Nigerian-American actress
Uzo Aduba, popularly popular for her role as
Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren in the Netflix
series Orange Is the New Black, is set to return to the New York stage in 2019 for the title role in the new play
Toni Stone.
The play, which is written by Lydia R. Diamond based on
Martha Ackmann‘s book, “
Curveball, The Remarkable Story of Toni Stone,” will be directed by Tony Award-winning director
Pam MacKinnon and produced by Roundabout Theatre Company in association with Samantha Barrie.
Toni Stone
The play is based on the true-life story of an American baseball player by the name Toni Stone, who was one of the first women to play professional baseball in the Negro Leagues. She was subjected to hostility and ill-treatment, for playing a male-dominated sport.
The sport enthusiast, and two-time Emmy Award winner, Uzo Aduba, first gained recognition for her acting when she featured in the play
Translations of Xhosa in 2003, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Helen Hayes Awards. She won two Emmy Awards for her role in
Orange is the New Black in 2014 and 2015, two Golden Globe nominations in 2015 and 2016, and another Emmy nomination in 2017.
The real-life Toni Stone was inducted into the Women’s Sports Foundation’s International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, the Sudafed International Women’s Sports Hall of Fame, and is included in two exhibits (one on “Women in Baseball” and another on “Negro League Baseball”) at the Baseball Hall of Fame. Stone died in 1996 at the age of 75. March 6
th is declared
Toni Day in her hometown of Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Apart from Aduba, who is playing the title role, the rest of the cast and creative team for the production will be announced at a later date. The play will be opening in May 2019 at the Laura Pels Theatre, New York.
