“Oh, I never took no pleasure fighting one color over another. I’ll fight anything you put in front of me. Black, white, red or green…Long as they come in the ring, they comin’ out purple.”
– Jay and Wynton, The Royale
ROUND ONE (Actors): Today their boxing consultant Michael Gutierrez comes and I even bring my own boxing gloves! Bechir Sylvain (Jay) and Roberto Antonio Martin’s (Fish) arms, shoulders, and very core are on fire after striking the punching and speed bags. Even, I feel Sylvain shake the entire room. “Jay is always the offensive and the aggressor”, says Gutierrez. As sparring partners, they create a choreography that becomes raw and rare each time. Rhythm, focus, grunt, human, jump, jab. “That’s the boxing dream,” says Martin. As a very non-professional former actor, I LOVEEE learning about the actors, their process, their relationship with their character. Edwin Lee Gibson who plays Wynton voluntarily introduces himself to me, and he graciously shares his acting mandate – each nightly performance is a new story and this is the first time that this character has said these lines. Just as Wynton is a Jedi master to Jay, Edwin watches every rehearsal, every video, every scene work note for Sylvain.
ROUND TWO (Director): We all look up to Michael Garcés – the cast, the artists, the directors, the cohorts. Edwin (Wynton) tells me that a 24-year friendship influenced Garcés to bring him out here from Paris and he calls him “my brother”. Sean Daniels, ATC’s Artistic Director, said that of Garcés that “there is no other person if he didn’t care so much about building community and working with the under-represented organizations…there is no one that is more talented.” I note that his stylization is as a sparring partner, friend, brother, and leader. He helps his actors, fresh to seasoned. He utilizes constant positive feedback and makes clear directorial choices.
ONE MORE ROUND (Scene work): Teamwork is the director, the ensemble, and the boxing consultant seeing each other as creators. I find that rhythm is another character. It glues everyone together: CLAP, music and jazz. The claps for each of Fish’s jabs in the beginning of scene three give me goosebumps. I note both that Max (“shark”) and Jay (“ostentatious”) love the limelight, but only with a deeper character study. As Max does a loud, rambunctious press conference for the fame as a career promoter, Jay’s public presence is meant to make a change in a post-Jim Crow world. A flood of racist remarks envelope the negro Heavyweight champion Jay about his impending fight with the Heavyweight champion of “the White world” Bixby (“Why is it you think that coloreds have taken to boxing…a predilection for fighting…more primal, aggressive behavior”, “Were you born in a barn?”, “Won’t you take added pleasure in fighting a white man?”). He will find support in his challenger and colleague Fish, his sister and conscience Nina, and trainer and mentor Wynton.
Head up. Fists up. Watch the knees. Go sharp, stay sharp. Build a rhythm, keep a rhythm. Breathe.
Arizona Theatre Company
Tucson: Sept. 13-28 Phoenix: Oct. 3-20
The Cohort Club 