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[0:05] Donnie O'Betts: This is Donnie O'Betts, producer, director, and creator of Destination Freedom Black Radio Days and the Eclectic Podcast. Let's do our year in review. This year was very special. We started with interviews with the creative team of Theater of the Mind, including the director and creator, David Byrne. We talked to the director himself, as we call him, Scold. We talked to the legendary Marla Gibbs and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, playwright, Lynn Nottage. In addition, we had audio dramas, Cages, I Am by Kenya Fasha. We ended the year with a lot of interviews with Broadway entertainers then and now. So please take a listen to our year review on Destination Freedom Black Radio Days and the Eclectic, produced and directed by Donnie O'Betts and remixed by the one and only Reese. Take it away, Reese.

[1:01] Maurice Smith: Thanks, Donnie. It was a great year with so many special guests. Let's listen to some highlights from a few interviews. We'll start with the great David Byrne from The Talking Heads. He talks to us about his new immersive creation called Theater of the Mind, which ran at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts from August 2022 to January of 2023. So I wanted to ask you now, you've known for your love of science. And it appears that today in the world we live in, and what is society that seems to question or deny science, yet you've created this piece of immersive theater based on science. Why?

[1:45] David Byrne: Reading these books and hearing about these perceptual experiments and different things, a lot of them were telling us that what we see in the world, how we see things, hear things, smell things, is not exactly what's out there. We sort of construct reality in our heads. And then I'm hearing that no science says not exactly. We don't have the smell that dogs do. We don't have the hearing that bats do, or our reality is a reality that kind of works for us, but it's not the whole reality. So I thought that's kind of an interesting concept. Now I want to figure out how can we put this into a show? How can we experience these different kinds of phenomena that scientists have come upon, and that tell us a little bit about who we are, events that happened with your parents or your friends or co-workers, and maybe they're not exactly the way they actually happened.

Maybe they're different than what actually happened, and that you're stuck in some kind of memory, and you're saying, no, that's the way it was, that's the way it was, and then you find out maybe it's not the way it was. Maybe there's another way of looking at that, and that liberates you, that liberates you from this trap that you're in.

[3:19] Maurice Smith: Next up, we have Marla Gibbs, famous for her role as Florence Johnston on The Jeffersons. How did this all start for you, as far as entertainment is concerned?

[3:34] Marla Gibbs: We started with workshops, a workshop called Pasla, Performing Arts Society of Los Angeles, and a young lady named Talanisha, who was in the TV show Room 222 that people keep confusing with Two to Seven. And she was in it, so we wanted to be in it. So we went down, it was on Vermont, and it was a little storefront theater painted black inside, everything was black, the stage was black, the walls were black, and it was just exciting to us. So we had a teacher who was the—we were in the beginning class, so we had a teacher, and that's where we started, and we were so excited that one night after class, we just got up on that stage and stood there and said, "We're up here." And we paid three dollars for our clipboard, and that's all we paid. And it was wonderful.

[4:35] Maurice Smith: Wow. And now here's Pulitzer Prize winner and playwright, Lynn Nottage, talking about her latest creation, Clydes. You talk about this character Clyde as being sort of a wicked character. Explain that.

[4:54] Lynn Nottage: She's a very complex and funny woman, but explain that complexity of Clyde. Sure, Clyde, which is a play that premiered on Broadway, I guess a year and a half ago, and the character of Clyde, who is the owner of a roadside sandwich shop just outside of Reading, Pennsylvania, and she employs people who are formerly incarcerated, and she really runs the shop with an iron hand. When I was writing the play, I was really interested in what happens to people who are caught in that liminal space, particularly people who are formerly incarcerated, who are coming back into the world and find themselves facing all these insurmountable obstacles. And so I think that Clyde for me was really a metaphor for what we face down when we're trying to resurrect our lives, what we're down when we're trying to fully actualize ourselves.

[6:08] Maurice Smith: And here are a couple of excerpts from the drama series episodes that aired this year. First up is Cages, written by Kenya Fasha.

[6:19] Maurice Smith: Seen as an old man, he's filthy with suspenders and overalls. He was announcing a new featured freak attraction at the carnival. It's your lucky day. For one whole life, Chip, you will be able to see the freakiest of all freaks. A once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon that's been tucked away for years. Billy Bob holds on his wrist where his life chips are implanted to receive his money. Ebony holds her wrist to his in excitement. The wrist both be once payment is received. Now prepare yourself to see the most bizarre, the most odd, the most beastly looking creature you'll ever see in your entire life. Take a closer look. That's what she's here for. I've never seen anything like this. Her hair, her skin, it's dark like mocha beans. Her eyes look so deep. I can tell she has much to say.

[7:27] Maurice Smith: And then we have a little taste of I Am, also written by Kenya Fasha. Where's my boyfriend Jabari?

[7:39] Maurice Smith: Jabari is not here, but he does play a big part in us seeing our truth. If you are not willing to heal with what is holding us back, then I Am will have to force us. It's a matter of life and death. What are you doing to me? Let me go. What is this? Stop. Wait. Where are we? We have traveled back to the root of our pain, Mimi. This. This is the house I grew up in. What are we doing here? Mom.

[8:20] Maurice Smith: Yeah, it was a great year, and we hope you'll keep listening. Back to you, Donnie.

[8:25] Donnie O'Betts: Reese, thank you. Be sure to keep tuning in and share with your friends. Thanks to our sponsor, the Urban Spectrum, the Ulypian Fund of the Denver Foundation, Bonfils Stanford Foundation, and No Credits Productions LLC. Please subscribe to our podcast at Broadway Podcast Network, Spotify, Radio Public, iTunes, or wherever you get your podcasts. Follow us on Facebook at No Credits Productions LLC, Instagram, or Twitter, now known as X at DonnieBets, or The Eclectic, the Podcast. I am Donnie O'Betts. Thanks for listening.

[9:19] Donnie O'Betts: Destination Freedom Black Radio Days. Destination Radar. Thanks for listening to Destination Freedom Black Radio Days.