The Frisco Flash

Synopsis:

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.

Notes: The video is from a Zoom reading in 2020. It's early in the play and Young Jack and Jimmy meet then spar... In another video excerpt, Jack meets Sharlyn and Jackie for the first time: https://vimeo.com/434913937