Chicago’s MetroMix (via RedEye) has a dope interview/write up with Chicago playwright, Wendell Tucker, who created and directed the Hip-Hop play I Still Love H.E.R., which has been running in Chicago since 2005. Wendell recently got the greenlight to take this operation East (NYC to be exact) for a run at the famed Apollo Theater and on Broadway. Kudos for that.
“The plan is to be there temporarily,” Wendell Tucker explains. “There” is New York City, which Chicago actor, playwright and director Tucker calls a necessary step in the life of his play, “I Still Love H.E.R (atributetohiphop),” already performed more than 100 times since its local debut in October 2005. This week, “H.E.R” encores in Chicago before heading to the Big Apple, where a weeklong run starting Nov. 6 at the Apollo Theater will precede a stint on Broadway. Tucker is working out location details as of press time; the goal is for a minimum three-month run.
Growing up in the now-demolished Robert Taylor Homes, Tucker, 29, never imagined he’d be involved in theater. “When we talked about acting, it was TV and film,” he says. His show’s beginnings can be traced back to 1994, when Chicago rapper Common released the song, “I Used to Love H.E.R.” (H.E.R. serves here as an acronym for the phrase “hearing every rhyme”). Critics hailed it as one of hip-hop’s greatest recordings, and Tucker identified with the song. “It’s essentially about [Common’s] love and struggle for hip-hop to be good,” he explains. “Even though he might not respect it all the time, he still loves it and believes in it.”
You can read the full story here. If you’re interested in seeing the production while it’s still in town, you can buy tickets here.