Kevin R. Free
Kevin R. Free is one of NYTheatre.com’s 15 people of the year for 2010, because of his “outstanding, noteworthy contributions to the New York theatre scene.” As a director, Mr. Free assisted Martha Banta on Barbara’s Blue Kitchen in readings in Florida and NYC, and went on as Assistant Director in the show’s Off-Broadway run. Passionate about the solo show format, he also developed and directed Elizabeth Stewart’s Racist is My Middle Name for the Estrogenius Festival in 2010. Mr. Free has directed several productions performed by young people, including Godspell, The Big Bad Musical, and A Year with Frog and Toad. As an actor, Mr. Free has appeared on national television in commercials and on NBC’s Law & Order and Law & Order: SVU. New York audiences have seen Mr. Free Off-Broadway, creating the role of Memphis in From My Hometown both for Amas Musical Theatre and at the Gramercy Theatre, for which he was nominated for an Audelco Award. He was also seen Off-Broadway at the York Theatre in Taking A Chance On Love, and as Bubber Brown in The New Federal Theatre’s acclaimed The Conjure Man Dies, and as one of the ninjas in Happy Sunshine Kung Fu Flower at the Zipper. He is an alumnus of the New York Neo-Futurists, with whom he wrote and and performed regularly in Too Much Light Makes The Baby Go Blind (www.nynf.org), and is a 2009 It Award recipient for Outstanding Ensemble for his work with the Neos on (Not) Just A Day Like Any Other. Once a regular contributor the NPR show News & Notes, Mr. Free’s voice can now be heard on the World Premiere Recording of the musical Avenue X and numerous audio books, including the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Known World (AudioFile Magazine Earphones Award) and Say You’re One of Them (Oprah’s Book Club) and Rick Riordan’s latest, The Red Pyramid. His one-man play, Face Value, about the life of an African-American Country/Western singer, premiered at the New York International Fringe Festival and was a recipient of a grant from the Henry Street Settlement’s Playwrights’ Project in 2000 and was a finalist in the Mill Mountain Theatre New Play Competition in 2003, and his newest play, A Raisin in the Salad: Black Plays for White People, had its world premiere at the 2010 New York International Fringe Festival. He is now the Artistic Director of Educational Programming for Queens Theatre in the Park, directing, administering and evaluating their CentreStage program in 25 schools in Queens. In case all of the above is not enough, he’d like you to visit him at www.kevinrfree.com.
Kevin kicked off our Racey Play Reading Series. Read a discussion with Kevin R. Free and Michole Biancosino.