Resolutely he stands,
his back against the wall,
his feet on the ground,
color coordinated.
And now, the news.
May 2024
Come to the industry reading of METRA: A Climate Revolution with Songs at Judson Church on May 22nd and 23rd, starring Broadway actors such as Tony-nom Jeannette Bayardelle, Fred Inkley, Darilyn Castillo, and many more! RSVP HERE
August 2023
Check out the new website for METRA: A Climate Revolution with Songs right here!
April 2023
After the wonderful Flux Theatre Production of METRA, A Climate Revolution With Songs last fall, things are moving towards a future production in 2024! And THE BATTLES is moving toward a developmental reading in 2024, also! Whoo-hoo!
Here are some of our wonderful reviews from the fall production of METRA:
Blogcritics - THEATER REVIEW (NYC): ‘METRA: A CLIMATE REVOLUTION PLAY WITH SONGS ‘ FROM FLUX THEATRE ENSEMBLE: https://blogcritics.org/theater-review-nyc-metra-climate-revolution-play-songs-flux-theatre/
Thinking Theater NYC - Review: Looking to Burst Some Bubbles, "Metra" Sings the Revolution: https://www.thinkingtheaternyc.com/2022/11/review-looking-to-burst-some-bubbles.html
Broadway DNA - What We’re Seeing: “Metra, A Climate Revolution Play With Songs”: https://broadwaydnablog.substack.com/p/metra
October 2022
Press for my new show METRA: A Climate Change Play with Songs presented by Flux Theatre Ensemble at Abrons Arts Center Oct 27-Nov 12! Press agent: Emily Owner PR
Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/risasarachan/2022/10/26/metra-a-play-with-music-about-the-climate-crisis-aims-to-inspire-change/?sh=482ce17b7081
Inside Climate News: https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22102022/whats-good-for-birds-is-good-for-people-and-the-planet-but-more-than-half-of-bird-species-in-the-u-s-are-in-decline/
Stage Whisper Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whisper-in-the-wings-episode-43/id1573470927?i=1000583501433
Come see the show! To make a reservation, here’s the link! https://www.fluxtheatre.org/metra-a-climate-revolution-play-with-songs/
September 2022
METRA, A Climate Revolution Play With Songs, by Emily Hartford and Ned Massey, with songs by Ned Massey, will open at the Abrons Arts Center in NYC on October 28th and close November 19th. More info in our Broadway World article!
July 2022
METRA, A Climate Revolution Play With Songs, by Emily Hartford and Ned Hartford, with songs by Ned Hartford, will premier this fall at the Abrons Arts Center in NYC, produced by the Flux Theatre Ensemble, directed by Emily Hartford.
February 2022
The December reading of METRA, A Climate Revolution Play With Songs, went great! And Flux is moving forward with a production to be mounted in Oct/Nov of 2022! Flux will be making formal announcements soon, so more news to follow on this wonderful development! Many thanks to Flux for their belief and support in this project!
I’m starting sound editing/design and composing/performing/recording/mixing the score for a new short film by the wonderful directing/writing team of Emily Hartford and Molly Powers-Gallagher. The film is as yet untitled, but it’s another thoughtful comedy I’m honored to be involved with!
November, 2021
METRA, a play written by Ned and Emily Hartford, with songs by Ned, will have it’s first staged reading (directed by Emily!) on Saturday, December 4th at 2:30 pm and 7 pm in The Great Room at South Oxford Space in Fort Greene, BK. The reading will be produced by the award-winning Flux Theatre Ensemble. The cast includes Lori Elizabeth Parquet, Corinna Schulenburg, Suzanne Darrell, Matt Cody and Ned Hartford. To make a reservation, click this link https://forms.gle/vwHdijRt3Cz2BChH9
September, 2021
Ned, and his wonderful wife, Emily Hartford, have written a play (with songs) called METRA, and the show is getting a staged reading in November by the wonderful, award-winning Flux Theatre Ensemble. More news to come! If you want to know more about this show, check out the “Writer of Musicals” page on this website!
June 22, 2021
Our film TYPE A, directed by Emily Hartford, written by Molly Powers-Gallagher (with Score, Sound Editing/Design by Ned Hartford), has been accepted to the Woods Hole Film Festival and the Adirondacks Film Festival! Whoo-hoo!
March 22, 2021
Ned’s musical, THE BATTLES, begins a week-long virtual workshop with the amazing Fiasco Theatre Company, with Noah Brody directing.
