PRESS RELEASE
July 24, 2021
Ozark Living Newspaper Theatre Company
Presents
The Theater of the Air
Episode #1: A Number the State Gave Us
(Illustration by Golden Cosmos)
With the premier of its newest venture, The Theater of the Air, Ozark Living Newspaper Theatre
Company delivers radio theatre with a punch. The Theater of the Air amplifies the scattered
voices of Arkansas and broadcasts them back to the populace. On August 15th, our inaugural
episode arrives courtesy of KABF 88.3 the Voice of the People. Episode #1 of The Theater of
the Air, entitled “A Number the State Gave Us,” is a sonic collaboration with DecARcerate, an
organization working to end mass incarceration in Arkansas through community education,
legislation, and advocacy.
The program features testimonials from individuals currently confined in the Arkansas Prison
System, dramatic reenactments of historical events from our shared living history, musical
interludes meditating on the effects of incarceration, and the spoken word of John Law a
gambler, speculator, venture capitalist, the first millionaire, and the father of slavery in the
natural state.
“A Number the State Gave Us” was created by Quadir Alin, Whit Barringer, Jamarcus Cooper,
Zachary Crowe, Sahid Farrakhan, Adam Frank, Arya Mack-Gilson, Tim Moor, Kaleem Nazeem,
Sherman Noble, Matt Patton, and Andy Vaught.
Beginning Sunday, August 15th, “A Number the State Gave Us” will air at 4pm on KABF 88.3
FM and will repeat August 22nd and 29th. Questions and requests can be made to Andy Vaught,
co-producer of The Theatre of the Air, at vaught@hendrix.edu.
Each month will see a new installment of The Theater of the Air. We will bring you the
perspectives of your neighbors from all directions. We will carry the word of our comrades in the
fields, in the classrooms, in the streets, and in the penitentiaries to fight for a better way of life in
a hostile territory where action is often solitary.
“A Number the State Gave Us” pioneers a new form of drama made collectively amongst a
group of interested, invested, and involved citizens. We live in rapidly evolving times and we
seek to provide a dramatic form that faces the ever changing future by including its audience in
the continuum of events that have led our state, our country, and our civilization to this most
precarious of presents.
Ozark Living Newspaper Theatre Company presents original, devised stories and classic
works of the stage to engage artists, audience members, and community leaders in thoughtful
discussion and effective action regarding the important issues of the day.
DecARcerate is a nonprofit working to affirm human dignity by confronting unjust systems.We
envision a world where equity, healing, and reconciliation replace systems of punishment and
oppression.
KABF 88.3 FM is a grassroots community radio station with a primary goal of attracting,
servicing and empowering low and moderate-income people.
The Ozark Living Newspaper Theater of the Air is the reverberation of veracity. The stories it
brings to you are the truths that refuse defiance. Join us as we celebrate the victories, the
survival, and the effort of those we would stand beside.
The Ozark Living Newspaper Theater of the Air brings together a wide and varied collective of
collaborators from across Arkansas. To join by lending your voice, your pen, or your news, email
vaughtao@gmail.com.
Let us gather the embers now scattered about the land and build a beacon together.
Join the Theatre of the Air today!
