Mason "Quill" Parker isn't merely rapping up a storm in Children's Theatre of Charlotte's The Red Badge of Courage - or Henry Fleming's inner voice, to be more precise - he's also featured as Julian, alias Vic Vicious, in the current Carolina Actors Studio Theatre production of How We Got On. So last Saturday, I saw Parker rapping twice, at ImaginOn in the afternoon and at 2424 N. Davidson Street after the sun went down.

• Shannon J Hager of XML Photography

The role of Julian is more contemporary and substantial, allowing Parker to develop a character and display his acting chops. But even at the height of CIAA tourney week, the show wasn't drawing much of a crowd. Parker and co-star Devin Clark as Hank poured a lot of heart into it regardless. Together, they make a complementary pair as teen rappers who are too far from Chicago to be relevant - and too much like Chicago rappers to be cool in their own hometown.

Clark plays the more angsty teen. Hank writes lyrics and can rap spontaneously, but he loses his confidence as a performer during a hip-hop showdown with Julian. Thing is, Julian can't rap spontaneously or write his own lyrics, so he was performing another dude's lyrics when he thrashed Hank in head-to-head combat. After licking his wounds and getting hip to Julian's subterfuge, Hank realizes that he and Julian can team up - because his rival could perform Hank's lyrics better than he can himself.

Dee Abdullah directs the Idris Goodwin script with a mixture of spirit and audacity. Goodwin seems to have added a female character, rich wannabe Latina rapper Luann, as an afterthought. But Abdullah chooses sassy newcomer Genesis Soto for the role, dresses her in eye-popping gold slacks, and has her hanging around at times when the playwright has sent her off into the wings. Bolder still, Abdullah casts the ebullient Eryn Victoria as the Selector, despite the fact that this deejay narrator also doubles as Hank and Julian's dads.

Notwithstanding Parker's rapping excellence, he cannot defy the laws of physics. On Friday nights, when Red Badge and How We Got On are both playing, Parker can't perform the two shows simultaneously any more than you can attend them both. So Gerard Hazelton, Abdullah's assistant director, steps in as Parker's understudy. He's still there on Saturday nights, ably serving as a backup dancer.

The subdued Clark and the cocky Parker establish a nice chemistry between Hank and Julian as the two rappers go through their individual growing pains. Goodwin does contrive to get the two chums on top of a water tower out there in the wilderness, where they gaze up at the stars and work on their game. For a few moments, it seems a little like the two rappers have been plopped into Midwestern buddy movie.