"The hate you gave little infants f**ks everybody" is the breakdown of the THUG LIFE acronym Tupac Shakur had tatted on his belly. Before exploding metal cylinders sent his body to the pavement and his soul to Heaven's ghetto, he'd already survived five bullet wounds, gone to prison, and spent months in solitary confinement.
At this Saturday's Miami on Stage: A Night of Hip Hop Theater, catch 2Pac's story during Meshaun Lebrone Arnold's darkly themed "Right to Remain."
There will also be a Rudi Goblen breakdance inspired piece, and Summer Hill Seven's theater of lyrical terrorism.
Here are some words from a recent phone interview with Meshaun Lebrone about how he portrays 2Pac.
"What we're doing is an excerpt of my one man show about Tupac called "A Right to Remain." We've done it twice in Miami, first it was The Hate You Gave, but after playing around with the script we changed it's name to Right To Remain. I just felt that I needed to flesh out some more ideas.
The difference is the presentation. The first version was almost like stand up. Tupac was a very funny guy. I've seen home footage of this guy just crackin' up everybody in the room. He was very funny, very charismatic. The first show represented that side.
In this case, I made it that the setting is solitary confinement. Pac is in there with nobody, so you get to take a peek into the mind of Pac, what he has to go through. He was in solitary for a few months, and this was not long after he got shot, so it had to be a period of vulnerability and self reflection for him in solitary. Every inmate finds himself alone with nothing to do but think about how he got there."
Miami on Stage: A Night of Hip Hop Theater
Byron Carlyle Theater
500 71st St Miami Beach, FL 33140
305-867-4192
