Where there\u2019s a Will, there\u2019s also Tupac and Biggie, says playwright\/performer Jacob Ming-Trent. His one-man show, How Shakespeare Saved My Life, premiers at Berkeley Rep this month, and challenges the assumption that a 400-year-old Brit genius\u2019s work can\u2019t intersect with the rhythms of the modern urban street.<\/p>\n
In a phone interview, Ming-Trent said that although he comes from a literary family\u2014his father was a playwright, his grandmother a writer\u2014he struggled to find his authentic voice. By 2018, when his father died, he still hadn\u2019t written anything. But when he visited his father\u2019s favorite coffeehouse, a woman came up to him and said, \u201cYour dad gave me a message to give to you.\u201d The message was, basically, \u201cGet writing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the play, Ming-Trent portrays his introduction to Shakespeare. \u201cI walked into the wrong classroom,\u201d he said during a recent interview, \u201cand they were studying Shakespeare. They had me do a speech,\u201d which he nailed, and he began to understand why the work still resonates.<\/p>\n
Much later, he was working in the Massachusetts Berkshires with the theater group Shakespeare and Company, and started writing stories for what was going to be a cabaret. But the stories were \u201ca wild, crazy mess,\u201d he said, and didn\u2019t fit the cabaret format. So he sent 16 pages to the Folger Shakespeare Library, and they agreed on the spot, he said, to commission its development into a play.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery early in the Folger workshop, [they reaffirmed] that I had something, and should continue forward with it,\u201d he said. The character of the Father evolved, and the story of his family\u2019s journey evolved and became integral to the narrative. The musical elements came to the fore.<\/p>\n
\u201cShakespeare was an urban poet. Biggie and Tupac are urban poets,\u201d Ming-Trent said. \u201cThey lived 400 years apart, but [we can find] similar rhythms in their work.\u201d He also noted that, \u201cTupac was a big fan of Shakespeare.\u201d The concept of creating intersectionality is important to Ming-Trent as an artist.<\/p>\n
In a Substack post by Kim Bradley titled \u201cWho Wrote It: Shakespeare or Tupac?\u201d, she writes, \u201cTupac studied Shakespeare, jazz, and ballet at the Baltimore School for the Arts. [he] was the self-identified rose that grew from concrete; a poetic, delicate, deep-thinking soul born into a harsh reality. He used his artistic talents to explore the polarities present in his life, his voice a symbol of resistance and hope to those marginalized by a systemic lack of opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ming-Trent\u2019s favorite Shakespearean character is the rascally knight Falstaff. \u201cI love Falstaff. He\u2019s beautifully flawed,\u201d Ming-Trent said. \u201cSome of Shakespeare\u2019s characters get deified, but he is human. He is OK with being made fun of.\u201d Falstaff epitomizes, Ming-Trent said, the life concept of \u201clove a lot, eat a lot, and accept our flaws.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought Falstaff was also a tragic figure, in that he\u2019s discarded by Prince Hal when Hal becomes Henry V, Ming-Trent said \u201cno,\u201d adding, \u201cHe understands that Henry should do what he\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Music still plays a large part in \u201cHow Shakespeare Saved My Life,\u201d but it will not be live. Instead, Ming-Trent said, it is being designed by Jake Rodriguez, who has also created some original music for the show. \u201cHe\u2019s doing an exceptional job, combining jazz, gospel and hip-hop,\u201d Ming-Trent said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow Shakespeare Saved My Life\u201d is being directed by the Rep\u2019s former artistic director, Tony Taccone, who famously commissioned Tony Kushner\u2019s legendary Angels in America and co-directed its world premiere while working at the Eureka Theatre.<\/p>\n
Ming-Trent said he\u2019s aware some audience members may see the piece as a \u201cwhite savior\u201d play. \u201cOthers,\u201d he said, \u201cwill see it as a piece of rebellion against standards and restrictions.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s important to him that the play aids in finding community and building, during the performance, what he calls a congregation. \u201cEvery night, we will seek to build community,\u201d he said. \u201cI will be asking questions of the audience\u2014and some of them may answer. The \u2018fourth wall\u2019 will be coming down.\u201d<\/p>\n