Sheldon Best and Emmanuel Brown play Leon and Troy, two London teens with their eyes on the world welterweight championship. For two weeks before Sucker Punch rehearsals began in DC, the actors worked with Rick Sordelet, the show’s boxing choreographer, to prepare for the physically specific—and grueling—work of the play. Check out our Media tab to the right to see photos from training at Chelsea Piers with the help of boxing consultant Gary “the Kid” Stark, Jr.

Artistic Team

Leah C. Gardiner (Director) makes her Studio Theatre debut with Sucker Punch, having known Roy Williams for 10 years. Her New York work includes the US premiere of born bad at Soho Rep (2011 OBIE award for directing), the world premiere of Bulrusher at Urban Stages, Wit at Union Square, Training Wisteria at Cherry Lane Theatre, Kent, CT at the Zipper Theater, The Ghost of Enoch Charlton at Keen Company, and Earthquake Chica at the Summer Play Festival, as well as productions at NYU and The Juilliard School. Ms. Gardiner directed the national tour of Wit (Kennedy Center, among others). Regionally, she has directed the world premieres of Blue Door at South Coast Repertory Theatre, Orange Flower Water at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and The Flag Maker of Market Street at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Gardiner’s other regional work includes productions of Fences at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Othello at the Houston Shakespeare Festival; Wit at the Ordway Theatre in Minneapolis; Dance of the Holy Ghosts, Sam’s Coming, and Blue Door at New York Stage and Film; Wild Black-Eyed Susans at Center Stage; Paper Armor at GeVa Theatre and Cleveland Playhouse; A Streetcar Named Desire at Pillsbury House Theatre; The Piano Lesson at Madison Repertory Theatre; Topdog/Underdog at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Birdie Blue at City Theatre, Pittsburgh; Angels in America, parts I and II at Connecticut Repertory Theatre; and Sons at the Children’s Theater Company. She has directed readings and workshops for Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, The Play Company, The Public Theater, The hotINK Festival, ACT, South Coast Repertory Theatre, and Philadelphia Theatre Company. Her upcoming work includes The Last Five Years at Crossroads and restaging the national tour of The Normal Heart for Arena Stage. Ms. Gardiner served as the director-in-residence for the Public Theater/NYSF and a resident director for New Dramatists. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale School of Drama.

Rick Sordelet (Fight Choreographer) has worked on 53 Broadway productions, which include The Scottsboro Boys and Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, Lion King, Tarzan, and Aida. His New York credits include Blood Knot, Hurt Village, and The Lady from Dubuque at Signature Theatre; the musical Carrie at MCC; and Merrily We Roll Along for Encores. He has worked on the national tours of Beauty and the Beast and Les Miserables. Mr. Sordelet has choreographed 52 commercial productions around the world, including Tarzan, Aida, Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Titanic, and Ben Hur Live. His opera work includes Cyrano at the Metropolitan Opera, The Royal Opera House and La Scalla; Don Carlo at the Metropolitan Opera; and Heart of a Soldier at the San Francisco Opera House. His film work includes The Game Plan, Dan in Real Life, and Hamlet with Campbell Scott. Mr. Sordelet was the Chief Stunt Coordinator for Guiding Light for 12 years, and also worked on One Life to Live. He received the Edith Oliver Award for Sustained Excellence from the Lucille Lortel Foundation and a Jeff Award for best fight choreography for Romeo and Juliet at Chicago Shakespeare Theater. A board member for the Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Mr. Sordelet has taught at Yale School of Drama and The New School for Drama. He holds a BFA from University of Wisconsin-Superior and an MFA from Rutgers University.

Dan Conway (Set Design) has designed sets for 25 shows at The Studio Theatre. Last season he designed Marcus; Or The Secret of Sweet, directed by Timothy Douglas. Recent designs include Sunset Boulevard, Hairspray, and Chess, directed by Eric Schaeffer, for Signature Theatre; Sabrina Fair for Ford’s Theatre; the world premiere of The Game’s Afoot by Ken Ludwig, directed by Aaron Posner, for The Cleveland Playhouse; a new version of Cyrano by Michael Hollinger, directed by Aaron Posner for The Folger Theatre and The Arden Theatre; and August Osage County, directed by Terry Nolen, for The Arden Theatre. He is currently at work on The Merry Wives of Windsor, directed by Stephen Rayne, for The Shakespeare Theatre. Nominated 12 times, Mr. Conway was awarded the Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Set Design in 2000 and 2009. He is the head of the MFA in Theatre Design program at The University of Maryland.

