by Team Actors on June 18, 2021
The language, mixing earthy jargon with breakbeat poetics, is as much a collage as the visuals and does a good job of setting the tone of urgent reflection.
Jesse Green, New York Times Theatre Critic on Ali Summit
The Ali Summit, an audiovisual play by playwright and breakbeat poet Idris Goodwin was released in June 2021.
The multi-platform project was inspired by the 1967 summit of prominent Black athletes who met Muhammad Ali to confer about his conscientious objection to military service and consider whether they would collectively throw the weight of their support behind the gold medalist whatever the costs. The audiovisual is a collaboration between playwright Idris Goodwin and director Robert Barry Fleming, with graphic art by Louisville-based artist and illustrator Andy Perez.
Recently reviewed by New York Times theatre critic, Jesse Green in an article entitled “Making Every Second Count in Plays Too Short to Miss” about short-form plays, Ali Summit, is praised for its writing with Green saying, “The language, mixing earthy jargon with breakbeat poetics, is as much a collage as the visuals and does a good job of setting the tone of urgent reflection.” As for the delivery, he notes that it is “voiced by actors who give full force to the confusion and anguish of men who are already questioning what it means, as Black athletes working for white “owners,” to fight.”
Ali Summit, a spoken word poetry, transmedia experience, will unfold as a multi-platform meditation in VR later this summer. Stay tuned for our other projects currently in development which utilize a myriad of emergent technologies to bring to life a diverse slate stories that capture the wonder and complexity of our time for the people of Louisville and beyond.
Read the full critique at NYTimes.com.