New Play Explores Love & Hip Hop Amid The Afghan War

Duke is an international hip hop star who is visiting US troops in Kabul. Roya is his interpreter. In the new play set against a war-torn Afghanistan in 2016, can their chemistry matter more than their differences? Stars Jay Ellis and Stephanie Nur discuss the new play 'Duke & Roya', alongside director Warren Adams.

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart, live from the WNYC studios in SoHo. Thank you for spending part of your day with us. I'm really grateful that you're here. On today's show, the new documentary, Hung Up on a Dream, tells the story of the band The Zombies. Lead singer Colin Blunstone and Robert Schwartzman, the film's director, join us to discuss. We'll continue our Beach Read conversation with author Jennifer Weiner. Her latest novel is titled The Griffin Sisters' Greatest Hits, and we'll learn how New York City's skateboard culture helped birth a billion-dollar brand supreme. That's our plan. Let's get this started with Duke & Roya.

[music]

Alison Stewart: War-torn Afghanistan serves as the backdrop of a new play following a braggadocious American hip hop star who falls love with a no-nonsense Afghan interpreter while visiting a US Military base to generate press for his new album. Their names are Duke and Roya, which is also the name of the show. A majority of the play takes place in a war zone and wrestles with complex issues such as race, class, and gender. Duke is a Black man raised by two lawyers whose fall-wrapped persona has made him a commercial success, but the question is, is he really happy?

Roya was forced to pretend to be a boy as a child because it was the only way she could pursue an education, and she wants to do something with what she learned. You add in a couple of parents who have different versions of their children. A New York Theater Guide review states, "Despite its heady topics, the play is surprisingly funny, and Director Warren Adams gently brings the play's moments of levity to the stage." With its strong performances and nuanced script, Duke & Roya challenges audience to consider the ways we connect and the risks worth taking for love. Duke & Roya is running at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through Sunday, August 24th. By the way, they have matinees on Thursdays. Got to tell people that.

Joining me now are the show star, Actor Jay Ellis, who plays Duke. Some of you might remember him from Insecure, from Running Point. Jay, welcome.

Jay Ellis: Thank you.

Alison Stewart: Also joining us is Actor Stephanie Nur, who plays Roya. You might recognize her from Lioness. Nice to meet you as well.

Stephanie Nur: [chuckles] Nice to have.

Alison Stewart: Also, we are very happy to have Director Warren Adams. Hey, Warren.

Warren Adams: Hi, Alison. Thanks for having me.

Alison Stewart: Warren, many plays have grappled with the politics of the US Military's involvement in Afghanistan. Why did you gravitate toward this story?

Warren Adams: At its core, Duke & Roya is a love story, and that's what attracted to me initially. Charles Randolph-Wright and I have a long relationship.

Alison Stewart: He's the playwright?

Warren Adams: Yes, the playwright. Sorry. I wanted to explore this world. Particularly once I met Jay Ellis, I very much felt like I found my Duke. Not long after that, I met Stephanie Nur, and I was like, "That's our Roya." Going on this journey with them has been an excitingly collaborative way to explore this world. As you mentioned, though, it is set in the backdrop of Kabul during the time that the United States was very much at Bagram. What you get is a menu of things that are very unexpected. At the core of all of this, it's really about two people, and we get to discover them through their relationship and also the world that they're trying to navigate.

Alison Stewart: Jay, how is this pitched to you?

Jay Ellis: A chance for me to get on stage and play a rapper. No, but this was very much-- I originally met Warren a little over a year ago. I was here in the city. I had a book that was coming out, and I was doing an event for my book, and we have a mutual agent who introduced us. She brought him to the-- They brought him, excuse me, to the event. We started talking, and he asked if I could grab coffee the next morning, and we did. He asked me would I ever do a play? I was like, "Yes. I just haven't read anything that I feel like would take me and my family out of LA for a while." He asked if he could send me something, and he sent me Duke & Roya, which was a different title at the time.

I read it within, I don't know, probably 10 hours or something like that. I think I read it on a flight back home later that night and just fell in love with it. I think it's everything Warren said. To me, there's this humanity between these two people that they find in each other, and they find themselves in exploring each other and exploring each other's cultures and challenging each other's thoughts. In a time where it feels like we're all yelling and everyone really just wants to be heard, it felt like a piece that I just wanted to be a part of.

