By SHARON EBERSON
The pioneering Freedom House Ambulance Service has garnered much-deserved attention of late, thanks to The Pitt, the HBO show that shines a spotlight on all things Pittsburgh, following the WQED documentary Freedom House Ambulance: The FIRST Responders and the 2022 book American Sirens: The Incredible Story of the Black Men Who Became America’s First Paramedics, by Kevin Hazzard.
That’s a long way of saying that it’s about time that these hidden figures of the Hill District are getting their due, which now includes Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance, the L.E. McCullough play presented by Prime Stage Theatre.
Ryan Warsing as Dr. Sofar and Amy Rematt as Dr. Caroline. (Image: Brandon Pierce)
Now onstage at the New Hazlett Theater, the new play adds another layer to the real-life Pittsburgh heroes who championed the creation of the first Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) service, at a time when the word “paramedic” and on-site medical aid were mostly unknown.
Add the frustrations of residents of Pittsburgh’s majority Black neighborhoods, where ambulances rarely made an appearance, plus the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, and Pittsburgh in the 1960s was ripe for a healthcare revolution.
A character in the play expresses the determination and resilience that led to the moment, by saying Pittsburghers carry their pain with them, but they use it as a ladder, not a crutch.
The fast-paced play is set inside the Hill District’s second Crawford Grill venue, circa 1967, which allows for musical interludes by the multitalented Willa “Katy” Cotten.
The scenic design by Robert Morris Jr., including both lights that scream “ambulance” and projections by lighting designer Jason Kmetic, in collaboration with the playwright, serves as a constant reminder of time and place.
Cast members Cotten, Cynthia Dallas, Justin Mohr, Darrin Mosley, Anne Rematt, DeVaughn Robinson and Ryan Warsing are each tasked with playing multiple characters, while often breaking the fourth wall to add details to historic references.
Warsing portrays the real-life Dr. Peter Sofar, an academician at the University of Pittsburgh, where he established an anesthesiology department and the first intensive-care medicine training program.
Warsing delivers the doctor’s heartfelt explanation of the trauma that led him to help create the EMT service: His daughter had died at age 12 from an asthmatic crisis, where on-the-scene help might have saved her.
With Dr. Nancy Caroline (Anne Rematt), he developed standards for EMT education and training for the dedicated all-Black recruits of the Freedom House, represented here by Darrin Mosley and DeVaughn Robinson. They take blood pressure, read EKGs and administer life-saving care, and they maintain good humor, even when faced with unfettered racial prejudice and distrust.
There’s gratitude, too, expressed by a deaf woman who, using ASL, dubs them “angels.”
Their contributions are shown in several scenes and told in the staggering numbers of thousands of calls for help that were answered and the lives saved. We hear of their 24-hour work ethic, and their efforts following the 1968 assassination of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose death sparked riots on the Hill.
White police officers escorted the paramedics to the scene, or rather, the Black EMT’s offered a buffer, amid the chaos in the streets.
Such real-life scenes are spoken of rather than seen. Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance is a chronological history lesson, one that will be attended by 300 students in matinee performances during its run.
Because these are mostly real-life people and places, there are moments that can reach out and grab Pittsburghers of a certain age, or those with personal stakes. The audience on Friday night included Freedom House alumni and present-day paramedics.
For me, it was the insertion of then Pittsburgh Press (later Post-Gazette) reporter Roger Stuart (Mohr), a dogged investigative reporter and former colleague who wore his empathy on his sleeve. His articles on the paramedics illuminated their efforts, but not enough to save them from being disbanded.
An unseen villain of the story is then Mayor Pete Flaherty and City Council, for unceremoniously cutting off funding for the groundbreaking paramedics. Freedom House Ambulance Service was eventually forced to disband in October 1975, and replaced by the mayor with a city-wide, primarily white, emergency service.
This ending of the service is portrayed as another blow to the vibrant Hill District community that had already been ravaged for “urban redevelopment,” starting in the 1950s.
Roger Stuart (Justin Mohr) along on their ambulance calls. (Image: Brandon Pierce)
Directed by Scott Calhoon, Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance moves smoothly from action to narration and back, in two hours, with a 15-minute intermission. Unlike the gritty, blood-and-guts medical drama seen on The Pitt, Freedom House treads relatively softly on the racism and distrust that accompanied the life-saving EMT’s. The play has more in common with the PG-rated Hidden Figures, the movie based on the Black women who overcame racism and sexism at NASA, to be the brainpower behind the first American to orbit the Earth.
When you think of how Pittsburghers take pride in the origins of the Ferris wheel, the Big Mac, the Mr. Yuk sticker and more lofty inventions, the story of the first EMT services, which had ripples effects worldwide and into the future, deserves a towering place on screens, pages and stages, and in the chronicles of the city’s greatest contributions.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Freedom House: Giving Life a Second Chance is at the home of Prime Stage, the New Hazlett Theater, 6 Allegheny Square East, North Side, through February 1, 2026. The Sunday, January 25, performance has been canceled due to snowstorm predictions. Tickets: https://primestage.com/productions/freedom-house/
Categories: Arts and Ideas, Reviews
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