Chi-ill about the problems in the criminal justice system.
By being here you celebrate and support our mission, and for that you have the gratitude of the Collective. Our MCs, DJs, beat writers, playwrights, actors, designers, choreographers, and producers thank you.
We Need You
Now, it wouldn’t be a fundraiser if I didn’t mention money.
Normally at this point, benefits have auctions, silent or live. People bid more than the things are worth for stuff they really don’t want. We are hip hop. We don’t pretend. We come out straight and ask.
Please donate what ever you can whenever you can as often as you can.
- We need $2,000 for each reading we do.
- We need $20,000 for a one-person show like My Father’s Daughter.
- We need $750,000 for full length production like Masta Ace’s or Deaon’s.
I know you spent quite a bit on your tickets, but if you can please do more. Every dollar gets us one step closer to doing more of the kind of work you want to see. Just make the check out to the “Pat Blake I’m going to party in the Bahamas next 420 fund.” I mean Rhymes Over Beats. 🙂
Theater is typically produced because a rich person or two (or ten) writes a $10,000 check. We are hoping that 10,000 people each donate $10. If you can’t do that, at the minimum please go on social media. Post pictures, and tell your friends what a great time you had here, and how they should donate. We put a button below to make it easy to donate.
Thank you! Enjoy the rest of the program.