#BARS Workshop - Week 2

To start off the second #BARS Workshop, instructor Rafael Casal interviewed the playwright and poet Lemon Andersen. The interview was livestreamed on The Public Theater's Facebook page on July 25, 2016 and also filmed for a longer video series. During the interview, Lemon talked about how he brings a real hunger to all of his projects and insists on not doing anything half-assed or watered down. To illustrate this, he recalled collapsing during one of his one-man performances in part because he refused to drink water while he performed--to not show the audience that he's vulnerable when onstage. Lemon also talked about be 100% authentic with his work and not compromising to critics:

"I had to learn how to protect...how I am being criticized as an artist." - @LemonAndersen #BARSLAB @PublicTheaterNY pic.twitter.com/ZAYaBcZ6ux

— #BARS @ The Public (@barsworkshopNYC) July 30, 2016

Casal expertly interviewed Lemon asking questions ranging from how his Puerto Rican heritage and how his upbringing in New York during the golden age of hip hop influences his work. One thing that stuck with me from the interview is that Lemon emphasized authenticity as the tipping point in creative work. When doing hip hop, the audience has to believe you're keeping it 100 and none of the performance can be contrived. I'm paraphrasing him, but he said something to the extent of: "Hip hop is your vocabulary, and you're not using hip hop in theater because it's a cool market trend, but because that is the only language that allows you to fully express what you're trying to say."

When asked about how some producers still view hip hop in theater as a novelty, Lemon took a wider view, pointing out that doing theater in verse is nothing new--Shakespeare and countless others wrote theater in verse. Lemon also spoke about how performing Shakespeare strengthened his instrument as an actor and broadened his skill set when performing hip hop theater.

After the Lemon interview, we did a quick free write exercise where we got into groups and wrote scenes from famous movies, similar to what the first #BARS Workshop did for their final performance. We were given very limited time to write and perform as a group, and the goal was to get the creative juices flowing and rap in front of a group without inhibitions. Nobody's piece was going to be perfect given the time constraint, but the exercise was to get those who had never rapped before in front of an audience, a chance to do so in a low-stakes, supportive environment.

I wrote a quick Lion King-inspired rap with my group of a Simba vs. Scar rap battle. After a couple of 8-Mile-style verses between Simba and Scar, the hyenas came in at the end on Simba's side to battle rap Scar. I loaded their verses with political references, likening knocking off Scar to knocking off the Republican candidates in the 2016 Presidential primary (You're gonna lose // You'd have a better shot if you were Job Bush or Ted Cruz) and ended with a reference to the John Adams rap pulled from Hamilton.

Looking forward to Week 3!