Brian MacDevitt (Light Design) joins the Studio Theatre for the first time. He has designed over 60 shows on Broadway, including last season’s The Book of Mormon, for which he won his fifth Tony Award. Other Broadway credits include Death of a Salesman, The Mountaintop, Chinglish, The House of Blue Leaves, Fences, A Behanding in Spokane, Race, Brighton Beach Memoirs, Urinetown, and Into the Woods. In Washington his work has been seen at Transformer Gallery where he was Art Director for Cornfield, an installation performance created by Nancy Bannon. His awards include an Obie award for sustained excellence, a Bessie Award, Lucille Lortell Award, Outer Critics Circle Award, the Hewes Award, and a Drama Desk Award. He designed lights for The Three Sisters at the Abbey Theatre in Ireland, and for dance productions with The Joffrey, American Ballet Theater, Tere O’Connor Dance, Merce Cunningham, Lar Lubovitch, Nancy Bannon and many others. His design for opera includes The Enchanted Island and Le Compte Ory at the Metropolitan Opera House. Mr. MacDevitt recently directed Proof for Theater Three in Port Jefferson, NY. His film design includes The Cradle Will Rock. Mr. MacDevitt is member of the Naked Angels Theater Company, and isLeah C. Gardiner (Director) makes her Studio Theatre debut with Sucker Punch, having known Roy Williams for 10 years. Her New York work includes the US premiere of born bad at Soho Rep (2011 OBIE award for directing), the world premiere of Bulrusher at Urban Stages, Wit at Union Square, Training Wisteria at Cherry Lane Theatre, Kent, CT at the Zipper Theater, The Ghost of Enoch Charlton at Keen Company, and Earthquake Chica at the Summer Play Festival, as well as productions at NYU and The Juilliard School. Ms. Gardiner directed the national tour of Wit (Kennedy Center, among others). Regionally, she has directed the world premieres of Blue Door at South Coast Repertory Theatre, Orange Flower Water at the Contemporary American Theatre Festival, and The Flag Maker of Market Street at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. Ms. Gardiner’s other regional work includes productions of Fences at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival; Othello at the Houston Shakespeare Festival; Wit at the Ordway Theatre in Minneapolis; Dance of the Holy Ghosts, Sam’s Coming, and Blue Door at New York Stage and Film; Wild Black-Eyed Susans at Center Stage; Paper Armor at GeVa Theatre and Cleveland Playhouse; A Streetcar Named Desire at Pillsbury House Theatre; The Piano Lesson at Madison Repertory Theatre; Topdog/Underdog at Philadelphia Theatre Company; Birdie Blue at City Theatre, Pittsburgh; Angels in America, parts I and II at Connecticut Repertory Theatre; and Sons at the Children’s Theater Company. She has directed readings and workshops for Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theatre Workshop, The Play Company, The Public Theater, The hotINK Festival, ACT, South Coast Repertory Theatre, and Philadelphia Theatre Company. Her upcoming work includes The Last Five Years at Crossroads and restaging the national tour of The Normal Heart for Arena Stage. Ms. Gardiner served as the director-in-residence for the Public Theater/NYSF and a resident director for New Dramatists. She holds degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and Yale School of Drama.

