There’s Johnson #1’s feast at 2pm and Johnson #2’s daily prayer at 7am. There’s Johnson #1’s hour-long vomit and there’s Johnson #2’s hour-long jog. There’s Johnson #1’s 5 hours of restless sleep and there’s Johnson #2’s 3 hours of contaminated brainspace. deadbodydeadbodydeadbody is an invitation to voyeur into two unbeknownst rivals as they see sunrise and sunset… and sunrise and sunset… and sunrise and sunset… deadbodydeadbodydeadbody is the 72 hours before the start of the boxing match of the century, the generational death match, that is Stamps’ Blue Fire Burns the Hottest. Can preparation ever be on point?
Created & Directed by Marissa Joyce Stamps
Devised with Danté Charles Crichlow, Ed Ventura & Moses Chavez-Gray
Performed by Danté Charles Crichlow & Moses Chavez-Gray
Produced by Rachel Perez Melian
Stage Management Thalia Sablon
Sound Design and Composition Kiara Negroni-Martinez
Scenic & Prop Design lucas a degirolamo
Costume Design Sterling Gates
MARISSA JOYCE STAMPS is a Haitian-American NYC-based writer, director, and actor who creates vortexes that center, celebrate and amplify Black folks through Afrosurrealism. Recent plays: Twisted Juniper (Eugene O’Neill 2022 NPC Finalist, Chautauqua Theater Company‘s 2021 NPW, Workshop Theater Writers Intensive 2020); Blue Fire (Exponential Festival 2022; Orchard Project 2021); Techno Paper Planes (Moxie Arts Moxie Commission 20/21), and The Water Rumbles in Limbo Time (24 Hour Plays: Nationals). She’s a member of The Anthropologists. She’s a facilitator in The Workshop Theater’s Writers Intensives. Marissa teaches English at and is an MFA Playwriting candidate at Brooklyn College; BFA Drama and BA Journalism: NYU. | marissajoycestamps.com | @marissajoycestamps
DANTÉ CHARLES CRICHLOW Born, raised, and based in Brooklyn NY, Danté (he/him) is a graduate of NYU Tisch School of the Arts. Credits include See You Yesterday (Netflix) and Law & Order: Organized Crime. His acting training includes time spent at the Atlantic Acting School studio, NYU’s Experimental Theatre Wing, and the Black Arts Institute. When Danté isn’t acting, he also takes up photography, writing, directing and dancing wherever music can be heard.
MOSES CHAVEZ-GRAY is a Florida raised, Jamaican-Dominican actor, writer, and musician based in NYC. He travels by faith and not by sight. Moses enjoys making work that abstracts daily human life and controversies with the hopes of reflecting it back to audiences to help them come to new perspectives on their daily actions. His recent credits include Hold Up (dir. Alex Berg), BLITZ (dir. Emily Dhue), The Underscore (dir./writ. Himself). He is super excited to be a part of this production. Fueled by curiosity he cannot wait for what life has in store next. BFA Drama and BA Politics: NYU | J.D. Candidate: Fordham School of Law | @lilmoflow
RACHEL PEREZ MELIAN is an actress, producer, writer and theatrical designer (Costumes; Lighting) originally from Orlando, Florida. Her work both as a performer and a technician focuses greatly on the nuances of being a Latin woman in the 21st century. Recently, she was part of the BIPOC Critics Lab through the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and was a Finalist for the YSP International Screenwriting Competition with her pilot FINKA. For her producing work, she was recognized as an Emerging Content Creator by the National Association of Latino Independent Producers for the Latino Media Fest. BFA Drama: NYU | rachelperezmelian.com | @rachelperezmelian
THALIA SABLON “Born in Haiti and raised in Queens, New York, I have my mother’s tongue and a New York accent”. Thalia Sablon is a graduate of Rutgers University’s MFA Playwriting program. Her recent writing credits include, Angela Davis’s School For Girls With Big Eyes (Rutgers university), Treat Me softly (Ensemble studio theatre), and Bad American Dreams (Rutgers university playwrights festival). Thalia writes about people who are confused and trying to gain themselves in a world that needs them to complete tasks for money. She fills her plays with all of her questions about life and the world around her, in hopes that other people have the same questions and want to find answers too. When Thalia is not writing or producing theatre and film, she is trying to not wreck havoc in the city of New York.
KIARA NEGRONI-MARTINEZ is a Puerto Rican NYC based performer, song writer, producer, and theatrical designer (sound design) originally from Miami, Florida. Kiara’s work primarily focuses on creating scores and compositions that help elevate productions in pursuit of honesty. She has sound designed in spaces such as Dixon Place, The Tank, The Culture Project, and has been recognized at Playwrights Downtown as a well rounded theatrical designer and producer. Kiara hopes she does well trying to share her heart with others. BFA Drama: NYU
lucas a degirolamo is a designer, set decorator and installation artist based in Brooklyn, NY, making work in pursuit of queerer futures. They often design spaces & environments for theater and film, creating emotional visual worlds through a stranging and repurposing of space, architecture, and material. They’ve worked across NYC in spaces like The Tank, Access Theater, Torn Page, Dixon Place, Playwrights Downtown, and La Plaza Culturale. Recent film credits include The Stay (dir. Stewart Thorndike), Rocky’s Deli (dir. Ben Cohen & Max Strand), and The Hole (dir. Lex Lapp). BFA: NYU/CONT. ED: SVA. www.lucasadeg.com/@
STERLING GATES is a NYC-based actor and sometimes costume designer for Marissa Stamps exclusively. | @sterlingates
ED VENTURA is a Dominican-Puerto Rican actor/writer/finesser born in Providence, RI and raised in the Boogie Down Bronx. He was the 2020-2021 Van Lier New Voices Fellow with The Lark, was a 2018 SPACE on Ryder Farm Greenhouse Resident, and is a current member of Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Youngblood Collective. He’s had his work developed with LAByrinth’s 2019 Intensive Ensemble, Curious Theatre Company, and more. His previous acting credits have consisted of The Siblings Play (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater), and The Parlour (Middle Voice). He’s currently working toward completing his BFA in Acting, and double minor in Playwriting/Screenwriting at SUNY Purchase. Ed is a proud alumni of the MCC Youth Company’s Acting Lab, Playwriting Lab, and Ambassadors program. He would also like to shoutout to all the women in his family that have made him the young man he is today.
