Battery Park City Authority presents

HYPE MAN: a break beat play

By Idris Goodwin
Directed by Kristan Seemel
May 16 - May 18, 2019
FREE
Battery Park City, Irish Hunger Memorial
75 Minutes

IT’S BACK. Battery Park City Authority presents a limited outdoor run of  HYPE MAN: a break beat play.

In HYPE MAN: a break beat play we meet Verb, a young black man who hypes the crowd and Pinnacle, a white front man who writes and rhymes. They’ve been best buddies since they were kids, growing up together on the same mean streets. Now, with the addition of Peep One, a mixed- race, female beat maker, the trio is about to make it big as America’s next hip hop crew. But the shooting of an unarmed black man in their hometown throws them off their beat. Their friendship is tested. Their moral compass is challenged. HYPE MAN immerses audiences in a chilling conversation amongst the beats and rhymes of pulsating hip hop.

“When the trio gets cranking on musical numbers — you won’t need a hype man’s injunctions to put your hands up in the air.” – The New York Times

“Goodwin’s HYPE MAN is a loud and clear clarion call for blacks and whites, cops and civilians, and everyone to get on up and openly, honestly discuss America’s ongoing problems of racial violence and inequality. None of us get to sit this one out.” – Theatermania

“Bass, Tolliver and Stango are majestic together.” –TheaterScene.net

HYPE MAN features The Bats, The Flea’s resident acting company, including Tay Bass, Matt Stango and Shakur Tolliver. The creative team includes Anton Volovsek (Scenic Designer), Sarah Lawrence (Costume Designer), Jose Santiago (Lighting Designer), Keenan Hurley (Sound Designer), Wendell Hanes (Music Composer/Supervisor/Editor), Haley Gordon (Stage Manager), and Brandon Stock (Production Manager).

PERFORMANCE TIMES

Thursday, May 16 @ 7 p.m.
Friday, May 17 @ 7 p.m.
Saturday, May 18 @ 7 p.m.

Performances will happen rain or shine.

More information at:  bpcparks.org/event/hype-man-a-break-beat-play/all/

Directions to Irish Hunger Memorial from The Flea:

  • Head northwest on Thomas St towards Trimble Pl
  • Turn left on Church St
  • Turn right Murray St
  • Turn left on North End Ave
  • Turn right on River Terrace
  • Irish Hunger Memorial

Playwright

Idris Goodwin

Idris Goodwin is an award-winning playwright, director, orator and educator. He is the Producing Artistic Director of Stage One Family Theater in Louisville, KY for which he penned the widely produced And In This Corner: Cassius Clay. Other widely produced plays include: How We Got On, This Is Modern Art co-written with Kevin Coval, Bars and Measures and The Raid. The Way The Mountain Moved, commissioned as part of Oregon Shakespeare’s American Revolutions series. His work has been produced by or developed with The Actor’s Theater of Louisville, Steppenwolf Theater, The Kennedy Center, The Denver Center for The Performing Arts, Cleveland Playhouse, Seattle Children’s Theater, Nashville Children’s Theater, Boulder Ensemble Theater, TheaterWorks, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Program, La Jolla Playhouse, The Eugene O’Neill Center, The Lark Playwriting Center and New Harmony Project. He’s received support from the NEA, The Ford, Mellon and Edgerton Foundation, and is the recipient of InterAct Theater’s 20/20 Prize and The Playwrights’ Center’s Mcknight Fellowship. www.idrisgoodwin.com

Director

Kristan Seemel

Kristan Seemel, before coming to New York, was a freelance director in Oregon for the better part of a decade. While on the other coast, he worked for eight seasons at Portland Center Stage, first as a Literary Associate and later as Corporate Development Associate during the organization’s transition into the historic Armory Theater, a world-renowned Green Building project. Kristan came up in the theater working on new plays, serving as dramaturg on a score of premiere productions and developmental workshops. His passion for new American writing is clear from his direction of premiers such as Mary-Kate Olsen is in Love by Mallery Avidon and The Electric Lighthouse by Ed Himes (The Flea). Other plays Kristan has directed include HYPE MAN: a break beat play by Idris Goodwin (The Flea), Mutt by Lava Alapai (Many Hats Collective) and The Verspiary by Matthew Zrebski (Stark Raving Theatre) as well as NW regional premieres of Carlos Murillo’s Mimesophobia (Sand & Glass Productions), The Long Christmas Ride Home by Paula Vogel (TheatreVertigo) and Mac Wellman’s A Murder of Crows (defunkt theatre). He has developed new plays with Playwrights Horizons/Clubbed Thumb (SuperLab), The Lark, Brave New World Repertory Theater, Spookfish and The Barn Arts Collective. Kristan is a graduate of the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program in directing and, while in Providence, he helmed workshop productions Oh Guru Guru Guru by Mallery Avidon and The Darkson Chronicles by Theo Goodell. Favorite revivals include Brecht & Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (Brown/Trinity Rep) and Hamlet (CoHo Productions). Kristan’s staging of Gertrude Stein’s Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (defunkt theatre) garnered him a Portland Dramatic Critics Circle award (Drammy) for Outstanding Direction. Some of his favorite assisting credits include Gurney’s AJAX, The Mysteries (The Flea), A Raisin in the Sun, A Christmas Carol and Camelot (Trinity Rep). Kristan is a proud alumnus of the 2012/13 Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab and the SDCF Observership Program. www.kristanseemel.com