Kathleen Geldard (Costume Design) has previously designed Frozen, Autobahn, Terrorism, and A Clockwork Orange for Studio 2ndStage. She is an artistic associate of Signature Theatre, where her work includes Really Really, Hairspray, the World Premiere of The Boy Detective Fails, and The Hollow. She has also designed for the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, Round House Theatre, Imagination Stage, Olney Theatre, Folger Theatre, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, and Everyman Theatre, among others. Regionally, her work has been seen at the La Jolla Playhouse, Huntington Theatre, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, and Center Stage in Baltimore. Upcoming productions include First You Dream at the Kennedy Center, Brother Russia (World Premiere) at Signature Theatre, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with the Washington Ballet and Imagination Stage. She received a Helen Hayes nomination for her design for Imagination Stage’s The Neverending Story in 2008.

Lindsay Jones (Sound and Original Composition) is very pleased to be making his Studio Theatre debut. His Off Broadway credits include Rx at Primary Stages, Through the Night at Union Square/Westside Theatres, The Brother/Sister Plays at the Public Theater, The Burnt Part Boys at Playwrights Horizons/Vineyard Theatre, Top Secret at New York Theatre Workshop, and In The Continuum at Primary Stages, among many others. Regional credits include shows at the Guthrie Theatre, Center Stage, American Conservatory Theatre, Hartford Stage, South Coast Repertory, Alliance Theatre, the Goodman, Arena Stage, Yale Repertory Theatre, The Old Globe, Chicago Shakespeare Company, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, Lookingglass Theatre and many others. Internationally, Mr. Jones has worked at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Canada and the Royal Shakespeare Company in England, as well on productions in Austria, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Scotland. Mr. Jones’s many awards include five Joseph Jefferson Awards and 16 nominations, two Ovation Awards and three nominations, LA Drama Critics Circle Award, two ASCAP Plus Awards, two Drama Desk Award nominations, and nominations for Henry Hewes Design, Barrymore, Austin Critics Circle, AUDELCO, and NAACP Theatre Awards. He was also the first sound designer to win the Michael Maggio Emerging Designer Award. His original film scoring includes HBO Films’ A Note Of Triumph (2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary) and Family Practice for Sony Pictures.

Adrien-Alice Hansel (Dramaturg) is The Studio Theatre’s Literary Director. At The Studio Theatre, she has dramaturged The Golden Dragon, Lungs, The Habit of Art, The History of Kisses, The New Electric Ballroom, and Marcus; or the Secret of Sweet. Previous to joining Studio, she spent seven seasons at the Actors Theatre of Louisville, where she headed the literary department and coordinated project scouting, selection, and development for the Humana Festival of New American Plays. She also served as production dramaturg on roughly 50 new, contemporary, and classic plays there, including premieres by Naomi Wallace, Gina Gionfriddo, Kirk Lynn and Rude Mechs, The Civilians, Craig Wright, Charles Mee, Jordan Harrison, Anne Bogart and SITI Company, Adam Bock, and John Belluso. Ms. Hansel is the co-editor of eight anthologies of plays from Actors Theatre of Louisville and holds an MFA from the Yale School of Drama.

John Keith Hall (Production Stage Manager) has stage managed productions on the East Coast from New Hampshire to Florida. He spent several years as Resident Stage Manager at the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA, where he supervised over forty productions. Mr. Hall is the Resident Stage Manager at The Studio Theatre, where he has stage managed The Habit of Art, Time Stands Still, The History Boys, Adding Machine: A Musical, and The Road to Mecca, among others. A graduate of Virginia’s Longwood University, John is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association.

Ashley Smith (Voice and Text Director) makes his Studio Theatre debut. He has recently directed voice, text, and dialects for The Rivals at Baltimore Centerstage, Exits and Entrances and The Circle at American Players Theatre, The Good Negro for Dallas Theater Center and The Public Theater, and the Chicago premiere of My Children! My Africa! at Victory Gardens Theatre. As an actor, Mr. Smith recently appeared in Much Ado About Nothing at Shakespeare Theatre Company. He has also worked at Utah Shakespeare Festival (four seasons), Great Lakes Theatre Festival, Idaho Shakespeare Festival, Dallas Theater Center, and Jean Cocteau Repertory Theatre in New York. Mr. Smith teaches voice and acting in the School of Theatre, Dance, and Performance Studies at the University of Maryland.

