The Frisco Flash by
When “Young Jack” Thompson became the second African-American to win a boxing title in 1930, he was paid $14.85 after “expenses” while the losing white boxer made $37,640. Today Thompson is forgotten, yet his story is more than a historical footnote. It resonates to our current world.
Thompson rose and fell and rose again, over and over. We follow his life from 1920 to 1946 (but scenes also...
Thompson rose and fell and rose again, over and over. We follow his life from 1920 to 1946 (but scenes also...
When “Young Jack” Thompson became the second African-American to win a boxing title in 1930, he was paid $14.85 after “expenses” while the losing white boxer made $37,640. Today Thompson is forgotten, yet his story is more than a historical footnote. It resonates to our current world.
Thompson rose and fell and rose again, over and over. We follow his life from 1920 to 1946 (but scenes also occur through the subsequent decades, including up to today) as Thompson navigates around corrupt boxing officials and gangsters, the Klu Klux Klan in Los Angeles, his complicated relationship with his step father, his wife and his lover, and not least, his friendship and rivalry with both an Irish boxer and a Jewish boxer.
Based on my own original research, I attempt to right this wrong and relate it to today's issues of racial injustice. But not just thematically, as I use a framing device of returning through the play to a modern young African-American teen and the ghost of Young Jack telling his story while both are in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery.
Stylistically, the play mixes realistic scenes with Epic Theatre techniques (projections, music, dance and other non-naturalistic devices).
Note on the development history: I revised and shortened the play for the June 2020 Zoom reading that included Equity and SAG actors (one of whom won an Emmy Award).
Thompson rose and fell and rose again, over and over. We follow his life from 1920 to 1946 (but scenes also occur through the subsequent decades, including up to today) as Thompson navigates around corrupt boxing officials and gangsters, the Klu Klux Klan in Los Angeles, his complicated relationship with his step father, his wife and his lover, and not least, his friendship and rivalry with both an Irish boxer and a Jewish boxer.
Based on my own original research, I attempt to right this wrong and relate it to today's issues of racial injustice. But not just thematically, as I use a framing device of returning through the play to a modern young African-American teen and the ghost of Young Jack telling his story while both are in the Angelus Rosedale Cemetery.
Stylistically, the play mixes realistic scenes with Epic Theatre techniques (projections, music, dance and other non-naturalistic devices).
Note on the development history: I revised and shortened the play for the June 2020 Zoom reading that included Equity and SAG actors (one of whom won an Emmy Award).