Stream free audio plays from L.A. Theatre Works

The venerable L.A. Theatre Works is giving TDF members free access to audio recordings of five compelling plays exploring the Black experience in America. As theatre lovers, we know art helps us process the world around us. We hope these audio plays inspire reflection and action for change. This offer expires August 15.  CLICK IMAGES FOR MORE INFORMATION. Stick Fly  Written by Lydia R. Diamond Starring Dulé Hill, Carl Lumbly, Terrell Tilford, Justine Bateman, Tinashe Kajese and Michole Briana White In this powerful comedy-drama, two African-American brothers see their weekend at the family home on Martha’s Vineyard as the perfect opportunity to introduce their girlfriends to their upper-class parents. Instead, they stumble into a domestic powder keg that exposes secrets, prejudice and hypocrisy.  Listen Now A Lesson Before Dying  Written by Romulus Linney Starring Keith Glover and Jamahl Marsh In 1940s Louisiana, Jefferson, a young illiterate Black man, is falsely convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The plantation schoolteacher agrees to talk with the condemned man, and the two forge a bond as they come to understand what it means to defy one’s own fate. Based on Ernest J. Gaines’ National Book Critics Circle Award-winning novel of the same name.  Listen Now Dinah Was  Written by Oliver Goldstick Starring Yvette Freeman In a white fur coat, Dinah Washington sits on her luggage outside a Las Vegas hotel in 1959. The legendary star can’t enter the hotel without a white escort. So, in her inimitable style, the "Queen of the Blues" starts kicking up a fuss. Yvette Freeman reprises her Obie Award-winning performance as Washington in this passionate play featuring songs made famous by the beloved singer.  Listen Now In the Heat of the Night  By John Ball Starring Ryan Vincent Anderson, James Morrison, Michael Hammond and Kalen Harriman Based on John Ball’s novel In the Heat of the Night, which inspired the Oscar-winning film and the Emmy-winning television series of the same name, this provocative play pits a Black detective from California against a small Alabama town simmering with anger over desegregation.  Listen Now Pretty Fire Written by and starring Charlayne Woodard In five autobiographical vignettes, Charlayne Woodard tells the moving tale of her African-American family through three generations of love, struggle and triumph.  Listen Now