PBS Wisconsin Documentaries

LineBreaks

LineBreaks

[00:00:05] Line Breaks is a festival that First Wave holds every year that includes shows by the incoming cohort as well as individuals artists that have submitted their individual ideas which could include plays or performances one woman shows one man shows a variety of artistic endeavors sometimes it’s music as well.

[00:00:25] We sometimes bring in guest artists to perform who are really seasoned and often making a living doing their craft. But the base of line breaks are our students creating their own performance art and their own shows and actually getting an opportunity to kind of be at the helm of their own vision.

[00:00:51] Line Breaks also came out of the Marc Bamuthi Joseph residency. Bamuthi’s residency was a semester long process and for nine weeks during that semester he invited special guests. His friends. Phenomenal artists in the field. After the residency we kinda took that model Line Breaks was mirrored that model and invited professionals in the field of Hip-Hop performance Hip-Hop theatre performance to Madison to share and present work over a week long over a two week long period. By about the third year we transitioned Line Breaks Hip-Hop theater festival from a festival that from a space that featured primarily national and international artists creating this work to a space that had one or two professional guest artists and primarily featured the work that our students were creating here.

[00:02:05] At the end of your freshman year the main thing that you really have to comoplete is a Line Breaks performance with your cohort. And that is all created by you and your cohort. So the direction the movement the dance the words who says what i n what way. All of that is a group collaborative effort. Because of the fact that you have a cohort that’s from all over the nation and now international students as well who have applied and gotten to the scholarship. You have a breadth of networks at least thirteen.

[00:02:37] Last year we had our student comedian. He did a comic set which was great. To watch First Wave students be the artists that they are and to be on often times the directing end or just helping guide them get their thoughts from the page to the stage. It is definitely empowering for me. It’s something about looking at young powerhouses doing their gift. It’s a wonderful process. It’s it’s wonderful. I’ve never seen or experienced writing like this. In this program the writers are outstanding. The singers are outstanding I mean it’s just it’s wonderful to be a fly on the wall working with them.