Alison Stewart: Stephanie, what felt exciting about portraying Roya?

Stephanie Nur: Oh gosh, a lot of things. You mentioned that Roya is part of a cultural, tiny little minutia of an aspect where-- it's called bacha posh. If a family only has a family of daughters, then one of them gets to be chosen to basically be presented in life as a boy in order to get an education. This is a real thing that is still very current. That was really interesting to delve into the oscillation between the two genders. I got to learn Dari, which was a whole new language for it, and be the first time on stage. That was always like a thing, was New York theater, never seemed attainable. The chance to do it and that Warren and Charles trusted me with this role was just a big honor, and I couldn't turn it down. The challenge was just too good to miss.

Alison Stewart: Jay, what was the most challenging part for you to wrap your head around Duke?

Jay Ellis: [sighs] Oh, man. I think there's this thing that we talked about very early on about this transition that he has as a person and how that manifests in his art as well. I think it was that. I think it was really figuring out who he is in the beginning and why he is ashamed to be all the things that are behind the mask. Through these experiences and conversations and moments with Roya, you start to see the layers of the onion, if you will, peel away, and you start to see who he really is. Then that vulnerability, that wall, shoots back up again at a certain point.

Throughout the play-- when we get towards the end of the play, rather, there's this chance that maybe he has an opportunity to actually just come clean and just be himself and be the person that he really is. I think, for me, that was a really interesting thing because I think so many artists go through this experience of like, "I'm making my art," and then it's like, "Oh, my art can be monetized? Oh, well, I'm going to make more of it," because that's what you want. Then all of a sudden, you're in this thing, and it feels like you can't break away from that. That's what Duke's experience is, a little bit.

Getting to do that and getting to explore that, not only through the stage work with Steph and with Noma and with Dariush, but also through his lyrics and through his work as a rapper. Mentally, it was a challenge in a fun way to figure out how to get there.

Alison Stewart: Warren, the show features four main characters: Duke, Roya, and their parents.

Warren Adams: Yes.

Alison Stewart: I'm going to ask you to explain the parents briefly. They're amazing stage actors, first of all.

Warren Adams: They are incredible stage actors, all four of them. Duke's mother is Desiree. She is a senior vice president at the World Bank, and they have a relationship that is not completely common or ubiquitous within the Black community. She had him quite young, and so they have a very-- Their relationship is more than just mother and son. It's combative, but there's a lot of love. When Charles said to me, "Who do you see as Desiree?" I said, "Noma Dumezweni," and he happened to know her. What she also gives us is a sense of the two worlds that Duke is battling, because he's known as this MC Rapper Duke, but she knows him as his son.

From the very beginning of the play to the end, I have a different line that I favor every week when I watch the play. This week it's, "I am a successful failure." I think it resonates with a lot of people because I think in our own lives, we are grappling on a daily basis. The other is Dariush Kashani, who plays Sayeed, who is Roya's father, and is a completely complex, flawed, wonderful man. Audiences tend to fall in love with him because of all of those things. In that, I think we have a character that is not presenting as perfect, yet he has done things and put his daughter in positions that is very unlikely, given where they are. At the same time, he also battles culturally what he is used to.

I think this leads to a series of complexities, which I think is what has drawn people to the play, is that these are very flawed characters who are interested in finding their truth. I think, ultimately, we can all relate to that.

Alison Stewart: Jay and Stephanie, what did you learn from these two stage actors? You said this was your first time on the New York stage. What did you learn from them?

Stephanie Nur: Oh my gosh, everything. I was like, "Guys, bear with me for the first four weeks. I'm going to be asking questions every day." They were very gracious, true professionals. Just truly wonderful people, very generous with their time and their wisdom and their experiences. Everything from, like, technical things of how to hold your body, how to not block yourself upstage, just the little big technical details. Then, also, just how to pace yourself. When you do two shows a day, you have to have the mindset of an athlete. You have to take care of your vessel. You have to make sure that your mentality work, coming in, is right. Warm up your voice.

All the instrumental things that, in film and TV, we get a little bit of help with that, and tweaking the voices on stage. It's you. Also, just leading by example. Just watching them and how they've treated their craft. I learn a lot from how they've led by example.

Alison Stewart: Jay, what did you learn?