Gary "Kid" Stark, Jr. (Boxing Consultant) is a former New York Super Bantamweight champion. In his amateur career he was a three-time Golden Gloves champion, rated fifth in the country by USA Boxing. Since turning pro in 2002, his record is 23-3 with eight knockouts.

Christian Kelly-Sordelet (Associate Fight Choreographer) has been doing combat work since he was a child. His work includes Masked at DR2 Theater in New York. His assistant work includes Fuerza Bruta in New York, Ben Hur Live in Rome, and the international tour of Beauty and the Beast. Mr. Kelly-Sordelet’s work was seen on television in Guiding Light and One Life to Live. He has taught at several universities including Rutgers, NYU, The New School of Drama, and the Neighborhood Playhouse Conservatory.

Jamila Reddy (Assistant Director) is the Artistic Apprentice at The Studio Theatre, where she served as assistant director on Time Stands Still, The Golden Dragon, and The Habit of Art. She is an alumna of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she received a BA in Dramatic Art and Sociology. She directed several productions at the undergraduate level, including the premiere of Kind of Blue, an original play by Kuamel Winston Stewart, and Ntozake Shange’s For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf. For her contributions to the Department of Dramatic Art at UNC, Ms. Reddy received the Richard and Christopher Edward Adler Award for Excellence in Dramatic Art (2010) and the Louise Lamont Award for Excellence (2011).

Cast

Lucas Beck (Tommy) is making his Studio Theatre debut. His New York credits include Richard and Anne at Mirror Repertory Theatre, Fathers and Sons at The Actors Company Theatre, and Venus, Sensation, and the Pope at Wooden Indian. In DC, he has appeared in In Darfur at Theatre J; Beauty of the Father at GALA Hispanic Theatre; and The Suicide, The Violet Hour, Pig Farm, Red Herring, The Game of Love and Chance, Three Days of Rain, The Prisoner of Zenda, and The Glass Menagerie at 1st Stage (recipient of the John Aniello Award for Oustanding Emerging Theatre). Other regional theatre includes Lady Burns Manor, Six Zebra One, The Best Girl Ever and Mark & Michael at the Rosie Olds Teatro in Canada.

Sheldon Best (Leon)  is making his Studio Theatre debut. His New York credits include Freed with 59E59 Theaters and Penguin Rep Theatre (AUDELCO Viv Award nomination), Soul Samurai with Ma-Yi Theater Company and Vampire Cowboys Theatre Company, Alice in Slasherland with Vampire Cowboys, Paradox of the Urban Cliché with LAByrinth Theater Company, and Gentrifusion: Crawl with Red Fern Theatre Company. Mr. Best has also appeared in many new works with Ensemble Studio Theatre, where he is a company member. His regional credits include The Life of Galileo at the Cleveland Play House, Superior Donuts at the Denver Center (Colorado Theatre Guild’s Henry Award nomination), Lydia R. Diamond’s Harriet Jacobs at Underground Railway Theater, Much Ado About Nothing with the Actors’ Shakespeare Project, The Oil Thief at Boston Playwrights’ Theatre, The History Boys with SpeakEasy Stage Company, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Berkshire Theatre Festival. Mr. Best recently guest starred on an episode of the CBS drama Person of Interest. He holds a BA in Theatre Arts and in English and American Literature from Brandeis University.

Emmanuel Brown (Troy) is proud to be making his Studio Theatre debut. Mr. Brown made his Broadway debut as Electro in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark at the Foxwoods Theatre. Other theatre credits include the Broadway workshop of Bruce Lee: Journey to the West, Lavender Lizards and Lilac Landmines: Layla’s Dream at New Federal Theatre, Lyrical Arts at the American Theatre of Actors, and White Eyebrow at the Lookingglass Theatre. Mr. Brown toured internationally as Rayo in the theatrical concert Don Omar: King of Kings. His film and TV work includes Little Manhattan, Escape from New Jersey, Under the Gun, Rescue Me, and ABC Primetime. Mr. Brown is also an accomplished dancer, having performed at the Latin Billboards, Pepsi Smash, the NFL Super Bowl Pre-Game show, Madison Square Garden, and Shea Stadium. He holds a BFA from the University of Florida.

