Directing: How We Got On

"...Which is why Goodwin’s play set in a Midwest suburb about a group of teens trying their hand at hip-hop in 1988 should resonate especially well when the UMSL Theatre Department presents the show this weekend at The Touhill.

“They idolize all the big rappers at that time and they are trying to find their voice in the middle of the suburbs at this time,” director Jacqueline Thompson said about the characters. “The playwright is very elusive about where it takes place. There’s even a line in the show where the character says ‘It could be Ohio. It could be Indiana …’ It could also be St. Louis.”

As a child of the hip-hop generation growing up in North County, the play felt all too familiar to Thompson, who is also an associate professor of theatre at University of Missouri St. Louis.

“There’s also a line in the play that says, ‘This is not an Uptown, Boogie Down Story,’” Thompson said. “They want to be like those people they see on TV. But for this play, the moral of the story is about creating art from the things you know...”

Read full coverage by clicking here.