Listen up to THE BATTLES.

Here are some songs from THE BATTLES. Track 1, “Aged Mighty Warrior,” has Leo attempting to determine the theme for his “Battle of Anghiari” mural. Leo makes the heroic exploits of a famed aged mercenary soldier the central theme. Track 2, “Hard Lessons Learned,” has Michelangelo offering Salai a proposition. Tracks 3 and 4 don’t need much set up. Track 5, “The Man Inside,” is Michelangelo singing to the block of marble that will become The David.

METRA, a “play with songs” written by Emily Hartford and Ned Massey, with songs by Ned Massey, takes place in a dystopian near-future devastated by climate change where wealthy elites live in “The Bubbles,” enclosed communities with the fresh air, water, and food that no longer exists on “The Outside.” The elites live lives of oblivious luxury in their exclusive sanctuary guarded by their security forces. But tonight, The Bubbles get popped. Climate revolutionaries intend to bring it all down with a combination of conspiracy, magic, myth, and music.

The show takes place in a bar on “The Outside.” The songs are sung by a chanteuse who performs at the bar, who also happens to be a wood nymph, thousands of years old. The revolutionaries utilize the magic of the wood nymph, which is tied to the myth of King Erisycthon and his daughter, Metra, from Ovid’s Metamorphosis.

In the myth, the King destroyed a sacred grove of trees, killing the tree nymphs who lived inside them, tree nymphs who were the handmaidens of the goddess Ceres. Ceres, understandably, gets pissed and sends Famine to infect the King with insatiable hunger. He sells everything for food, even his own daughter. His kingdom destroyed, alone in a barren field, the King begins to eat himself, until all that is left is a pair of clacking jaws.

Climate change is here and it’s going to get much worse. It’s here because of a patriarchal and racist capitalist system of greed and abuse, and the effects will not be felt by those primarily responsible for creating the crisis. We act now to not only mitigate the harm, but eradicate the systems of harm that created the crisis.

Listen to songs from METRA.

Envision yourself in dark, ramshackle bar in a climate-ravaged urban hell-scape, two cocktails away from oblivion. A chanteuse sings songs that can cause magical transformation, accompanied by a lone guitarist. Enjoy. Here are some songs from Metra: A Climate Revolution with Songs! Featuring Cherrye J Davis, Rebecca Ana Peña, Corinna Schulenberg, and Ned Hartford.

Track 1: Welcome Mythmakers! — The night before the revolution begins, Cori, Aglaphonos, and Sam welcome their co-conspirators.

Track 2: Metra’s Mother — Ovid left some important details out of the myth of King Erysichthon and his daughter Metra. Aglaphonos fills us in.

Track 3: King Erysicthon and the Curse of Ceres — The King cuts down a sacred forest dedicated to the goddess Ceres, killing all her tree nymphs living in the trees. Ceres gets pissed and sends Famine to pay Erysicthon a visit.

Track 4: Bechtel Man — Welcome to the World Economic Forum at Davos: where climate change panels are led by oil execs, and the best advice is how to make money off the coming apocalypse! Yay!

Track 5: Cori’s Fabulous Rebirth — Wonder how the youngest black female hedge fund owner in history becomes a motherf*cking climate revolutionary?

Tracks were recorded at MythMakers Studio in Brooklyn, NY. All songs by Ned Hartford. Tracks produced by Ned Hartford.

And visit the website to get lots more info about this show that first was produced (to rave reviews) in the fall of 2022 at The Abrons Arts Center in NYC by The Flux Theatre Ensemble, and directed by Emily Hartford!

What would you do if you thought you’d received messages from -for lack of a better term- God? To be exact, four messages over 20 years. Each one more crazy and unlikely than the next. But then they all came true. What would you do then? But when they came true, your life seemed worse than ever. What would you do then?

FOUR MESSAGES was a semi-finalist for the O’Neill Musical Theatre Summer Institute, and it’s 2013 production was nominated for two NYIT awards.

Listen up to FOUR MESSAGES.