HYPE MAN: a break beat play

By Idris Goodwin
Directed by Kristan Seemel and Niegel Smith
November 10 - December 18, 2018
Tickets start at $15*
The Pete
75 Minutes

New York Premiere

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 The Flea’s resident acting company, including Tay Bass, Conor Bell, Sonja Cirillo, Justin Jorrell, Matt Stango and Shakur Tolliver. The creative team includes Anton Volovsek (Scenic Designer), Sarah Lawrence (Costume Designer), Xavier Pierce (Lighting Designer), Wendell Hanes (Music Composer/Supervisor/Editor), Jabob Brasi (Assistant Director), Haley Gordon (Stage Manager) and Keenan Hurley (Sound Designer).

PERFORMANCE TIMES

Monday and Wednesday @ 7 p.m.
Thursday through Saturday @ 9 p.m.
Select Sunday matinees @ 3 p.m. and select evening shows @  7 p.m.

Student rush tickets are available 10 minutes prior to curtain for $10, based on availability and with a valid student ID. (Student rush is available for Flea produced shows only.)

*All tickets include an additional $2 Theater Restoration Fee, which keeps the lights on in our new digs.

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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

Director

Niegel Smith

Niegel Smith is a Bessie Award winning theater director and performance artist. He is the Executive Artistic Director of NYC’s Obie Award winning theater, The Flea guiding the organization through its refounding as a hub for experimental art by Black, brown and queer artists. He is also a board member of A.R.T./New York and was a ringleader of Willing Participant, an artistic activist organization that whips up urgent poetic responses to crazy shit that happens.

His current directing projects include The Ritual of Breath Is the Rite to Resist, a multi-media opera and community ritual commissioned and produced by Hopkins Center for the Arts and Suzan-Lori Park’s Plays for The Plague Year produced by The Public Theater. His theater work has been produced at The Alley Theater, The Barbican, Classical Theatre of Harlem, The Flea, The Goodman Theatre, HERE Arts Center, Hip Hop Theatre Festival, The Invisible Dog, Luna Stage, The Melbourne Festival, Magic Theatre, Mixed Blood, the National Black Theatre, New York Fringe Festival, New York Live Arts, Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Playwrights Horizons, Pomegranate Arts, The Public Theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Summer Play Festival, and Under the Radar, and his participatory walks and performances have been produced by Abrons Arts Center, American Realness, The Brooklyn Museum, Dartmouth College, Elastic City, The Flea, The Invisible Dog, Jack, The New Museum, Prelude Festival, PS 122, the Van Alen Institute and Visual AIDS. He often collaborates with playwright/performer Taylor Mac.

Niegel most recently directed the wildly popular and critically-acclaimed jazz opera The Hang. For this work, he was nominated for a Drama League Award in best direction. He has also collaborated with some of the world’s most celebrated musicians including En Vogue and Jon Batiste at New York City’s Park Avenue Armory. Smith is co-director of the critically acclaimed ‘A 24-Decade History of Popular Music’, winner of the Kennedy Prize in Drama, Bessie Award, the Edwin Booth Award and a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He associate directed the Tony Award winning musical FELA! – restaging that production in London, Lagos and its world tour, assistant directed the original Broadway and off-Broadway productions of Tony Kushner’s Caroline, or Change. He has worked on the artistic staffs of The Public Theater, Trinity Repertory Company and Providence Black Rep.

A graduate of Dartmouth College, Smith has received residencies, grants and/or fellowships from Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, the MAP Fund, the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Stage and Film, Sundance Theatre Lab, Theater Communications Group, Tucker Foundation, Van Lier Fund and VoxFest. Before high school in Detroit, he grew up in the North Carolina piedmont, fishing with his dad, shopping with his mom and inventing tall-tale fantasies with his two younger brothers.www.niegelsmith.com

Cast

Conor Bell

Conor Bell

Actor

Conor Bell (Pinnacle U/S) recently appeared in SERIALS at The Flea. A fresh baby bat, he is positively stoked to be included in the conversation put forth by HYPE MAN. He recently acted in a short independent film, a commercial for Chase Sapphire, and is appearing in Buckshot Production’s upcoming feature film Bad Tidings. He studied at the National Theater Institute and has recently trained with Christopher Bayes and Jim Calder. In his free time, Conor is a voracious consumer of music and writes for an independent zine started by his friends.

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

Sonja Cirilo

Sonja Cirilo

Actor

Sonja Cirilo (Peep One U/S) is an actor from St. Croix USVI.  She is excited to be a part of the HYPE MAN cast at The Flea Theater. Her stage credits include: Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike by Christopher Durang, Mother Courage and her Children by Bertolt Brecht, Oleanna by David Mamet, Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekohov (Randolph College), and From the Valley to the Peak (Black Theatre Assemble). Sonja obtained her BFA in theater performance from Randolph College in 2015. After graduation, she moved to New York City to continue her training with the Atlantic Acting Theater Company’s Full- Time Conservatory.

Justin Jorrell

Justin Jorrell

Actor

Justin Jorrell (Verb U/S) is from Charlotte NC, is a New York City based actor and is excited to be a new Bat at The Flea Theater. Most recently he as been Off- Broadway at the Tank Theatre and St. Luke’s Theater. Justin is also a well known Master of Ceremony in the NYC area, as well as the southern east coast. He is looking forward to adding his talents and strengths as an MC to 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.

Assistant Director

Jacob Basri

Jacob Basri

Assistant Director

Jacob Basri (Assistant Director) is a director who works on new plays and classics. He is an alum of the Williamstown Theatre Festival Directing Corps. The 2017/2018 Van Lier Directing Fellow at Playwrights Horizons, and a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab. Directing credits include Hedda Gabler, Crimes of the Heart (Sarah Lawrence College), Monkey (Wow Haus), Sad Americana (The Tank), Many People Believe, The Spy, Hunger (Williamstown Theater Festival), and numerous short plays and readings at The PIT, Writopia Play Festival, Tiny Rhino, A.R.T. New York, and Ensemble Studio Theatre. More can be found at jacobbasri.com.

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.