48 HOURS OF HIP HOP THEATRE
Location:
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA; Rhodes College, Memphis, TN; Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI; S.U.N.Y. Stony Brook, New York; West Virginia State University, Institute, WV; Naropa University, Boulder, CO; Southeastern Theatre Conference, Greensboro, NC; Bennett College for Women/North Carolina A&T, Greensboro, NC; Black Theatre Network Conference, Kent State University, Kent, OH; Disney Theatricals, Orlando, FL; University of Florida, Gainesville; University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL; University of California, Riverside.
Description:
This two-day exploration of the Hip Hop Theatre Initiative’s work has been featured at universities throughout the United States and at conferences and festivals in Europe and the U.K. During these 48 hours of lectures/demonstrations/workshops, Daniel Banks discusses the origins, politics and aesthetics of Hip Hop Theatre, intercut by live performances or video excerpts from the top practitioners in the field. Dr. Banks traces his involvement in this form and how it has provided an alternative methodology for performance and training in the professional theatre.
On the second day of this residency, Dr. Banks takes participants through a progression to understand the dynamics of the African griot, the community storyteller, historian, and archive of communal knowledge. The workshop participants take the role of the modern-day griot. After a physical warm-up, they are led through a series of exercises where they develop their own stories created out of the “cipher,” the circle that Hip-Hop artists use for improvisation, competition, and skill-building. They then explore how these stories interrelate and begin to think about “staging” their communities’ voices. Questions addressed include: Where did this form come from? What is its connection to other Afro-centric modes of cultural production? And where is it going with its current swell of popularity?
Download Articles:
- “Join the Hip Hop Revolution,” Southern Theatre
- “Hip Hop Workshop Battles Stereotypes,” The Charleston Gazette
