H28.0665 Lecture 4 Credits
Instructor(s): Daniel Banks
In this course we will explore how to create theatre out of contemporary rhythms, movements, stories, politics and aesthetics. This work will revolve around the central questions: What is Hip Hop Theatre? What is a Hip Hop Theatre production, in terms of style, structure and form? What is Hip Hop Theatre’s relationship to spoken word and poetry? Splitting our time between praxis and "book learning," we will briefly review the history of the spoken word movement, from Beat and Last Poets, to Choreopoems, to slams, and the origins of Hip Hop culture and its commodification by the record industry. We will then examine contemporary groups that use the above aesthetics in their work. Some of these practitioners will come in to do workshops with us in specific skills such as beatboxing and Playback Theatre, lyricism, and storytelling. Participants will also be expected to take a few classes or workshops outside of the NYU context with experts in the field. Students should come with a working knowledge of the history of Hip Hop culture and the major areas of cultural production (MC’ing, B’boying, Tagging, and DJ’ing). A suggested reading list and film/videography will be available for students who need to do summer research to be prepared. All students will be expected to read Hip Hop America by Nelson George, The Hip-Hop Generation by Bakari Kitwana, and The New H.N.I.C. by Todd Boyd by the first day of class (available at NYU Bookstore). At the end of the semester we will do an open presentation of individual and group work.
Enrollment by permission only. Access code required. Please send an email stating your interest, experience, and vision for this developing genre of theatre to daniel.banks@nyu.edu.
