{"id":49854,"date":"2019-06-28T16:59:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-28T22:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/?p=49854"},"modified":"2019-06-28T17:51:29","modified_gmt":"2019-06-28T23:51:29","slug":"time-is-right-for-freedom-playwright-pulitzer-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/time-is-right-for-freedom-playwright-pulitzer-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Time is right for &#8216;Freedom,&#8217; playwright Pulitzer says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By ALAN SMASON, <em>Exclusive to the CCJN<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Given the political climate of the day and the highly-charged topic of immigration, playwright Joyce Pulitzer strongly believes there is no time like the present to revive her 2013 world premiere play, &#8220;<em>Freedom<\/em>.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_49856\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49856\" class=\"wp-image-49856 size-medium lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-768x507.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-1024x677.jpg 1024w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 300px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 300\/198;\" \/><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-49856\" class=\"wp-image-49856 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-300x198.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"198\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-768x507.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Freedom-1024x677.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/noscript><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-49856\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lorraine LeBlanc plays Holocaust survivor Yetta, who meets Curtis Billings( Danny) at a naturalization center in &#8220;Freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think there&#8217;s a more important time to bring it back,&#8221; she stated in an exclusive interview with the <em>Crescent City Jewish News<\/em> earlier today. &#8220;Becoming an American citizen is an honor and a privilege,&#8221; she continued. &#8220;I think it tells the story of the love for this country and why America loves all its people and be proud of their heritage.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>When the play was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/freedom-enjoys-world-premiere\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">originally presented in 2013<\/a>, it was helmed by Southern Rep&#8217;s artistic director Aim\u00e9e Hayes. This time out, another artistic director, Maxwell Williams of Le Petit Theatre fame, will be serving as the director. The venue will also be different, but appropriately the most patriotic available, B.B.&#8217;s Stage Door Canteen at the National World War II Museum.<\/p>\n<p>The play has quite a Jewish bent to it, having been initially penned in 1998 by Pulitzer and David Seelig before Pulitzer turned to Kitty Greenberg, her friend and fellow Jewish community leader to pick up where Seelig had left off as his health was failing.&nbsp; She later turned to fellow author Sean Patterson when Greenberg fell ill as well. Both Greenberg and Seelig had expired at the time of its world premiere.<\/p>\n<p>It was 2015 when Pulitzer first brought the project to Williams to get him interested, but for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was his arrival on the scene at Le Petit for the first time, he declined the opportunity. However, things changed earlier in the year when Pulitzer called Williams on the phone to let him know she and her husband had provided financing for another production. She insisted that he serve as the director.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We hope that the play has found a singular voice especially after working it and workshopping it and with rehearsals,&#8221; Williams told the CCJN about &#8220;<em>Freedom<\/em>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The role of Yetta, a European Holocaust survivor, will be reprised by Lorraine LeBlanc, who fortunately was available to take on the role again. Curtis Billings will tackle the role of Danny, a former member of the Irish Republican Army, who has fled his homeland in search of a new life. The two meet at a U.S. naturalization building, where they are both slated to take the oath of citizenship in a short time.<\/p>\n<p>Williams found the role of Yetta as particularly compelling. &#8220;A lot of the story that that character tells is testimony, it&#8217;s just the honest testimony and experience of a survivor,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It has a specificity and an authenticity that is really profound.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He found that making Danny&#8217;s story as compelling may have been the biggest challenge with directing the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>The play will begin its six-performance run for four straight weekends beginning next Friday, and Saturday nights at 7:30 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Freedom&#8221; will be seen on July 5, July 6, July 12, July 13, July 19 and July 27. For more information, call 504-528-1944. Tickets can be found <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalww2museum.org\/events-programs\/bbs-stage-door-canteen\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online here.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_toolbar\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" \/><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/share-medium.png\" style=\"border:0px; padding-top: 5px; float:left;\" alt=\"Share Button\"\/><\/noscript><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services_t=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"Tumblr\",\"Email\");var hupso_background_t=\"#EAF4FF\";var hupso_border_t=\"#66CCFF\";var hupso_toolbar_size_t=\"medium\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_url_t=\"\";var hupso_title_t=\"Time%20is%20right%20for%20%27Freedom%2C%27%20playwright%20Pulitzer%20says\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share_toolbar.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":49856,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[8413,10076,8790,8795,3952,10077,8788],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49857,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49854\/revisions\/49857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crescentcityjewishnews.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}