Sean Gormley (Charlie) has appeared in New York in Aristocrats, The Devil’s Disciple, Yeats Project, and The Shaughraun at Irish Repertory Theatre; Nora and Shadow of the Glen at Marvell Repertory Theatre; Ladies and Gents and Transport at the Irish Arts Center; the solo performance of The Good Thief at Players Theatre; and Ross at Storm Theatre. His regional work includes Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde at Bristol Riverside Theatre; and in Seattle: Macbeth at Wooden O; Waiting For Lefty and Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the Capitol Hill Arts Center; Antigone at Edge Theatre; Hellhound On My Trail at Theatre Schmeater; and Hound of the Baskervilles with UPAC Theatre Group. His television work includes Treme, All My Children, and The Edge. Mr. Gormley has many voiceover credits, and has appeared in numerous independent films including the upcoming feature What Maisie Knew. He wrote and directed the award-winning short film Blackout.

Dana Levanovsky (Becky) is thrilled to be back at The Studio Theatre, having appeared in Studio 2ndStage’s That Face. Recent credits in DC include After the Fall at Theatre J, Mad Forest and Scorched at Forum Theatre, This is Not a Time Bomb at Source Theatre, and Four Dogs and a Bone at the Capital Fringe Festival. Ms. Levanovsky holds a BA in Acting from The George Washington University and is an alumnus of the National Theatre Institute and the Accademia Dell’arte.

Michael Rogers (Squid) has appeared at theatres around the US and internationally in roles as varied as God (Italy), Othello (Theatre for a New Audience), and Dracula (Barter Theatre). His television work has been seen on ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox. His film work includes The Mosquito Coast, Weekend at Bernie’s II, Moonfire, Inscape, and Dead Witness. Mr. Rogers has directed for the Vineyard Theatre, MCC, Manhattan Theatre Club, and The Providence Black Rep Company. He has served as language and cultural consultant for Yale Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, ABC, and Disney. He has taught on both undergraduate and graduate levels at New York University, Towson University, Hofstra, and others. A graduate of the Yale School of Drama, Mr. Rogers is currently the story editor for Soho Films US.

Lance Coadie Williams (Ray) is grateful to return to The Studio Theatre, having appeared in last season’s Marcus; Or The Secret of Sweet. His DC credits include Booty Candy at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre and Fences at Round House Theatre. He toured to Athens with The Shakespeare Theatre Company’s production of The Oedipus Plays. Other credits include My Children! My Africa!, The Children’s Hour, Blues for an Alabama Sky, and Fences at Everyman Theatre; and the title role in Hamlet at The Baltimore Shakespeare Festival. Mr. Williams is a graduate of The Baltimore School for the Arts, and earned his BFA at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Theatre Arts and Film.

Jude Tibeau (Baliff) is making his Studio Theatre debut with Sucker Punch. His local theatre credits include Ruined at Arena Stage, Charlotte’s Web at Adventure Theatre and Twelfth Night at The Shakespeare Theatre.

Set in South London in the 1980s, Sucker Punch follows two black British teenagers and their rise from would-be vandals to boxing champions. Having caught Leon and his friend Troy breaking into his rundown gym, devoted Thatcherite Charlie sees talent in the boys and decides to let them work off their vandalism instead of turning them over to the police. Determined to be taken seriously as boxers, the boys eventually convince Charlie to take them on as fighters. They’re getting footholds in the boxing world when the British race riots break out. In the face of this violence, a split-second betrayal changes both boys’ lives.

In trouble with the British law, Troy emigrates to America and eventually becomes a pugilistic star. Leon has talent, a talent that takes him to the Olympics, but the racial dynamics of Thatcher’s England, and his complicated relationship with Charlie’s daughter, threaten his success. The years pass and the childhood friends-turned-foes face off against each other in a fight for glory.

Famous Boxing Grudge Matches

Sucker Punch follows black British teens Leon and Troy from cleaning a South London boxing gym to a final faceoff in the ring as former friends in the biggest grudge match of their lives.