Listen: Dave Harris' FREEDOM FREEDOM FREEDOM ET CETERA Released as part of Soundstage Podcast

Playwrights Horizons is presenting Dave Harris’ Freedom Freedom Freedom Et Cetera (June 14), directed by Taylor Reynolds—the latest episode of Soundstage, the organization’s celebrated anthological scripted fiction podcast.

Listen below!

In Freedom Freedom Freedom Et Cetera, a dark comedy about ancestors and artists, a Black Broadway playwright, a spoken word poet, a Columbia professor, and an activist try to define Freedom in the year ???? In this convening of “four of the foremost Black Thought-leaders of our time” for an episode of the radio show/TV program /podcast “The Word,” the friction of disparate ideologies and sensibilities erodes the formalities—and potentially, the reality—of a roundtable discussion…that may have been happening throughout time. In Harris and Reynolds’ humorous and unnerving creation, a familiar format collapses as it unleashes the American past and present, historic and personal on each other. 

Freedom Freedom Freedom Et Cetera’s cast includes Yonatan Gebeyehu as Jake Dillers/Sponsors/Announcer, Brittany Bradford as LaToya Beasley, Beethoven Oden as Jerome Barker Thomas, Jerome Preston Bates as Walter Mixon Riley, and Dave Harris as Jones Joseph. Ben Scheff is the sound designer, Dylan Carrow is the sound editor, and Hanako Rodriguez is the production stage manager. 

Harris’ new work reunites the playwright with director Taylor Reynolds—who staged the world premiere of his shape-shifting satire Tambo & Bones, a co-production by  Playwrights Horizons and Center Theatre Group, in 2022—and continues his ongoing relationship with the organization. Harris recently participated in Playwrights’ gala, which engaged writers in spontaneous acts of creation (the short play he wrote in an hour-and-a-half, called The Thick Place, was the gala’s finale), and is a contributor to the upcoming volume of the organization’s literary magazine, Almanac. Freedom Freedom Freedom Et Cetera’s release is part of a major year for the writer, whose play Incendiary has its world premiere at Woolly Mammoth this summer, while Tambo & Bones continues to reach new audiences with its upcoming UK premiere at the Theatre Royal Stratford East. Reynolds, meanwhile, recently won an Obie award for her direction of the Playwrights production of Tambo & Bones and the Page 73 production of John J. Caswell, Jr.’s Man Cave.

With plays written specifically for the audio format, not translated or recorded live from the stage, Soundstage has, since its debut season in 2020, established itself as a singular, adventurous presence “push[ing] the acoustic envelope” (The New York Times) in both the podcasting and theater worlds. Acclaimed actors and award-winning directors, sound designers, and composers realize rich and groundbreaking audio experiences in episodes 15-40 minutes in length. Episodes are available for free to listeners on all major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, and Stitcher. 

Development for Soundstage began prior to the pandemic, but the program’s launch was accelerated (it premiered in April 2020) to serve and expand the Playwrights Horizons audience in the era of social distancing. IndieWire named the first-ever episode, Heather Christian’s Prime: A Practical Breviary, “the best podcast episode of the year so far,” and Helen Shaw of New York Magazine called it “exquisite.” In 2021, Soundstage presented the six-part audio play The MS Phoenix Rising, which Elisabeth Vincentelli, writing for The New Yorker, deemed “among the funniest [productions] to emerge from the pandemic.” 

Freedom Freedom Freedom Et Cetera is part of Soundstage’s second season, which has also featured Program B: Rapid Immersion by Sheila Callaghan, Last Words of Uncle Dirt by Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig, There's No Time for Comedy & Loops by David Greenspan, His Chest Is Only Skeleton by Julia Izumi, The Marriage of Earth and Sky by Agnes Borinsky, and Vapor Trailby Ken Urban. 