Cast

Tay Bass

Tay Bass

Actor

Tay Bass (Peep One) is thrilled to be making her Flea debut with this incredible company, it is a gift to work with such committed and giving artists everyday. She was last seen as Rosalind in HID’s All-Female+ As You Like It at El Barrio’s Artspace. She would like to thank to her friends and family, for their endless support. LIU Post MT ’17 www.taybass.com

Matt Stango

Matt Stango

Actor

Matt Stango (Pinnacle) was born and raised in New York, where he attended LaGuardia High School and SUNY Purchase for Acting.  Matt joined The Bats in 2013 when he was cast in The Mysteries. Since then, his Flea credits include Agnosiophobia and but i cd only whisper.  He’s also the producer and host of SERIALS @ The Flea. He has performed at various other theaters across New York City including The Signature, Dixon Place, The New Ohio, The Tank, UCB and The Magnet. He’d like to thank Mr. Goodwin for writing this play.  For more information visit www.MattStango.com

Learn more about HYPE MAN

Shakur Tolliver

Shakur Tolliver

Actor

Shakur Tolliver (Verb) is happy to be making his Flea debut alongside this cast and creative team. A New York and New Jersey based actor, Shakur is excited to be a part of The Bats. A graduate from Drew University, where he majored in theatre and philosophy, Shakur has recently been seen in: This Is Modern Art (Seven) by Idris Goodwin, The 88 (The Usher) Tiers (Earl / Bimbo) by reg e gaines, and Down Neck (John) by Pia Wilson. These performances are dedicated to his late mentor Rodney M. Gilbert and his Momma.

Learn more about HYPE MAN

Creative Team

Scenic Designer

Anton Volovsek

Anton Volovsek

Scenic Designer

Anton Volovsek (Scenic Designer) is a Michigan born, New York City based freelance scenic designer. Recent design credits include: The Caucasian Chalk Circle (City College of New York), Hair, Celebration, Working (NYU-New Studio on Broadway), The Women, Rapture Blister Burn (Stella Adler Studio of Acting), The Perfect Monster (TADA! Youth Theater), Curse of the Starving Class (PTP, Williamstown Theatre Festival), A Man of No Importance (University of Michigan). Recent associate credits include: Blue Ridge (Adam Rigg, Atlantic Theatre Company), Good Grief (Jason Ardizzone-West, Vineyard Theatre), Sweat (Wilson Chin, The Public). Graduate of the University of Michigan. Go Blue! You can find more of his work at www.antonedward.com

Costume Designer

Sarah Lawrence

Sarah Lawrence

Costume Designer

Sarah, (Costume Designer) a graduate of Parson’s The New School for Design, is a Brooklyn based artist, costume designer, and stylist. While pursuing her design degree and creating her own sustainable hand-crafted fashion line (www.gravexsl.com), Sarah found her way into theater as Assistant Costume Designer for Thomas Bradshaw’s Fulfillment produced by The Flea Theater in the fall of 2015. She has since joined The Flea’s staff as resident Wardrobe Supervisor and continues to costume shows like Witness Relocation’s The Loon, New York Times Critics Pick Two Class Acts by the late A.R. Gurney, and Royal Family’s Under The Bodhi Tree.

Lighting Designer

Xavier Pierce

Xavier Pierce

Lighting Designer

Xavier Pierce (Lighting Designer) Theater credits include Othello, Shakespeare in Love (Oregon Shakespeare Festival); Native Gardens, Harvey, Blithe Spirit (The Guthrie); Smart People, Native Gardens (Arena Stage), The Roommate (Steppenwolf Theatre) Yours Unfaithfully, A Day by the Sea (Mint Theatre NYC), Misery (Cincinnati Playhouse), Noises Off ! (Syracuse Stage), Fences (Long Wharf and the McCarter); Pipeline (Indiana Repertory Theatre ) Peter and the Starcatcher, 4000 Miles, The Mountaintop, Detroit ’67 (PlayMakers Rep); Two Trains Running (Arden Theatre) Outside Mulingar (Arizona Theatre Company), The Piano Lesson (Olney Theatre Center), Fly (Florida Studio Theatre); Common Enemy, Red (Triad Stage); A Raisin in the Sun (Westport Country Playhouse); Two Trains Running (Two River Theater Company), Everybody ,The Glass Menagerie, black odyssey, Fences (California Shakespeare Theatre); Hamlet, Pippin (Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre).

Sound Designer

Keenan Hurley

Keenan Hurley

Sound Designer

Keenan Hurley (Sound Designer) is a New York based writer, theater maker, and designer. As a sound designer he has worked with artists such as Sibyl Kempson, Dawn Akemi Saito, Erin Markey, and Church of the Millennials at venues such as The Kitchen, Abrons Arts Center, The Bushwick Starr, The Whitney Museum, Mount Tremper Arts, BAX, and Dixon Place. Additionally, he has worked extensively as a technician and audio engineer at Performance Space New York/PS122. His theatrical works include original plays as well as separate collaborations with Kedian Keohan and Peter McNally that have been presented and developed at JACK, 59E59, Judson Church, FEAST: A Performance Series, The Playwriting Collective, and The Edinburgh Fringe. He is a graduate of the theater program at Fordham University where he concentrated in playwriting. He joined The Flea as Associate Technical Director in 2018.

Stage Manager

Haley Gordon

Haley Gordon

Stage Manager

Haley Gordon (Stage Manager) graduated in 2018 from Dartmouth College. Recent positions include a fellowship with the Hopkins Center for Performing Arts in Operations and Events, student production coordinator for VOXFEST theater festival 2018 and the stage management intern for the New York Theatre Workshop Residency at Dartmouth. As a production intern, she worked with Primary Stages and the Walnut Street Theatre.