‘the break/s’ Takes Audiences On a Hip-Hop Odyssey

NO BOUNDARIES: A Series of Global Performances presented by the Yale Repertory Theatre and the World Performance Project at Yale, continues its 2008-2009 season with “the break/s: a mixtape for stage,” a multimedia performance exploring the hip-hop generation.

Marc Bamuthi Joseph of the Living Word Project is the creator of “the break/s: a mixtape for stage,” a multimedia odyssey through the United States, Latin America, Africa, Europe and Asia that fuses music, theater, dance, film and spoken word. Joseph is a resident artist at Stanford University’s Institute for Diversity in the Arts, an HBO Def Poet and the inaugural recipient of the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellowship. He was recently named one of America’s Top Young Innovators in the Arts and Sciences by Smithsonian magazine. His performance in “the break/s” has been hailed by The New York Times as “gloriously eloquent in its physicality.”

Michael John Garcés will direct “the break/s.” The three performances will take place Thursday-Saturday, Jan. 22-24, at

8 p.m. in the University Theatre, 222 York St. The performance, which contains strong language, lasts approximately 80 minutes.

Tickets are $35; $25 for seniors and $10 for students. Tickets can be purchased online at www.yalerep.org; by phone at (203) 432-1234; or in person at the Yale Repertory Theatre box office, 1120 Chapel St. (at York Street). Group rates are also available.

The executive producer of “the break/s” is Mapp International Productions.

NO BOUNDARIES is offering a variety of special programs in conjunction with the performance. All are free and open to the public. They include the following:

Wednesday, Jan. 21 — a lecture by Thomas F. DeFranz on “Performing the Breaks: African-American Aesthetic Structures” 5:30-7 p.m. at the Afro-American Cultural Center, 211 Park St. DeFranz will explore “the break” — a manipulation of rhythm - as an aesthetic capacity accessed by performers in spoken word, music and dance genres. This event is co-sponsored by the Afro-American Cultural Center and African American Studies.

Thursday, Jan. 22 — a master’s tea with Joseph will take place at 4 p.m. at the Trumbull College master’s house, 241 Elm St.

Thursday, Jan. 22 and Friday, Jan. 23 — question-and-answer “Talk Back” sessions with Joseph will be held immediately following the 8 p.m. performances at the University Theatre.

Friday, Jan. 23 and Saturday, Jan. 24 — an interactive dance workshop with Joseph will be offered 2-4 p.m. each day in the third-floor dance studio of Loft Studios, 294 Elm St. This event is limited to the first 25 people to arrive on the day of the workshop. This event is co-sponsored by the Alliance for Dance at Yale.

NO BOUNDARIES celebrates the diversity of voices and experiences in today’s world, exploring the frontiers of theatrical invention through cutting-edge and thought-provoking dance, music and theater. The series of performances by artistic innovators from around the globe at Yale aims to tear down cultural, linguistic and geographic barriers. The next NO BOUNDARIES offering is the U.S. premiere of “Witness to the Ruins,” a documentary/drama by Mapa Teatro about Santa Inés-El Cartucho, one of the most ancient neighborhoods in downtown Bogotá that was demolished to pave the way for a new public park, displacing thousands of its working-class residents. It will be staged March 26-28.

For more information, visit www.yale.rep.org/noboundaries or www.yale.edu/wpp.