THEATRE SPOTLIGHT

from RAGE MONTHLY JUNE 2022 NATIONAL PRIDE

FITNESS

CELEBRATING DIVERSITY WITH

When Hamilton’s Lin-Manuel Miranda and Thomas Kail paired up with musician Anthony Veneziale, their collective minds brought us Freestyle Love Supreme. This improv show, which debuted in 2004, is based around diversity and uses hip hop and rotating talent to tell a different story every night.

The show’s format for the night revolves around the audience throwing out a suggestion at the beginning. From there, the verb used sets the tone, and with a few more suggestions and volunteers throughout, a story is created.

“It’s actually based on John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme,’” said current rapper for the show, Jay “Jellis J” Ellis, when he sat down with The RAGE Monthly to talk about what to expect. “We just added the hip hop spin to make it ‘Freestyle Love Supreme.’”

Regarding his addition to the show, Ellis said, “The cool thing about the crew is, I’m kind of in the next generation. We’re the ones who have been added on in the most recent iterations. The crew is so cool, and everyone always comes back and circulates all the time. All the originals, including Lin, come back to play.”

Showgoers may have a favorite in mind when they head in for the experience, but the cast switches every night, and you never know who you’re going to see — or what you’re going to get.

“We’re such a versatile cast,” Ellis said. “All of us can do more than one track, so we like to keep it fresh, and we move through all these different options as much as we can so it’s always fun and fresh.”

As for Ellis, Freestyle Love Supreme marks his Broadway debut. After spending 10 years working on his acting career in New York City, he decided to turn his focus to his side passion of rap and freestyling. From there, things started falling in place.

“When this rolled around, I said I wanted to link up and learn from them,” he said. “I started taking classes with them and then I was a facilitator with them. I began performing virtually during the pandemic, and that led to more and more live performances before I finally made my debut last fall.”

After losing his dad in 2020 and his mom in 2021, he said, “They were my biggest fans and supporters, and they were able to be a big part of the journey, so I feel very grateful. The best thing about this show is I get to be myself in here. Everywhere else I’m trying to be characters. This show is really big on diversity. They embrace and celebrate my queerness, my gayness, my Blackness, my millenialness, and it is just so cool to be a part of a production that considers all of that a strength.”

Even though no two shows are exactly the same, Ellis said, “One of the best shows that was so special, I think, was actually this show we did in Washington, D.C. that was retelling the story of a cancer survivor. We got to celebrate a woman who had been told she had just passed a year cancer-free. That was so special for me to be able to express that in a way that is the true beauty of the human connection. Also, one show I got to play Beyonce. I will never forget that. I am part of the Beehive. I hope she reads this!”

The diversity of the queer cast is purposeful and, Ellis added, “We have non-binary members, gay members, bisexual members, lesbian members. The casting directors are intentionally looking to find voices that are left of center. Intentionally looking for the vision of the baseline crew who wants to make sure these voices are represented. It’s all intentional. The show is doing what they can to make sure they are purposefully using that when they cast. That’s how we change our world, by choosing on purpose to use people who identify with these voices and project that to the masses.”

Even though Freestyle Love Supreme will make you laugh, it also promises you’ll leave feeling like you were part of the show.

“I’ve never never had a show where I didn’t feel connected with the audience by the time I left.”

You can catch Freestyle Love Supreme and connect with the cast for yourself at San Diego’s The Old Globe theatre from Tuesday, June 21 through Sunday, July 10 followed by a run at Pasadena Playhouse from Tuesday, July 12 through Sunday, August 7.