WEST HARTFORD'S PLAYHOUSE ON PARK HITS A HOME RUN WITH "TONI STONE"

West Hartford’s Playhouse on Park wants to take you out to the baseball field, with peanuts and Cracker Jacks optional. Until Sunday, June 16, you are invited to meet the scrappy, determined and dedicated “Toni Stone,” who is the prize tucked into the Cracker Jack box. According to Negro League Baseball Players Association, Toni Stone was “one of the best players you have never heard of.” Thanks to playwright Lydia R. Diamond’s intimate portrayal, your knowledge and respect for Toni Stone will be revelatory. As a young girl who loved baseball, as well as a bevy of other sports, she refused to let her gender and her race be excuses for not succeeding at an all men’s recreational career.

Constance Sadie Thompson is wonderful as Toni, sturdy, focused, not-to-be- ignored and dismissed. The play focuses on her time as the only woman, a true trailblazer, on the Indianapolis Clowns. “Her boys” as she called them, her teammates, did not support her and made her career much more difficult with their lack of respect and continual taunting.

With courage and fortitude, Toni fought for her rights and her position at second base, relying on the companionship and eventual marriage to James Edward Becton, III’s Alberga and the encouragement of her only true female friend, a prostitute, Brandon Alvion’s Millie. Her team mates Stretch (Adeyinko Adebola), King Tut (Tony N. King), Elzie (Jamar Jones), Spec (Celester Rich), Jimmy (Bernard Scudder) and Woody (Nathaniel J. Ryan) all conspired to make her fight all the harder. As she struggled around the bases, Toni perservered to achieve home run status despite them. With a baseball gloved hand, Toni Stone stretched her arm to victory. Jamil A. C. Mangan directs this inspired true tale, on Johann Fitzpatrick’s diamond set, with uniforms designed by Vilinda McGregor and exhilarating and exhausting choreography by Maurice Clark.

For tickets ($42.50-$55.), call Playhouse on Park, 244 Park Road, West Hartford at 860-523-5900, ext. 10 or online at http://www.playhouseonpark.org. Performances are Tuesday at 2 p.m., Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sunday at 2 p.m. followed by a talk back.

Whether baseball is your life or you have rarely sat in the bleachers, you will root for Toni Stone and her accomplishments with admiration and pride.