Jay Ellis: Oh, man.

Alison Stewart: Put it into practice.

Jay Ellis: I think Noma's favorite thing is, "Always say a line to the back row of the balcony." She's like, "Always just lift your chin and say a line to the back row of the balcony."

Stephanie Nur: Oh yes.

Jay Ellis: In terms of just projection. It's something that we forget about. When you're on a film set, the camera--

Alison Stewart: It's all right here.

Jay Ellis: Yes, it's all right here. The camera zooms in, and I got a microphone, so I can whisper, and it's going to make people lean into the screen, hopefully. You obviously can't do that in theater. I think that's one of my favorite things that I think about with Noma all the time. Dariush and I have a very similar body warmup routine. We actually both sit in the balcony of the theater, about an hour, hour and a half before every show, and we both warm up. I'm in the front row, and he's in the back row, but we literally go through a very similar workout routine, which is fun.

I think the consistency of that, which I think is something that is just innate in who I am as a person, but also just in the work that I have done, has been so physical at times that I've just had to do that. I think to see Dariush doing that for this also, and the consistency at which he does it, I think is one of those things that I also just really hold on to and love.

Warren Adams: Alison, if I can just jump in.

Alison Stewart: Sure.

Warren Adams: I just want to say that for my two wonderful leads here, for what they lack in the New York stage, they make up in craft. What I mean by is they came in extremely prepared. Little basic things, like upstage, downstage, those are things that can be taught to anyone. Actual craft is something that I think, in my opinion, is lacking a lot in the industry these days. I had zero concerns about that because I was very much aware of their craft prior to this. We also did a development reading earlier this year. They are extremely prepared and their craft is second to none.

Alison Stewart: A new play stars Jay Ellis as an American hip hop star falling in love with an Afghan interpreter, played by Stephanie Nur, is titled Duke & Roya. It's running at the Lucille Lortel Theatre. Joining me in studio are Jay and Stephanie, as well as Director Warren Adams. It's a love story between Duke and Roya. There's still violence, there's still danger that we have to consider. How did you want to strike a balance between the different tones that you have to tell in the story, the love story, and then the actual danger of the story?

Warren Adams: That's a great question. I really focused on the love story because I think everything else is what people would expect. The layering of that into how we built it was very important. I worked very closely with my designers. I didn't want a set that was going to be flying in things and busy, and so lighting became extremely important. Amina Alexander is another master of her craft, and then sound designer, Taylor Williams. The idea of being able to go from upstage to downstage in two seconds without shifting a lot of things around became very important.

The class was also phenomenal during rehearsal because we didn't have those instruments, but they were very much working on a daily basis of how we are going to go from place to place. Then I think the things that you mentioned, which is a little bit some of the harder subject matter, like the violence of it and so forth, those are layered in, but not in a way that it becomes about that, in that it's still a navigation of this love story. I think that's what really helps us, is that the driving force is that story, and then everything else is just the backdrop.

Alison Stewart: Duke, he's a little arrogant, maybe a little bit. He's charming, though.

Warren Adams: What rapper isn't, Alison? Come on.

Alison Stewart: What felt interesting to you about the way Duke carries himself in the very beginning of the show?

Jay Ellis: There is this braggadocious kind of-- this energy, this big, kind of larger than life energy. I think there's a slight lack of awareness as well, which is really a front. I think he's actually very aware, but he puts on the mask of not being aware because he's been able to get away with that for a long time, and because, for him, it probably seems as though that persona is more appealing to his rap presence and to his career. I think there was a lot of fun with that. I also thought there was this really fun thing is like when Duke first meets Roya-- I'll try not to give too much away, but when he first meets Roya, Duke is expecting a very certain reaction that he does not get. In not getting that reaction, that shifts the thing for him.

Now, all of a sudden, he's like, "Oh, I got to try a different tactic." "Oh, I got to try another tactic," and "I got to try another tactic." Then what you realize is the tactic that ultimately works is no tactic and just being a person. Those opening couple of scenes to me are really, really fun. It's a lot of ping ponging back and forth and getting to see Duke be matched-- outmatched, actually.

Stephanie Nur: That's right.

Alison Stewart: What does Roya see in Duke?

[laughter]

Stephanie Nur: That's right.

Jay Ellis: Chill.

