Hip Hop Theater & Danny Hoch’s Taking Over Arena

posted by Jamie Gahlon

From Thursday, Nov. 29 to Saturday, Dec. 1, Arena Stage and Georgetown University’s Program in Performing Arts will present a workshop production of Taking Over, a new solo show written and performed by Danny Hoch, and directed by Tony Taccone of Berkeley Repertory Theater. For show and ticketing information, check out the Georgetown Program in Performing Arts website.

I have the incredible opportunity of stepping outside of my normal Arena hats (Human Resources Associate/Executive Director Intern) to line produce for the workshop, and I couldn’t be more excited. I first heard about Danny Hoch and his work last year through research I conducted on Hip Hop Theater for a Political Theater class I was enrolled in at Georgetown. What is Hip Hop Theater, you ask?

For those of you who don’t know, Danny Hoch founded the first Hip Hop Theater Festival in 2000 and is considered one of the fathers and most formidable creators and contributors to the Hip Hop Theater genre. Hip Hop Theater uses theater as a medium for hip hop, combining intrinsically theatrical hip hop elements such as rap, singing, break dancing, spoken word, beat-boxing and spinning records with theater. The Hip Hop Theater movement really got off the ground in the ‘90s, emerging largely through trained theater artists who grew up in and were influenced by hip hop culture.