MILWAUKEE — Denzel Taylor said everything in his childhood can be described in three words.
“That’s food, church and hip hop,” said Taylor.
His years-long connection to hip hop is one of the reasons Taylor said he selected Idris Goodwin’s “The Realness” to direct as one of MKE Black Theatre Festival’s plays this year.
The “break beat” play centers on the identity of hip hop in one of its earlier eras in 1996. It does that through a love story between two characters: Prima, a rapper working to support her family, and T.O., a suburban journalist who moves into a new neighborhood for school.
That story is literally set to the beat of hip hop verses scattered throughout the dialogue. Taylor has further emphasized that by calling each scene a “track.”
“I like to think that the play reads like an album,” he said.
It sounds like one too.
Taylor said the main character, T.O. — who also acts as the play’s narrator or MC — speaks with the “boom bap rhythm” of 90s rap and has a unique beat that plays underneath his lines.
“There’s gonna be a lot of rapping, there’s gonna be a lot of beats that are played, you’re gonna hear instrumentals, you’re gonna hear the rhythm in their voice,” said Taylor.
Beyond the surface, there’s also exploration of what hip hop means in the lives of each character.
Taylor said in preparing for the roles, he and the cast kept coming back to three topics.
“I think that this play uses hip hop strongly to communicate how each of these characters are finding their own form of release from the struggles of life, their own form of gateway into being closer and more intimate with each other, with their community, and how hip hop gives them stronger family bonds,” said Taylor.
Those themes are accompanied by questions of authenticity and class differences among characters.
Prima, having grown up in a poorer neighborhood, is very “enthralled and into the world of hip hop,” said actor Cambryelle Getter, who plays Prima in the show. Coming from the suburbs, T.O. has a very different relationship to hip hop; he’s more separated from it but can still identify with it, Getter explained.
He has to reckon with those differences when he moves for school to an area Getter likened to Brooklyn Heights.
“[He] just kind of tries to throw himself into it without realizing that his background isn’t necessarily what hip hop is about, so it’s him trying to figure out how he can be a part of it and fit in without coming off as an imposter,” said Getter.
Prima couldn’t be more different.
“She’s lived through a lot more of the hip hop lifestyle and so for her, you know, it is life. And so when they come together, it’s a matter of well, you think you know, but you don’t actually know,” said Getter.
Getter said she and Prima are, in some ways, one and the same. She said like Prima, she sees hip hop as a way of expressing viewpoints. She said it gives someone a stage to speak.
“For me, hip hop is a big influence in the sense of resistance, so one of the biggest themes in hip hop is going against the bigger powers. It’s fighting for your rights, fighting for who you are, being proud of who you are,” said Getter.
While she said Prima can be outwardly rigid and is very serious about the world around her, there are some moments of softness in the show. Getter said her favorite scene is when Prima and T.O. have established their relationship and are talking about Christmas.
“I think this is one of the first times my character has a chance to express giddily something that she loves,” she said.
Getter said aside from this scene, it’s also refreshing to see a story about Black people that isn’t traumatizing.
“The main point of it is love and softness and finding your true identity and being proud of who you are,” said Getter. “It’s an all Black cast. It is very rare to find shows like that, that aren’t about Black trauma. And so I feel like this show in particular showcases the good sides of being Black and the Black experience.”
Taylor said he hopes that Black youth and elders in the community are able to see themselves on stage through this play.
“And I think that’s really important, especially right now, as we feel a lot of our country feels incredibly divided,” he said. “I think that a play like this is helpful to try and dissipate some of that feeling, if not in the whole country, just right here in our Milwaukee community.”
Both Getter and Taylor said they hope audiences also find a deeper connection to hip hop, whether that’s a renewed sense of appreciation for the genre or feeling empowered to create their own art.
Getter said she feels people don’t give hip hop the proper credit.
“We know it for just being catchy and being fun, but there is a much deeper side to hip hop that I want the audience to really see and really feel,” she said.
Getter said T.O.’s story also shares an important lesson about being an outsider.
“I want the audience to really see that like, it’s okay to be an outsider as long as you do so respectfully,” she said.
Taylor said the play offers something for multiple generations. For the older generations, he said he hopes it conjures up nostalgia through the mentions of older hip hop artists like Tupac and Biggie and, for the younger generations, inspiration from the musical elements and colors.
“I want people to see this and walk away feeling like they enjoyed themselves and they felt a piece of themselves on stage,” he said.
MKE Black Theatre Festival takes place Aug. 8-25. Performances of “The Realness” run from Aug. 8-11, 15-18 and 22-25; each show starts at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $41 and can be purchased here. The play is being hosted at the Marcus Performing Arts Center’s Todd Wehr Theater.
There will also be a special pre-performance event, Meet the Playwright Idris Goodwin, on opening night on Aug. 8 at 5 p.m.