Alison Stewart: What does Roya see in Duke?

Stephanie Nur: I think that Roya really sees an artist, actually, and she sees somebody who is actually very honest. It's funny because he plays this dichotomy of like having a front, but she can chip away at it. Her challenging him, there's a chemistry there because he enjoys that she's feisty, that she has opinions. I think that her feeling seen for the first time in that way, or allowed, or even asked questions about who is she and details about her life-- I think a woman who would be working as an interpreter on a base would not always garner that type of attention and interest into who she is as a person. Being seen and having these questions asked opens the door up for her.

The other day I was just thinking about how interesting-- there's another layer, because we have a lot of themes in the play, and they all work and they all coincide with each other. There's this one beautiful thing that just came up, and I was like, "Wow." I woke up in the middle of the night, and I was like-- This is also a story about an artist and a muse, and what that means to be inspired by somebody who is challenging to you. I think the same thing goes for Roya. She says so much that his honesty is something that is surprising because he is just himself, and this bravado that he has, it's enticing, it's attractive.

Alison Stewart: Hearing you talk about his mask-- You've mentioned mask twice. I started thinking of Du Bois and the masks that we wear. I don't just--

Jay Ellis: Literally. 100%. I think what's interesting is that there is, almost quite literal, actually, a mask that Roya wears in bacha posh, and there's a mask that Duke wears as this artist. What's really interesting is both of them come in with those masks, and then all of a sudden, to Stephanie's point, they start chipping away at each other, and then they're just stripped down to themselves, and in that, they find themselves. While exploring each other, they find themselves and their masks are fully gone and peeled away. I don't know, I just think it's a really-- It's one of those things that it's very much told in the nuance of Duke & Roya, but there's also a lot of humanity to it.

We all experience a version of that going to work, going to university, in relationships, in spaces we're not used to. We all do things to protect ourselves in some way, and then you start to realize that the better version of yourself, the higher version of yourself, if you will, is the one who's locked in, present, and just honest.

Alison Stewart: Warren, sort of the big action, the early action, is that Duke wants to go off of the air base. Nur's not sure. She's not-- Excuse me. Nur's not sure that that's the right thing to do. Tell me a little bit about that tension. The tension of Duke wants to leave. Roya says, "It's not so safe."

Warren Adams: I love that section for many reasons, but the main reason being, I think it also speaks to he's position of privilege in that he's able to navigate the world just how he wants. It's a matter of a phone call, and he can go anywhere. Roya's world is so much smaller. That was attractive to me as somebody that grew up in apartheid South Africa of understanding like these were the borders of where you were allowed to go. Separate beaches, separate hotels, separate restaurants. Things that were ubiquitous to my white counterparts were just not for me, and so I grew up with that mindset.

Exploring the play, that was really interesting because it's not that Roya doesn't want to, because she is an adventurous person. She says that, "I do not follow most traditions." That is such a key element. I think what it does highlight is showing these two people from completely different worlds and what their experience has been, and how they go about their worlds. It is a big moment because later on it comes up again when Duke has to address it. I think it speaks to us as Americans when we go into spaces and say, "Hey, we are bringing you democracy." I always go, "Well, what does that mean? What does that come with?"

Again, Charles Randolph-Wright found a way to create a sequence of beats that is not on the nose, that just feels like, "Oh, this is lovely and fun," and so forth. When you sit back and think about it, you go, "Oh, wait a minute, there are layers here." I think that's the theme throughout the play where audiences have said, "Oh, I enjoyed that, but then afterwards, I realized, 'oh my goodness, X, Y and Z.'" I think those are the magic ingredients for a really fantastic play.

Alison Stewart: Oh, the audience enjoys it.

Warren Adams: [chuckles] Yes, they do.

Alison Stewart: The audience, they really enjoy it.

Stephanie Nur: They're very vocal. They're very vocal.

Warren Adams: I timed one of the laughs the other night, it lasted about 55 seconds. Like we had to wait. That's why I say Duke & Roya, the backdrop of Kabul, but as Jay was saying, it's all about humanity. We get to experience the humanity of these people, and then we see ourselves in them.

