Marco Ramirez has a serious soft spot for the sport of boxing.
“My parents are Cuban and as a Cuban kid, boxing has always been in the atmosphere; I’ve always been drawn to boxing stories,” says Ramirez, who penned Arizona Theatre Company’s season opener, “The Royale,” based on prizefighter Jack Johnson’s story.
Boxing, he says, “is so cinematic and so bare bones.”
Ramirez, who has written for such television shows as “The Defenders” and “Orange is the New Black,” and is a co-creator of Jordan Peele’s “The Twilight Zone,” knew he wanted to write a play about boxing, but wasn’t sure about anything else.
“I wanted to do my hip-hop influenced, very percussive boxing play,” he says, speaking in July from his Los Angeles home.
“I did a lot of boxing reading and tried to figure out what story would be the most exciting to tell.”
Of course, the Jack Johnson story came up.
Johnson was the first African-American heavyweight boxing champ. He accomplished this in the early years of the last century, when Jim Crow laws were raging. Blacks cheered while whites threatened him, his family and others behind Johnson. While his pursuit of the title presented dangers to himself and others, he persisted. It was time, he determined, that white and black boxers share the ring.
The thing is, there was already a Pulitzer Prize-winning play written about Johnson: “The Great White Hope.”
Ramirez kept looking for a subject. And he kept coming back to Johnson.
“There was something about the Jack Johnson story, the swagger, that felt like there’s a thread that goes from him to today.”
So Johnson served as the inspiration for Jay, the “Negro Heavyweight Champion” in “The Royale.” Jay wants to fight the white heavyweight champ. It is not an easy thing to get the champ out of retirement and agree to fight. Then there’s the fury that many feel about the prospect of a black man and a white man in the ring together. And, if it happens, there could be frightening consequences.
Sure, it’s a play about boxing, but Ramirez did not want any punches thrown.
“I did not want fight choreography because it always looks fake on stage,” he says. “It would look phony, and as a fan of boxing, I would be annoyed. I wanted to accentuate what theater is good for, which is language and percussion and bodies in space.”
Bechir Sylvain, right, rehearses a scene with Roberto Antonio Martin for “The Royale,” a play based on prizefighter Jack Johnson’s story.
The stylized script has the five actors providing sound effects with claps and foot-stomping. The audience is talked through the fights. And a read of the script and reviews of productions from around the country make it clear: the tension is high in the play. The actual blows are not missed.
“It’s not a violent play,” says ATC’s Artistic Director Sean Daniels, who selected “The Royale” shortly after he joined ATC in May.
“It’s about the mental and emotional journey that every athlete goes through … It’s theatrical, it’s topical and yet a period piece. It’s amazingly smart writing with not a word wasted. And it asks the big question: what is the cost of progress for the people that push us forward.”
Ramirez felt that what had happened more than a century ago resonates today.
“I tend to like intersections — past and present figures who have charisma and swagger, obviously born of pain. There are all these figures who have charisma and are daring and demand a seat at the table, and change is always met with resistance. I saw those intersections and the story feels very present. I needed this play to be about progress and how progress works.”
“The Royale” does that, says Daniels, who two years ago staged it at Merrimack Repertory Theatre, where he was artistic director.
“The show is timely; it’s not preachy,” says Daniels. “It’s not about politics, it’s about how far we have and haven’t come. (Ramirez) took a moment in time and made the connections to today.”
Edwin Lee Gibson, far left, Bechir Sylvain, second from left, and Peter Howard, far right, listen to Michael John Garces, director, during a rehearsal for the play.
From left to right, Bechir Sylvain, Peter Howard and Edwin Lee Gibson act out a scene during a rehearsal for the play, “The Royale” at the Temple of Music and Art.
