BPV Radio: Hiphop
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'Revenge' Activities
BPV TV: Hiphop Theatre
Revenge of a KingThursday, January 8, 2009 thru January 25 Tickets: $23 special price Conceived by: Herb Newsome A multicultural Hiphop musical featuring original music, freestyle rhymes, an MC battle, graffiti, dance and a live DJ. Hamlet, one of the most recognizable tragedies in Shakespeare’s theatrical canon has been transplanted from Denmark to the streets of urban America. In this retelling, Hamilton L. King, an aspiring hip-hop artist, struggles to overcome his father’s mysterious death while simultaneously learning to accept his mother’s untimely marriage. Confusion, doubt and thoughts of retribution take over as new elements unfold leading him down a path of self-destruction. Presented by Black Theatre Troupe in association with BlackPoet Ventures |
About Herb Newsome
Born in Staten Island, N.Y., Herb Newsome – an accomplished actor and director – began his writing during graduate school at Pennsylvania State University. There he penned the solo show In Devil’s Heaven – about a young boy trying to make his way out of the inner-city slums – which he performed as his master’s thesis and later at The Manhattan Theater Source in New York City. His next venture was Revenge of a King, a hip-hop musical based on Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It has been produced multiple times, including by the University of Arkansas - Pine Bluff (2004), the Producers Club NYC (2005), the 2006 New York International Fringe Festival, the 2007 National Black Theater Festival in Winston-Salem, N.C., and The Cincinnati Black Theater (2008). His latest writing effort is his ode to the Bebop era of jazz, FreeMan in Paris, which chronicles the life of Carter Freeman and his band as they make their way through America in search of the true meaning of freedom.
Newsome, who received his bachelor's in theatre from Suny at Albany, currently resides in Manhattan.
