It's amazing how far America hasn't come in the past 10 years. New Yorker Danny Hoch wrote Jails, Hospitals & Hiphop in 1997, but this constellation of monologues could've come from last week. Two young actors tag-team these text messages from the skulls of angry prison guards, depressed inmates, a hopeful crack baby, and a white kid who fantasizes about being a rap superstar: "I got this rare skin disorder where I look white, but I'm really black... Even though I live in Puyallup, I still got the ghetto in my heart." (Balagan Theatre, 1117 E Pike St, 718-3245. 8 pm, free. Through Oct 11.)