Prime Stage Theatre Presents FREEDOM HOUSE: GIVING LIFE A SECOND CHANCE
May 5 staged reading at New Hazlett Theater celebrates America's EMS pioneers.
On May 5 Prime Stage Theatre will premiere a new stage work that tells a uniquely Pittsburgh story of innovation, compassion and civic empowerment.
Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance by playwright L.E. McCullough dramatizes the 1967 creation of Freedom House Ambulance Service, America's first mobile emergency medical unit staffed by professionally-trained paramedics.
During its 8-year lifespan, Freedom House served as the foundational model for today's paramedic profession and modern EMS departments around the world.
Initiated in the heart of Pittsburgh's Hill District, Freedom House was an extraordinary experiment in community medicine and workforce development involving physicians from the University of Pittsburgh, social activists from Freedom House Enterprises, philanthropists from Maurice Falk Medical Fund and hospital staff of Mercy and Presbyterian hospitals, from where the Freedom House ambulance service operated.
Crucial to the program's success were the Hill District men and women whose dedication and skill transformed themselves, their community and the nation.
Directed by Scott Calhoon, tickets to the May 5 staged reading are pay-what-you-can (starting at $10) and are available by calling New Hazlett Theater at (412) 320-4610 x10 or by reserving online at https://tinyurl.com/yhr5rb9e.
Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance is the first-ever stage production of the Freedom House story, and it portrays a topic that couldn't be more timely, as America's public health resources face an ongoing wave of new challenges.
"The Freedom House story is an important story of resourcefulness and collaboration, and it's a story we believe our community wants to see dramatized onstage," says Prime Stage Theatre artistic director Dr. Wayne Brinda.
Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance is L.E. McCullough's most recent commissioned work for Prime Stage Theatre. In 2023, his play Perseverance about a Pittsburgh Holocaust survivor received a National Endowment for the Arts production grant as a co-production with Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh.
Since its founding in 1996, Prime Stage Theatre has presented over 100 plays that introduce student and family audiences to classic and contemporary works of world literature. The theatre's current season concludes May 2-11 with Twelve Angry Men.
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