Playback Theater (NYC) has launched a new project to sample, mix and fuse the 500-year-old tradition of Commedia dell ‘Arte with Free Style Hip Hop. We are seeking actors, theater artists and producers to join us in this exciting new endeavor.

Five years ago we set out to combine our skills in improvisational theater and Hip Hop to form a new theater company. After experimenting with many improvisational forms we chose to become a Playback Theater.

After studying with the founders and with Playback Theater groups here and abroad we now perform regularly in theaters and clubs as well as in schools, prisons, hospitals and homeless shelters. While we continue this important work we have now begun our new theater project, using our Playback experience to combine aspects of traditional Commedia dell ‘Arte and Hip Hop.

Why these two forms...so far apart in time and from such different cultures?

In many ways the Commedia dell ‘Arte was the Hip Hop of its time. This bawdy irreverent improvised theater that emerged from the popular festivals and market places of 15th century Italy came from the bottom up. As these rag tag traveling troupes spread among the lower classes of Renaissance Europe they became alternately adored by the upper classes or censored and banned. The characters, scenarios, masks, improvisation and comedy that emerged had its roots in Roman and Greek theater and in earlier pre-literate "pagan" rites and storytelling.

Archetypes like the Young Lovers, the Old Miser, the Pompous Doctor, the Scheming Servants and the vainglorious Braggart Soldier peopled these comic scenarios of greed, lust, revenge and forbidden love. And in time the Commedia was absorbed into the very heart of the Western theater tradition from Shakespeare and Moliére, to Chaplin, the Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Seinfeld and Dave Chappelle. From Slapstick to the most sophisticated comedy of manners-our very sense of what’s funny and how to make people laugh is rooted in this rich moment in the Renaissance.

How does Hip Hop connect? Greed, lust, revenge and forbidden love are still part of the human condition... and Hip Hop. Braggarts, Schemers, Misers, Fakes and Lovers have different names and "masks" today but they are still with us and they are central themes for today’s rappers. Hip Hop also has a rich and ancient heritage which we can trace back from its urban setting to Black Poets, Jazz, Latin and Caribbean culture and through slavery to Mother Africa, the Griots and the same pre-literate "pagan" rites and storytelling as the Commedia.

What questions will we ask and what will we learn when we bring these two forms together?

- Who are the "star crossed lovers" of today longing only to be married-Romeo and Juliet?

- How have class, race and gender battles changed? Who washes the dishes and cares for the children today? How do they see their "betters"?

- Commedia could never make fun of religion-can we avoid it today?

- What drugs and potions keeps the old man Pantaloon virile today?

- What expensive procedures does the Doctor offer to make the old look young?

- How much gold can the Miser horde and how many women will he abuse before his crew seeks revenge?

- And what kind of Braggart coward (Chicken hawk) sends others off to die in a war that benefits his rich friends?

For more information contact:
Paul McIsaac
paulmcisaac@rcn.com
(212) 262-1290

Copyright 2004

Hip Hop Commedia