About the Artists

Brittany Bradford (LaToya Beasley). Broadway: Bernhardt/Hamlet. Off-Broadway: The Comeuppance (Signature), Wedding Band (Obie Award Winner, TFANA), Fefu and Her Friends (TFANA), Mac Beth (Hunter theatre Project), Merrily We Roll Along(Roundabout/Fiasco Theater). TV: Julia (HBO Max), The Watcher (Netflix), The Gilded Age (HBO Max), Dead Ringers(Amazon), Fire Country (CBS), Fear The Walking Dead (AMC), New Amsterdam (NBC). Film: The Same Storm (dir. Peter Hedges). Classix member and HomeBase Theater Collective co-founder. Training: Juilliard.

Yonatan Gebeyehu (Jake Dillers/Sponsors/Announcer). Off-Broadway credits include The Merchant of Venice and Timon of Athens with TFANA; Tartuffe with MIP; Persuasion with Bedlam; I Thought I Would Die, But I Didn’t with New Georges / The Tank; and Where the Mountain Meets the Sea (u/s) with MTC. Regional credits include The Merchant of Venice, Timon of Athens, and Everybody with Shakespeare Theater Co; Go. Please. Go. with Montana Rep; and Noises Off and Romeo and Juliet with Chautauqua Theater Co. TV: Prodigal Son (FOX) and Elementary, Madame Secretary (CBS). Digital: Lessons in Survival (Vineyard), 86’d (BRIC). TRaining:: University of California San Diego: MFA in Acting. Columbia University, B.A. in English.

Dave Harris (Writer, Joseph Jones) is a poet and playwright from West Philly. Selected plays include Tambo & Bones(Playwrights Horizons, Center Theatre Group, 2022, LA Drama Critics Award "Best New Play" ), Exception to the Rule (Roundabout Theatre Company, 2022), and Everybody Black (Humana Festival 2019). His first feature film, Summertime,premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival and was released in 2021. Selected honors include the 2023 Horton Foote Prize, the 2019 Ollie Award, The Lorraine Hansberry Award and Mark Twain Award from The Kennedy Center, The International Commendation for The Bruntwood Prize, the Venturous Fellowship from The Lark, and a Cave Canem poetry fellowship amongst others. Dave is currently writing the feature adaptation of The Fortress of Solitude among several other feature and television projects for AMC (Interview with the Vampire), ABC Signature, Goddard Textiles, and Amazon. His first full-length collection of poetry, Patricide, was published by Button Poetry. Upcoming: Incendiary (Woolly Mammoth, 2023), Tambo & Bones(Royal Stratford East, London Premiere, 2023).

Beethovan Oden (Jerome Barker Thomas) has appeared on stages across the country. Select credits include The Bluest Eye, Intimate Apparel, The Mountaintop, Master Harold…And the Boys, The Fabulous Miss Marie, Argonautika, A Raisin in the Sun, and Our Town, in which he was recognized for his turn as the Stage Manager, and My Children! My Africa!, for which he received the Ossie Davis Award for his portrayal of Thami. Since settling in New York City, he has worked Off-Broadway with New Federal Theatre, Luna-Stage/">Luna Stage, Metropolitan Playhouse, Playwrights Horizons, and The Bushwick Starr. In addition to his theatre credits, Beethovan has also appeared on-screen in national campaigns for Little Caesars Pizza, AT&T, Direct TV, and Visa Check Card and has guest co-starred on Wu -Tang: An American Saga on Hulu, FBI: Most Wanted on CBS, The Last O.G, Shondaland's Netflix series Inventing Anna and Power Book II: Ghost on Starz. He can be seen in Brenda and Billy and the Pothos Plant, a short film competing in the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

Jerome Preston Bates (Walter Mixon Riley). Broadway: Death Of A Salesman, American Son, Jitney, Stickfly, and Seven Guitars opposite Viola Davis. TV: Derek Frye on All My Children and Travis Smith on HBO’s OZ. Film credits include PEEPLESopposite Kerry Washington, Shaft 2000, Musical Chairs, TIO Papi. Most recently in Gem Of The Ocean at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and presently in The Refugee Plays at Roundabout Theatre Company. Winner of seven AUDELCO Awards.

