Fetch Clay, Make Man

Will Powers’s play Fetch Clay, Make Man examines the relationship between actor Stephin Fetchit and boxing legend Muhammad Ali.
 
Set on the eve of the Cassius Clay–Sonny Liston rematch, and based on the friendship between the actor Stepin Fetchit and Clay—soon to become Muhammad Ali—Fetch Clay, Make Man explores how each handled a life in the public eye as black men in their respective eras—Hollywood in the 1920s, where a black actor’s career depended on playing caricatures, and the mid-1960s, after the assassination of Malcolm X.
 
With “incisive characterizations, crackling dialogue and generous doses of dark humor” (Hollywood Reporter), Fetch Clay, Make Man audaciously recreates this improbable friendship and, through the relationship, digs to the heart of race relations during the highly charged days of 1960s America.
 
“Throws plenty of verbal punches.” —New York Times
 
“Delivers a potent and satisfying wallop.” —NY Newsday

Will Power is a performer and playwright whose plays have been produced at New York Theatre Workshop, the Actors Theatre of Louisville, La Jolla Playhouse and many others. His play The Seven won the Lucille Lortel Award for Best Musical and his solo shows The Gathering and The Flow have toured to over 70 cities. Power is currently on the faculty at The Meadows School of the Arts/SMU and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright in Residence with the Dallas Theatre Center.