Jay Ellis: I think that's one of the really fun things about this play, too, is you end up for two hours with an intermission, but you end up for two hours fully locked in. You forget the world that's happening outside the theater, and you're fully entertained. You're going to laugh, you're going to yell at us, you're going to talk to us, you're going to be mad at us and frustrated and afraid for us and-

Stephanie Nur: A lot of sighs and ums and hmms.

Jay Ellis: -ums, and heartwarming and heartbreaking and all these emotions. Then you look up and it's two hours, and you walk away with something. Not only were you entertained for two hours, but we also held a mirror up to society for a little bit and showed you the world in which we live in and how we sometimes don't think about others' experiences. I think it's such an honor to be able to stand up on that stage and do that every single night.

Alison Stewart: How do you feel about rapping on stage?

Jay Ellis: I'm still terrified, to be quite honest. I'm 99% positive every single day that I am going to forget a song. Literally, every single day, I still listen to every single song that I recorded two months ago. I still listen to them every single day as I catch the train into the city because I'm terrified that I'm going to forget one of them. It's fun. I will say it's a lot of fun. I have never gotten a chance to perform with music, play music, sing, any of that, in my film and television work. It's something that I very much want to do. I play the piano. Steph plays the piano. I think to be able to do something that is musical or musical adjacent is a lot of fun. It's a challenge.

Stephanie Nur: He's so good in it.

Jay Ellis: I just want to say--

Stephanie Nur: There was one song, and now there's five?

Jay Ellis: Four.

Stephanie Nur: Four?

Alison Stewart: There are more added?

Jay Ellis: Warren told me one song.

Warren Adams: Well, here's the thing. When I told the team that I was getting Jay Ellis, they were like, "Oh, does he rap?" I said, "He does now."

Alison Stewart: He does now.

Warren Adams: I also did my research on especially both of these actors. You start to get a sense of their craft and their ability and what they're capable of. In my mind, I was like, "Jay Ellis raps," and so he does, and he does very well. You manifest it, and then you bring it to life.

Stephanie Nur: It is so good. I'm not just saying this. I'll try to rap his songs while I'm walking around or in my house, they're so good. I love the song.

Warren Adams: She also has a scene with him in the middle where he's rapping. I sometimes catch her going to the beat.

[laughter]

Jay Ellis: I've started giving her Easter-- There's a little Easter egg that happens in that scene now every single night. [laughs]

Stephanie Nur: I know.

Alison Stewart: You're going to have to go see to find out.

Stephanie Nur: That's right.

Alison Stewart: Before I let you go, Stephanie, I'll let you answer this question. What do you hope audiences will talk about after they see the show? Go out, they have drinks. They want to talk about the show a little bit. What do you hope they talk about?

Stephanie Nur: Ooh, there's a lot. I actually hope that they inquire. I've heard, actually, after the play, there'll be people outside and they want to discuss. We've had people that are from certain demographics that we portray also in our play. I've had people literally order a book that we mention.

Alison Stewart: Oh, interesting.

Stephanie Nur: We mentioned Baldwin in the play, and they hadn't heard about it, and they were ordering the book in front of me, and I thought, "We've won." If one person leaves the theater and Google something that we've mentioned, or even what happened in Afghanistan, or what's relevant right now, which is happening to the interpreters. It's not just in America. Germans did it, the French did it, where they left behind their interpreters, things about historical facts we mention in the play and poetry. I think if we've propelled people to inquire about these things, then we've won, and that's the point of art. It just passes on the baton.

We've had people multiple times come. To come two, three times and bring other people who have come. I think our writer, Charles Randolph-Wright, mentions this, that there was a comment about people not having realized that it wasn't just about the soldiers' war, it's also about the other people on the other side. That's huge. That's huge. If you have the capacity to empathically open someone's curiosity or their capacity to empathize, then you've won. I think our play does do that.

Alison Stewart: The name of the play is Duke & Roya. It's running now at the Lucille Lortel Theatre through August 24th. My guests have been Jay Ellis, Stephanie Nur, and Director Warren Adams. Thanks for coming to the studio.

Jay Ellis: Thank you. Thank you, Alison.

Stephanie Nur: Thank you, Alison. Thank you for having us.

Warren Adams: Thank you, Alison. Also, can I just say, for NPR fans, we have a discount code. If you go to thelortel.org, you can go and your discount code is NPR79.

Alison Stewart: Well, alrighty then.

Warren Adams: All caps. All caps. Thank you.