March 10, 2021
Ned will be appearing on the Jim Masters Live Show on YouTube this evening at 7 pm! Jim is a well-known entertainment journalist who is doing a long-form interview show on YouTube during the pandemic. I’ll be playing songs live and saying a bunch of things, basically using language to communicate. After a year of isolation in a pandemic, we’ll see if I remember how to do that. Here’s the link!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvAP_iuywi0
February 1, 2021
Just finished up doing the score, sound editing, and sound mixing for a really great short film called “TYPE A,” writen by Molly Powers Gallagher, directed by Emily Hartford, and starring Molly and Hui-Shan Yong. They shot it during a pandemic! And they did amazing work! Can’t wait to see how it does on the festival circuit!
January 17, 2021
I just released the second song in THE RENEWAL PROJECT, “Baby Brother Billy.” The link is https://nedhartford.bandcamp.com/track/baby-brother-billy
THE RENEWAL PROECT is a collection of songs I’ve written that I’m recording this winter at home. They are songs about getting through dark times with the hope of better days ahead.
“Baby Brother Billy,” is based on something a friend went through. I have always been in awe of the tremendous courage and humility it takes when one hits rock bottom, reaches out for help, and gets into recovery.
This winter doesn’t promise to be an easy time. These songs in THE RENEWAL PROJECT are a musical hug I’m sending out to all of us. I look forward to singing It for you in person someday soon.
January 6, 2021
Today I released a song called “Broken We Heal” on Bandcamp. https://nedhartford.bandcamp.com/track/broken-we-heal
It is the first song in a collection of songs I’m releasing this winter, THE RENEWAL PROJECT. The songs have the common theme of holding onto the hope that we can pull through dark times, and that there are better days ahead.
As I write this entry, at 7 pm, we have witnessed a group of bitter, entitled, abusive white men storm our nation’s Capital and the foundations of our very democracy. Obviously, my song release is so insignificant to this event, and to the pain and suffering so many are experiencing during this pandemic. The urging of hope and love can almost feel like it’s diminishing the depth of pain and suffering our nation is going through.
The song I released, “Broken We Heal,” has a line in it, “Can I kiss the hand that scarred me?” That line does not mean that we can let people hurt us without consequence, without an accounting. Love requires justice, equality, and fairness, or it is a hollow word.
I want unity, but we can’t have unity until the people who’ve been peddling and profiting off selling lies that led to this day recant their deceptions. There are literally millions of Americans who believe an alternate universe of pure craziness -that Barrack Obama was part of a Muslim terrorist sleeper cell, that Hillary Clinton and George Soros are part of a pedophile ring being run out of a D.C. pizza parlor, that Trump almost had the 2016 election stolen from him, and just had this election stolen from him- when that many people believe that outrageous a set of lies and are willing to overthrow our government in reaction to those lies- then there can be no unity. These lies have to be disavowed and the people who have sought to profit off them punished.
But we can’t go forward with hatred in our hearts. It will destroy us. Justice, yes. Fairness, yes. Vengeance and hatred, no. We may never win over the damaged hearts of the selfish, destructive people who so dominate our world these days. But we can’t hate them, or we will become them, and destroy any hope for a better future.
With the Senate wins in Georgia, our country has a way forward. I hope this series of songs I’ll be releasing over the coming months provides you with some of the comfort and encouragement that they have provided me.
Stay strong. Sing, dance, love. Live.
xo
N
December 2020
9/20/20
Just released a Christmas song that is a free download on my Bandcamp page! The song is called, “A Christmas Greeting From God, Creator and Destroyer of Universes, etc.” Check it out! I hope you enjoy! https://nedhartford.bandcamp.com/track/a-christmas-greeting-from-god-the-almighty-creator-and-destroyer-of-universes-etc
September 2020
9/8/2020 Work with the director of THE BATTLES, Drama Desk Nominee Noah Brody, proceeds apace. Noah, one of the Artistic Directors and founders of the great Fiasco Theatre Company, has brought his great dramaturgical skills to bear, and both Ned and Noah are thrilled at how the script and music continue to improve, working toward the day theatre is back up on the boards in NYC!
9/8/2020 Phone banking for Biden! Writing letters to help get out the vote in swing states. Let’s save democracy!
June 2020
6/28/2020 We won’t know for sure until all the absentee ballots are counted, but it looks like Jabari won! And Richie Torres and Jamaal Bowman! Lots of progressive candidates here in NYC and nationwide! Now to November!
6/21/2020 Well, what has Ned been up to during the pandemic? He’s been phone banking voters in his district to convince them to cast their ballot for Jabari Brisport for State Senate and Phara Souffrant Forrest for State Assembly in the upcoming primary! They are both DSA candidates. They will fight for tenant’s rights (we need people in state government who will fight the evictions that are soon about to start for people unable to pay rent because of COVID), the New York State Health Act (so that people don’t go broke going to the hospital if they get COVID), and the Green New Deal (to make sure we limit the incredible suffering that lies ahead due to climate change), and fight the incredible socio-economic and racial inequities we face in our city, country, and world. We need big change, and that change is going to come from the grassroots up. Forward!
