Virtuosic solo performer Kane Smego explores race, identity and language in his one-man show. Poetry, hip-hop and storytelling join forces in his tale of growing up a white boy in the South, with a black father figure and a love of hip-hop. Now an international spoken word artist, musician and educator, Smego’s poetic reflection asks us to take a closer look at ourselves and our society.
TEMPLES OF LUNG AND AIR
Virtuosic solo performer Kane Smego explores race, identity and language in his one-man show.
Previews: September 25 and 26
Opening Night: September 27
Closing: November 3, 2019
WRITER & PERFORMER
Kane Smego
Writer & Preformer
Kane Smego is an international touring spoken word artist, emcee, National Poetry Slam finalist, an artist alumnus and the current Associate Director of Next Level, an international hip hop and cultural exchange program. Kane has performed and taught poetry and hip hop programs all across the U.S., and abroad on five continents.
Kane’s one-man show, Temples of Lung and Air, was produced by StreetSigns and presented by Playmakers Repertory Company in 2018 and fuses rap, poetry, beatboxing, and storytelling in a work of Hip Hop theater.
As a recording artist, Kane has featured on Grammy Award-winner King Mez’s debut album My Everlasting Zeal, and topped the Spotify Viral 50 billboard in May 2017 featuring on the song North Cack with G Yamazawa. His sophomore album is scheduled for release in 2020. A native of Durham, NC, Kane currently resides in Los Angeles, CA.
Meet The Creative Team
Joseph Megel
Director
Detroit Public Theatre: Debut. Off-Broadway and New York: Howard L. Craft’s Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green, Guillermo Reyes’s Men on the Verge of a Hispanic Breakdown (Outer Critics Circle Award), Dean Gray’s The Pattern at Pendarvis, Jim Grimsley’s The Lizard of Tarsus, The Working Project for The Working Theater. Regional: Jennifer Maisel’s The Last Seder (EST West, Theatre J, The Organic Theatre); Elisabeth Lewis Corley’s adaptation of The Miser (Duke University); Derek Goldman’s adaptation of Will The Circle Be Unbroken (Chapel Hill); A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney, Best of Enemies, The Brothers Size, The Goat, and Nixon’s Nixon (Manbites Dog Theater).
Joseph Megel is artist in residence in Performance Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Department of Communication where he runs the Process Series: New Works in Development. He is Artistic Director of StreetSigns and Co-Executive Director of Harland’s Creek Productions, producer of new plays, screenplays, and short films. Recent direction for StreetSigns includes: Temples of Lung and Air, The Talk, Closer Than They Appear, Freight: The Five Incarnations of Abel Green, Trojan Barbie, Blood Knot, Poetic Portraits of a Revolution, Dream Boy, and White People.
Torry Bend
Scenic Design
Torry Bend is a scenic designer and puppet artist. She has designed for dance, puppetry, and theater around the country; including Children’s Theater Company, Playmakers Repertory Theater, La Mama, Southwest Shakespeare Company, and The Getty Villa. She is also a creator and director of puppetry and her work, The Paper Hat Game, received the UNIMA citation of excellence, the highest honor in North American puppetry, was a New York Times Critic’s pick and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award. Her work has received support from the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, the Henson Foundation, Jerome Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Bend is an associate professor at Duke University.
Aaron Tacy
Lighting Design
Aaron Tacy is a freelance lighting designer based in NYC who honed his craft at the University of Michigan, Spoleto Festival USA, Williamstown Theatre Festival and IMCD Lighting Inc. He works as an assistant and associate at regional theatres, on international tours, and on Broadway. He also works in Fashion, Events, and Architecture. Select credits include Off-Broadway: Cry Eden, Feeling Blue, The Island Boys, and Sea Legs: A Nautical New Musical; Regional: Detroit Public Theatre and Really-Really Theatre Group.
Michael Keck
Sound Design
Regional: Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Milwaukee Rep, Alliance Theatre, Indiana Rep, Seattle Rep, Guthrie, Syracuse Stage, Arena Stage, Cincinnati Playhouse; International: The Market Theatre (Johannesburg South Africa), National Theater of Croatia–Zagreb, Barbican Theatre Center, Bristol Old Vic.
Actor: Indiana Rep, Rep St Louis, Madison Rep, McCarter Theatre, Berkeley Rep, Portland Center Stage, Alliance Theatre, Pacific Conservatory for Performing Arts.
Awards: Three Barrymore nominations, Theatre Bay Area Design Excellence Award. He is a member of AEA, SAG-AFTRA, ASCAP, PEN, and the Dramatists Guild.
Jeromy Hopgood
Projection Design
Jeromy Hopgood is glad to be back designing at DPT. He is a Michigan-based designer, creating scenery, lighting, and projection designs for professional theatres across the country. Select design credits include People’s Light in Philadelphia (Skeleton Crew – Barrymore nominated projection design), Williamston Theatre (Out of Orbit, Outside Mullingar, Taking Shakespeare), Detroit Public Theatre (Skeleton Crew, Pipeline, Girlfriend), Michigan Shakespeare Festival (Julius Caesar, The Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull, The Killer Angels, Richard II, Cymbeline, Hamlet, Richard III, The Winter’s Tale), Tipping Point Theatre (The Rainmaker), Performance Network Theatre (Circle Mirror Transformation), the Lexington Shakespeare Festival (The Tempest, Merry Wives), and the Williamstown Theatre Festival during its Tony Award-winning season. In addition to his freelance work, Jeromy serves as a Professor of Entertainment Design & Technology at Eastern Michigan University, and is the author of QLab 4: Projects in Video, Audio, & Lighting Control, and Dance Production: Design & Technology, and the forthcoming Digital Media Designer’s Toolkit. Jeromy’s design work can be seen at www.hopgooddesign.com
Katherine Nelson
Production Stage Manager
Katherine has been stage managing with Detroit Public Theatre since its inaugural season, with highlights including the coproduction of Detroit ’67 with Baltimore Center Stage and the world premiere of Birthday Candles. They have also stage managed with the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts and Chautauqua Theater Company. Additionally, Katherine is a costume designer. Recent Off-Broadway design at The New Victory Theatre (Riddle of the Trilobites). In addition to design credits with Detroit Public Theatre, regional designs include shows with Purple Rose Theatre Company, Flint Youth Theatre, Flint Repertory Theatre (Wilde Award nomination: Best Costume Design, Riddle of the Trilobites), Tipping Point Theatre, Williamston Theatre, and the Wharton Center. They are a graduate of the Purple Rose Theatre Company apprenticeship program. Katherine is a proud member and National Councilor of Actors’ Equity Association. www.knelsondesigns.com.
