W-B-U-R Podcasts, Boston.

Strong as a horse.

Strong as an oak, strong as steel.

You've probably heard at least some of these expressions,

and the general gist of all of them is that

strength is a physical thing. It's all about size or heft. But the truth is

strength is about much more than that. And as we'll hear in today's tale, big strength can come in little sizes.

I'm Rebecca Sheer and welcome to Circle Round, where story time happens all the time.

Today our story is called The Face Off. It was inspired by tales from Southern Africa

where it's been told among the Shona people of present

days Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique.

Some really great people came together to bring you our adaptation of this story

including Kelly Genret and Lamar Richardson. Grownups you may know Kelly

Genret from the CW's All-American Homecoming and The Handmaids

tale on Hulu, as well as the Netflix films Uncorked and All Day and Night.

Lamar Richardson is an actor and Broadway producer who won 2024 Tony Awards for the new play

appropriate and the revival of the musical, merrily we roll along.

So circle round everyone for the face off. Long, long ago, before people came around, animals shared the earth as equals, but there was one animal who thought he was better than all the rest,

and that animal was elephant.

Fellow animals.

Behold my gargantuan body.

My thumping great feet.

...