Hip Hop Theatre Book Launch

This event celebrates the publication of two books (Making Hip Hop Theatre: Beatbox and Elements, and Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy) that explore and platform hip hop theatre, and particularly the work of pioneer Conrad Murray. The event will be an evening of performance, play readings and discussion with a chance to socialise. You'll also be able to buy discounted copies of the books.

About the Books

Making Hip Hop Theatre: Beatbox and Elements

By Katie Beswick and Conrad Murray

Making Hip Hop Theatre is the essential, practical guide to making hip-hop theatre. It features detailed techniques and exercises that can guide creatives from workshops through to staging a performance. Covering vocal technique, use of equipment, mixing, looping, sampling, working with venues and dealing with creative challenges, this book is a bible for both new and experienced artists alike.

Additionally, with links to online video material demonstrating and elaborating on the exercises included, it offers countless useful tools for teachers and facilitators of drama, music and other creative arts. Alongside this practical guidance is an overview of hip hop history, giving theoretical and historical context for the practice. From documentation of Conrad Murray's major productions, to commentary from leading practitioners including Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, David Jubb, Emma Rice, Tobi Kyeremateng and Paula Varjack, readers are treated to a detailed insight into the background of hip hop theatre.

Beats and Elements: A Hip Hop Theatre Trilogy

Curated and edited by Katie Beswick and Conrad Murray

This collection of three hip hop plays by Conrad Murray and his Beats & Elements collaborators Paul Cree, David Bonnick Junior and Lakeisha Lynch-Stevens, is the first publication of the critically acclaimed theatre-maker's work. The three plays use hip hop to highlight the inequalities produced by the UK's class system, and weave lyricism, musicality and dialogue to offer authentic accounts of inner-city life written by working-class Londoners.

The plays are accompanied by two essays, written by Katie Beswick: The first gives a specific social and historical context that helps readers make sense of the plays, the second positions hip hop as a contemporary literary form and offers some ways to read hip hop texts as literature. The collection also includes a foreword by leading hip hop theatre practitioner Jonzi D, interviews with the Beats & Elements company, and a glossary of words for students and international readers.