Neil Pepe Artistic Director Jeffory Lawson Managing Director Mary McCann School Executive Director presents Rudy Danté Crichlow AND IN THIS CORNER: Odessa Sinclair Daniel Corky/Sugar Ray CASSIUS CLAY Robinson Langston Darby By Idris Goodwin Eddie/Young Soapbox Guy Directed by Reggie D. White Anthony Holiday Cassius Clay Franck Juste Ringside Announcer Jacquelyn Landgraf Cash/Fred Stoner Eric Lockley Joe Martin Andy Schneeflock sound designer/sound editing and mixing Twi McCallum illustrator Christopher O’Neal production coordinator Imani Champion And In This Corner: Cassius Clay is produced by special atlantic for kids arrangement with Mark Orsini, BRET ADAMS, LTD., 448 artistic director West 44th Street, New York, NY 10036. Alison Beatty www.bretadamsltd.net And In This Corner: Cassius Clay was originally commissioned and produced by StageOne Family Theatre, Louisville, Kentucky, with the support of the Mimi and Marshall Heuser New Play Foundation and the Fund for the Arts. And In This Corner: Cassius Clay will run for 11–17 minutes per episode; or 55 minutes non-stop. DIRECTOR’S NOTE BIOGRAPHIES Kobe. Tiger. Usain. Serena. Ali. DANTÉ CRICHLOW (Rudy). Born, raised, and Athletes who only need 1 name. Icons who based in Brooklyn, Danté (he/him) is currently transcended their sport and inspired millions in his final semester studying Drama at NYU to shoot, swing, run, smash, and jab in their Tisch School of the Arts . Recent credits image. When you close your eyes and invoke include See You Yesterday (Netflix). His acting their name, your mind floods with memories or training includes time spent at the Atlantic images of their highest highs and lowest lows. Acting School studio, NYU’s Experimental But before they were legends, they were kids. Theatre wing, and the Black Arts Institute. Kids who were shaped by the world and time When Danté isn’t acting he indulges in street they grew up in — Compton in the middle of the photography, writing poetry, and dancing crack epidemic, post-Colonial rural Jamaica, wherever music can be heard. segregation era Kentucky. Kids who had to keep their eye on the ball (so to speak) and on SINCLAIR DANIEL (Odessa) (she/her) is a New the prize. York-based actor and creative. A recent B.F.A graduate of NYU and Atlantic Acting School, And In This Corner is the story of how a young Sinclair has worked professionally in theatre, boy in Kentucky serendipitously found boxing television and voice over performing with and fought his way to sporting immortality. The Shakespeare Theatre Company, Atlantic It’s the story of an older brother who loves Theater Company, and Williamstown Theatre his family, struggles with school, faces down Festival. Sinclair has been seen in Peter Pan bullies, and tries to understand the world & Wendy (Wendy), Taiga in the Berkshires around him. A world where the color of your (Taiga), “Madam Secretary,” and Testing skin determines where you can eat or play. Dunleavy-Grove: A radio episodic podcast A world where names like Jim and Emmett (Amy). This spring, Sinclair will participate in pierce the blissful innocence of childhood like an artists retreat with The Makers’ Ensemble the bell at the end of a round. theatre company, where she will perform and facilitate in bringing new and classic works to The play doesn’t run from the darkness of the life in the wilderness. world Cassius grew up in. Idris Goodwin’s knockout play highlights several moments LANGSTON DARBY (Corky/ Sugar Ray where the racism of pre-Civil Rights Era Robinson). Langston (no relation to Hughes), Kentucky ‘hits below the belt’ including native to Laurel, Mississippi (home of A white supremacist violence at peaceful lunch Streetcar Named Desire heroine Blanche counter sit-ins where the ugliest of racial slurs Dubois), currently resides and works in New are flung at unsuspecting children. Goodwin’s York City. Just before the industry shutdown, play shines a light on these and other issues Langston managed to make his Off-Broadway for all to see — illuminating our own path to debut in The Black History Museum… revealing the fighter within us all. According to the United States of America, created and directed by Zoey Martinson with HERE Arts Center. Langston is an eclectic LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT performer with stage credits that include We acknowledge that the Atlantic Theater How I Became a Pirate (Walnut St. Theatre, and School buildings are on the traditional, dir. Rob McClure) and Much Ado About unceded lands of the Munsee Lenape people. Nothing (Shakespeare in Clark Park, dir. Alex We pay our respects to the Munsee Lenape Torra); voiceover performances for the award- and to the Indigenous caretakers of these winning Story Pirates Podcast; improvisation lands. with Comedysportz Philadelphia, and a As we welcome you into our community burgeoning on-camera career with an today, we encourage you to think about these appearance in Lionsgate/Starz’s 2020 short questions created by