'the break/s' at Seattle's ACT

Marc Bamuthi Joseph's hip-hop inspired show "the break/s: a mixtape for the stage" is performing now at Seattle's ACT (A Contemporary Theatre).  And while it may not be the thing for everyone, it certainly has something to say.  At the beginning of the show Joseph asks the audience if they've ever been to a hip-hop show before.  And I, like most people, answered, "no".  And this is one of the main conceits of the Hansberry Project, the group that brought this show to ACT.  The Hansberry Project's goal is to bring new works of African Americans to a wider and more diverse audience than before.  This is their 4^th year working with ACT and while this might have been one of their tougher sells for the ACT crowd, it was definitely well received.

The show is a collection of poems, stories, dance pieces, and performance pieces from the multi-talented Joseph and chronicles elements of his life specifically his connection to hip-hop.  Joseph, who is a Broadway veteran, GOLDIE award winner and featured artist from Russell Simmons' Def Poetry  on HBO, is joined on stage by turntablist DJ Excess and beatboxer and percussionist Tommy Shepherd (aka Soulati) for a fascinating evening of music, dance, poetry and tales from a world that most of us are not familiar.  And those tales range anywhere from Joseph's audience with Prince to his work with the first true African he ever met, a white woman from Texas.  And all of this is set against a backdrop of multi-media video screens with images created by filmmaker Eli Jacobs Fantauzzi, composed of interviews and documentary footage of hip-hop culture from around the world.

Now I must admit that this kind of show is not my normal cup of tea.  It's very close to what I consider to be performance art and I have never been able to get into that aspect of theater.  I prefer my theater to just tell me a story and not go hunting for it.  But this bit of performance art (if you can really classify it as that) was so interspersed with wonderful stories and amazing talent that it gave me a whole new respect for the medium.  If this is the kind of thing that the Hansberry Project is bringing to town, then I cannot wait to see where they take us next.

"the break/s" plays at ACT's Falls Theatre through July 12^th.  For tickets or information call the box office at 206-292-7676 or visit them online at www.acttheatre.org. 

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