Taylor Reynolds (Director) is an OBIE-award winning director based in New York, originally from Chicago. Selected directing credits: Tambo & Bones (Playwrights Horizons/CTG), This Land Was Made (Vineyard Theatre), Clyde's (Berkeley Rep/Huntington Theatre), La Race (Page 73/Working Theater), Man Cave (Page 73), The Most Spectacularly Lamentable Trial of Miz Martha Washington (Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, New York Times Critic's Pick), Richard & Jane & Dick & Sally(Baltimore Center Stage/Playwrights Realm), Plano (Clubbed Thumb, Drama Desk nomination for Best Director), and Think Before You Holla (creator/deviser). Reynolds has also worked as a director and collaborator with companies including Keen Company, Ojai Playwrights Conference, MCC, The Movement Theatre Company, New Georges, and The 24 Hour Plays. She is the 2021 LPTW Lucille Lortel Award recipient, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, 2017-2018 Clubbed Thumb Directing Fellow, and Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab alum. BFA, Carnegie Mellon University. Member of SDC.

About the Sound Designer and Audio Editor

Ben Scheff is a sound designer and composer for theater, circus, and dance. Off-Broadway: Notes from Now, Kennedy: Bobby’s Last Crusade, Only Human, and Red Roses, Green Gold. Touring credits include: Twas the Night Before… Cirque du Soleil, Stars Above, Hideaway Circus, A Midsummer Night’s Circus, and Carnival! Circus Smirkus. Recent regional theater credits include Noises Off and Mamma Mia! at Skylight Music Theater, Matt & Ben at Penobscot Theater, Hurricane Diane at The Huntington Theater. Associate/Assistant Design: 59E59, The Director’s Company, Roundabout Theater Company, Cherry Lane Theater, Primary Stages, Manhattan Theatre Club, New York Theater Workshop, Playwright’s Realm, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, The Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. Member IATSE Local USA 829 - United Scenic Artists. www.scheffsound.com

Dylan Carrow is an audio editor for podcasts as well as audio/video supervisor for Off-Broadway theater. He is the primary audio editor for season 2 of Soundstage: His Chest, No Time for Comedy,  and Freedom, Freedom, Freedom. He served as sound designer and audio editor for Vanderbilt University's DNA Discoveries in Action podcast series which achieved the 2021 HITMC Award for Healthcare Podcast of the Year.

About the Production Stage Manager

Hanako Rodriguez is a freelance theater professional with a passion for helping to bring to life new works written by underrepresented voices. Her recent New York credits include Polylogues (Colt Coeur), Black Feminist Video Game (The Civilians), and the New York Times Critic’s Pick ATHENA (The Hearth). She has worked on numerous Off and Off-Off Broadway projects including those with The Fire This Time Festival, National Black Theatre, HB Studios, Two Headed Rep, The Bushwick Starr, horsetrade, WWTNS?, HERE Arts, and La MaMa.

About Playwrights Horizons

Playwrights Horizons is a 52-year-old writer's theater dedicated to centering and advancing the voice of the contemporary American playwright, and to the production of innovative new work. It’s a mission that is always timely, and one that’s necessary in the ongoing evolution of theater in this country.

Playwrights Horizons believes that playwrights are the great storytellers of our time, offering essential contributions to civic discourse and illuminating life’s greatest paradoxes. And they believe in the singularity of a writer’s voice, valuing the broad, eclectic spectrum and diversity of American writers. At Playwrights Horizons, writers are supported in every stage of their growth through commissions (engaging several of today’s most imaginative playwrights each year), New Works Lab, Soundstage audio program, and Almanac, the organization’s literary magazine. 

Playwrights Horizons presents a season of productions annually on their two stages, each of which is a world, American, or New York premiere. Much like Playwrights Horizons’ work, their audience is risk-taking and adventurous; and the organization is committed to strengthening their engagement and feeding their curiosity through all of its programming, onsite and online.

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