BCA features the newest fare from acclaimed local playwright

Dan Devine

When Company One stages the third production of its 2006-2007 season this spring, they’ll be coming out swinging.

In March, the award winning company-in-residence at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) will present “Six Rounds / Six Lessons,” a world premiere by Boston-based playwright, filmmaker and visual artist John ADEkoje. The company describes the play, which will be directed by Emmy Award-winner Lois Roach, as “a no-holds-barred exploration of truth, mortality and fatherhood.”

ADEkoje’s play tells the story of Ace, “a strong black male of sculpted body and mind,” whose life as a black man in today’s society is frequently more punishing than what he endures in the ring.

The performance seeks to blur the line between audience and performers by using a live DJ to cut and scratch records to the beat of Ace’s struggle for salvation, an innovative touch that provides the backbeat for what the playwright calls his “tragicomic hip-hop concerto.”

A graduate from Humboldt State University with master’s degrees in both dramatic writing and film production, ADEkoje has garnered critical acclaim on both stage and screen, winning the 2002 Lorraine Hansberry Playwrighting Award for the play “Streethawker,” as well as the 2006 Roxbury Film Festival’s Award for Emerging Local Filmmaker for his documentary “Street Soldiers.”

Formerly a playwright-in-residence for Jamaica Plain’s New African Company, ADEkoje is now Company One’s newest resident playwright, and “Six Rounds / Six Lessons” will be his first production for the company.

“We’re really glad to have John on board,” said Shawn LaCount, Company One’s artistic director, when “Six Rounds / Six Lessons” was announced as part of the company’s ‘06-’07 slate. “He’s a great guy and one of the surest playwriting talents in the city. I’m sure he’s headed for big success and we’re really excited to be working with him at this point in his career.”

The first two productions of Company One’s current season — “After Ashley,” Gina Gionfriddo’s haunting and hilarious skewering of violence- and reality TV-obsessed American culture, and Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “The Last Days of Judas Iscariot,” which imagines the raucous trial of the man who betrayed Jesus Christ — both received widespread praise in the local theater community.

Casting for “Six Rounds / Six Lessons” is still ongoing, and the company is seeking wheelchair-bound African American males between the ages of 28 and 35 — previous acting experience isn’t necessary, but you must be comfortable with a major role in a professional production. Auditions will be this Saturday in Brookline from 3-6 p.m., and anyone interested in setting one up can e-mail Company One Educational Director Mark VanDerzee at mvanderzee@companyone.org.

“Six Rounds / Six Lessons” will run at the Boston Center for the Arts, 539 Tremont Street, from March 9 – March 31, 2007, with performances Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7 p.m.

For tickets, call 617-933-8600, visit www.BostonTheatreScene.com, or purchase them at the Calderwood Pavilion at BCA or the Boston University Theatre Box office, 264 Huntington Avenue.