Roger Guenveur Smith Juan and John

"Roger Guenveur Smith is a man who knows his history…he lets it under his skin, re-imagines it, and embodies it."—The Brooklyn Rail

In his latest show, Obie Award–winning solo performer Roger Guenveur Smith brings to life the charged story of two baseball greats: Juan Marichal, one of the first pro stars to emerge from the Dominican Republic, and Ohio's own John Roseboro. As Juan and John unfolds, it's 1965 and Watts and Vietnam are burning. So is la Republica Dominicana, where U.S. troops are involved in a "peacekeeping" mission. In San Francisco, it's the hometown Giants versus the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Giants pitcher Juan Marichal versus Dodgers catcher John Roseboro. Their confrontation at home plate erupts into the most notorious on-field fight in baseball history, a bloody brawl during which Marichal assaults Roseboro with his bat. Among the witnesses to that nationally televised incident is a young fan in L.A., Roger Guenveur Smith—then nicknamed "Roger Dodger"—whose partisan passions lead him to torch his Marichal baseball card while chanting the mantra of that summer's Watts riots: "burn baby burn."

Amazingly, the violent encounter was only the beginning of Marichal and Roseboro’s complex relationship, and the two forged a remarkable friendship years afterward. In Juan and John, Smith and his design collaborator, Marc Anthony Thompson, skillfully weave their story into the social and political turbulence of the U.S. in the 1960s and 1970s. They create a new work rooted in ancient themes of rage, revenge, and redemption, with Smith's solo performance offering an intimate meditation on family and forgiveness. Smith's work in Juan and John is every bit as mesmerizing as his Obie-winning turn in A Huey P. Newton Story, the breakthrough show he presented here in 1998 and filmed with Spike Lee in 2001.

Juan and John is presented in conjunction with our annual Rare Films from the Baseball Hall of Fame program scheduled for April 8 and 9, 2011.