Every day is opening night.

Contact:
Rick Miramontez / Marie Pace
rick@oandmco.com / marie@oandmco.com
(212) 695-7400

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

SOHO PLAYHOUSE INC.
PRESENTS
E V O L U T I O N A R Y   T A L E S
A HIP-HOP THEATRE CYCLE
AT
THE PLAYERS THEATRE
MAY 31 – JUNE 23

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY
B A B A   B R I N K M A N
MUSIC AND TURNTABLISM BY
D J   J A M I E   S I M M O N D S

New York, NY (4/30/13) – SoHo Playhouse Inc. presents Evolutionary Tales: A Hip-Hop Theatre Cycle at The Players Theatre playing May 31 through June 23. Written and performed by Baba Brinkman, the Canadian rap artist and inventor of a new hybrid form of theater: part hip-hop concert, part stand up comedy, and part TED Talk. Evolutionary Tales: A Hip-Hop Theatre Cycle consists of Brinkman’s three hit shows, Ingenious Nature, The Rap Guide To Evolution, and The Canterbury Tales Remixed, celebrating the evolutionary view of life in its endless forms.

With original music and live turntablism by UK DJ Jamie Simmonds, these three shows uniquely engage with great scientists and authors, as well as today’s hip-hop megastars, smoothly merging history’s most important ideas and stories with comedy, theatre, and lyricism. Together, they launch the world’s first ever hip-hop theater cycle.

In a special presentation by The World Science Festival, on June 1st, The Rap Guide to Evolution will feature world-class evolutionary theorists “peer-reviewing” the performance live on stage. Tickets for this performance will be available for $35.

INGENIOUS NATURE (“Brilliant and bizarre” – TheaterMania) Evolutionary psychology, sex differences in behavior, and the modern dating scene. Can science serve as a road map to romance? It turns out, ovulation studies make for awkward first-date conversation. Directed by Darren Lee Cole, Lighting Design by Jason Boyd, and Projection Design by Erik Pearson.
Fridays at 8:00 p.m., May 31 – June 21

THE RAP GUIDE TO EVOLUTION (“Astonishing and brilliant” – New York Times, Fringe First Award Winner, Drama Desk Award Nominee) interprets Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution for the hip-hop age, exploring the links between bling and peacocks’ tails, gangster rap music and elephant seal brawling, and the species-wide appeal of Afro-centricity. Directed by Dodd Loomis, and Projection Design by Wendell Harrington.
Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., June 1 – June 22
*Note: The June 1st performance is presented by the World Science Festival, and will feature world-class evolutionary theorists “peer-reviewing” the performance live on stage.

THE CANTERBURY TALES REMIXED (New York Times Critics’ Pick, “Effortlessly interprets the classics for a modern audience” – Backstage) brings you a collection of the world’s best-loved stories, supplementing Chaucer’s masterful character-driven Tales with artful re-tellings of the epics of Beowulf and Gilgamesh. The evolution of storytelling! Directed by Darren Lee Cole, and Projection Design by Erik Pearson.
Sundays at 5:00 p.m., June 2 – June 23

Evolutionary Tales: A Hip-Hop Theatre Cycle will play at The Players Theater (115 MacDougal Street, NYC) Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00 p.m., and Sundays at 5:00 p.m., starting May 31, 2013 until June 23, 2013. General Admission Tickets are available for $45 per show, and Premium Tickets are available for $59 per show. Tickets to all three shows are available for $99. On June 1, tickets for The Rap Guide to Evolution will be $35. For more information, visit: www.evolutionarytales.com or call (866) 811-4111, for tickets.

CRITICAL PRAISE

The Rap Guide to Evolution

“Astonishing and brilliant” The New York Times | “Totally original and thought-provoking” Time Out New York | “A total Dar-winner… as fun as it is informative” New York Post | “Brilliantly conceived and effervescently performed” The Scotsman | “A well crafted performance that is part music concert, part comedy routine, and part science lesson” TheaterMania | “Combining the boyish energy of a rapper with the clever wit of a comedian and the intelligence of a lecturer to create an excellent production, a new and exciting art form” FringeReview.com | “Refreshingly original” UK Metro | “Intelligent, informative, and hugely entertaining” Chortel.com | Intelligent, entertaining, and passionately performed, Brinkman is as much a wiz at the science bit as he is at the hip-hop” Sunday Times | “Highly-evolved entertainment” Adelaide Advertiser | “Brinkman harmoniously fuses art with evolution” Time Out Hong Kong

The Canterbury Tales Remixed

“The kind of work that makes off-Broadway hum” Theatre Scene | “A delightful one-man show”  The New York Times | “An audacious hip-hop approach to some great literary classics; the show is funny and thoughtful” Theatre is Easy | “Not only audacious, but also astute” TheaterMania | “Maintains the essence of Chaucer’s stories and storytelling itself in a fresh way” Backstage | “He turns dusty old works that torture adolescents in classrooms into remarkably current and vivid stories” Huffington Post | “Warriors clash, badass thieves and thugs receive a brutal comeuppance, husbands fight a losing battle against wily wives and seducing lotharios, villages are plagues by sinister forces of nature. Like ancient listeners gathered around the fire, we want to hear more.” Show Business Weekly

Ingenious Nature

“A Brilliant and bizarre new theatrical mix-tape” TheaterMania | “Feels like a mash-up of ‘Schoolhouse Rock’ and ‘Sex and the City’ as performed by a young Eminem… Impressively delivered.” The New Yorker | “A number of refreshingly daring elements make this a unique theatrical experience” Associated Press | “Amiable and energetic” The New York Times | “Bravely tackles the subject of human sexuality… winkingly funny” Exeunt Magazine
BIOS______________________________________________________________

Baba Brinkman is a Canadian rap artist, writer, and former tree-planter who has personally planted more than one million trees. He is also a scholar with a Masters in Medieval and Renaissance English Literature. To date Baba has written or co-written five hip-hop theatre shows, including The Canterbury Tales Remixed, The Rap Guide to Evolution, and The Rebel Cell, with MC Dizraeli. He won three awards and entertained thousands while performing six full seasons at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival before presenting his unique brand of hip-hop theatre off-Broadway. When he is not on tour, Baba resides in New York City.

Jamie Simmonds is a Millennium Award-winning British DJ and producer who worked with major acts in England before moving into off-Broadway theatre scoring. Collaborating with Baba Brinkman since 2008, Simmonds wrote the soundtracks and performed live turntablism for both The Rap Guide to Evolution and The Canterbury Tales Remixed. When he isn’t working on hip-hop theatre, he produces beats for underground rap artists in New York City.
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