Dakota visual artist film award winnerEchoes of a Winter Sunshine. Angela Two Stars and Navajo theater artist Among other institutions, Langston is an Rhiana Yazzie: alumnus of Atlantic’s Acting Conservatory and a UCB Diversity Scholar. Learn more at How will you use the new resources, including langstondarby.com. ideas, you gain by being here? And how will you carry the knowledge of the Native people ANTHONY HOLIDAY (Eddie/Young Soapbox present, past, and future into your life? Guy), also known as “Holiday,” is currently attending the Yale School of Drama. Upon Blacker, is featured on “Best Web Series” lists graduation, he will receive a Masters in Acting. and his short film, The Jump, is available on Holiday has been seen in productions of Ain’t Amazon. Eric’s plays, including Blacken the No Dead Thing (Charles) by A.K. Payne, Mr. Bubble and Without Trace, have been seen Burns by Anne Washburn (Homer, Marge), on stages in DC, NY and Chicago. Lockley Measure for Measure (Claudio), Locust does sketch comedy, musical improv, and is (Amos) by Chris Gabo, and Lenny’s Fast Food a featured cast member of The Homemade Kids Gang (Walter) by Angie B. Jones under Sketch Show (TubiTV). He was head writer for the conglomerate of his professors, cohort, the inaugural awards ceremony, The Antonyos, and school-mates. Holiday is also a recent celebrating Black Theater. Eric’s inspirational graduate of the Atlantic Acting School’s podcast, “The 180” is out now featuring guests Conservatory Program. Credits at Atlantic discussing a moment when they turned their include The Last Days of Judas Iscariot (El lives around. As a part of The Public Theater’s Fayoumy) by Stephen Adly Guirgus, and Devised Theater Working Group Eric will the Atlantic for Kids production of This Girl have a workshop production of his new Afro- Laughs, This Girl Cries, This Girl Does Nothing Futurist play, Sweet Chariot, at the 2022 Under (Fleeing Villager/City Man 1) by Finnegan The Radar Festival. Lockley is also a founder Kruckmeyer. Holiday is an Ensemble Director of and produces with Harlem-based orgs, for Breaking Walls, a global youth collective The Movement Theatre Company & Harlem9, and has been a mentor and teaching artist in creating opportunities for artists of color. Atlantic’s Staging Success program. Holiday @iamericlockley was born and raised in New Jersey and is also a graduate of Brookdale Community College ANDY SCHNEEFLOCK (Joe Martin) is an actor, where he received his Associates Degree in improviser, director, writer, and teacher. acting/humanities. Some recent credits include: TV: “The Equalizer,” “Orange Is The New Black,” “The FRANCK JUSTE (Cassius Clay) is an actor and Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Unbreakable Kimmy comedian raised in Brooklyn, currently in Schmidt,” “Luke Cage,” “Tales of the City,” Los Angeles. Can be seen as First Man on and “Tommy.” Film: Worth (premiering on Sherman’s Showcase IFC/AMC currently Netflix in September), Bridge of Spies, and streaming on Hulu. Interview Requested. Theater: The Hungry Hungry Games (National Tour), The Puppet JACQUELYN LANDGRAF (Ringside Announcer) is Dead, The Story Pirates, and Timmy the Great. a recent transplant to Los Angeles from NYC. He is also a company member of Ten Bones She is a member of the master acting faculty at Theatre Company and frequently performs Atlantic Acting School, where she has directed for their sold out Entirely From Memory shows many student productions and the musical at The PIT & Littlefield. andyschneeflock.com Strega Nona for Atlantic for Kids. Select @AndySchneeflock theater performances: Deaf West’s Orphee; Anna Nicole (BAM/City Opera); John Guare’s 3 IDRIS GOODWIN (Playwright) is an award- Kinds of Exile (Atlantic Theater Company); The winning break-beat poet, playwright, and Complete and Condensed Stage Directions of director of The Colorado Springs Fine Arts Eugene O’Neill… (Drama Desk nomination, Center at Colorado College. He was recently original cast/tour); Suzan Lori Parks’ 365 named a 2021 United States Artist Fellow. Days/365 Plays (The Public Theater); The In addition to the recently released poetry Caucasian Chalk Circle (Theater for the New collection Can I Kick It?, he’s had several City); Blue-s-cat (Invisible Dog); The Caucasian publications from Haymarket Books including Chalk Circle (Pipeline). Alum of the New York Inauguration co-written with nico wilkinson, Neo-Futurists, writer/performers of Too Much Human Highlight: Ode To Dominique Wilkins, Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. Jacquelyn and the play This Is Modern Art co-written with writes and voices the fiction podcastIt Makes Kevin Coval. He’s appeared on Nickelodeon, A Sound, and produced the show’s original HBO Def Poetry, Sesame Street, NPR, BBC soundtrack album, Wim Faros: the Attic Tape. Radio, and the Discovery Channel. His plays jacquelynlandgraf.com include And In This Corner: Cassius Clay, How We Got On, Hype Man, and This is Modern Art.