Recipient of the 2004 Jeff Award for Best New Work, Free Man of Color tells the story of John Newton Templeton, a young man who spent the early years of his life enslaved. After emancipation, he attended Ohio University and graduated in 1828, thirty-five years before the end of slavery.
Free Man of Color was commissioned by Ohio University to commemorate its Bicentennial Celebration. The play had its world premiere production at Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago in January 2004. Directed by Andrea J. Dymond, the production featured Gary Houston as Reverend Robert Wilson, Anthony Fleming III as John Newton Templeton, and Shelley Delaney as Jane Wilson.
Free Man of Color was also produced by Penguin Rep in Stony Point, New York. The production was directed by Joe Brancato and featured Sheldon Best, Tom Frey, and Emma O’Donnell. The production was remounted Off-Broadway at 59E59 under the title of Freed. This production, directed by Joe Brancato and featuring Sheldon Best, Chris McCann, and Emma O’Donnell, received AUDELCO nominations for Playwright, Lead Actor, and Dramatic Production of the year.
Synopsis
When the formerly enslaved John Newton Templeton is unexpectedly emancipated after his enslaver’s death, he migrates to the free state of Ohio. There he meets the Presbyterian minister Robert Wilson, an avowed abolitionist. Wilson, who had taken on the challenge of serving as president of the then fledging Ohio University, saw the opportunity to use the promising young man to prove to the pro-slavery factions in America that African Americans were capable of the same academic excellence as whites.
President Wilson brings Templeton to his home in Athens, Ohio where Templeton works as the president’s personal “student servant” while attending classes. Although Templeton excels in most areas of study, his achievements in other areas are quite different from what Wilson had wanted, needed, and expected. In this play about race, culture, and the differences between education and assimilation in America, Wilson is forced to reevaluate his abolitionist views and Templeton is forced to examine the reason he was chosen to be the “first.”
Chicago Tribune
“… bold and striking new work …”
“Good for Smith. He’s an independent, strong-minded writer able to craft traditionally plotted plays that draw audiences into their stories, but then refuses to retreat from unsentimental resolutions.”
“… bold and striking new work …”
“Good for Smith. He’s an independent, strong-minded writer able to craft traditionally plotted plays that draw audiences into their stories, but then refuses to retreat from unsentimental resolutions.”
Chicago Sun-Times
“It is to the credit of both Smith and the actors that these characters emerge with the kind of flesh-and-blood fury that often elude history plays. But then this is a deeply intriguing play, and one well worth contemplating.”
Chicago Daily Herald
“… a highly charged mediation on race, freedom and responsibility …”
Chicago Reader
“… Templeton is a complex human being struggling with competing moral obligations of gratitude and principle, with individual morality and collective responsibility. Andrea J. Dymond’s staging highlights the play’s exquisite craftsmanship …”
ChicagoCritic.com
“… Free Man of Color is another gem by the wonderful Charles Smith.”
“Brilliant theatre reaches us through the magic of the live stage to get us thinking about who we are by showing us who we were and were we came from. The issues of 1824 Ohio are still relevant in the American of 2004, thus Free Man of Color’s importance reigns.”
Newcity Chicago
“The hows and whys of his story are fascinating, and playwright Charles Smith hones close to a sparks-a-flyin’ Platonic dialogue method where every philosophical conundrum is debated with elegance and rational intelligence and plenty of passion.”
Cast size: 2 m., 1 w.
Free Man of Color is available through Dramatic Publishing