With a plot ripped straight from recent national headlines, playwright Eric Mansfield explores the red hot political topic of book banning in schools.

What if efforts to keep students from reading certain books, goes too far? What if students rise up to defend a brave teacher who has been allowing her students to read material on the state’s new official “banned books” list?

Find out when “Trial By Fire” opens Thursday, January 18, 2024, at Firestone High School in Akron.

Additional performances will be held at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, January 19, and at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. on Saturday, January 20, and at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday, January 21. Tickets are on sale now at Akron.Booktix.com. All seats are general admission, and cost $10.00. 

A pre-show discussion will be held at 6:15 p.m. on Thursday, January 18, 2024, in the school’s Learning Resource Center. This informal chat is free and open to the public and will feature cast members as well as members of the production team. Patrons may attend the discussion even if they are attending the show on a different night.

Playwright Eric Mansfield is an Emmy Award-Winning TV Journalist, retired U.S. Army Officer, current PR professional, and Dramatist Guild member based in Akron, Ohio. He is continuing his passion for storytelling through playwriting and other creative outlets. 

Eric considers himself a modern dramatist and saw the growing debate over banning books in America as a topic worth exploring on the stage. 

"Trial by Fire" was first drafted during Eric’s graduate work with the NEOMFA program at Kent State University and further developed during a summer workshop with the Millennial Theatre Project in Akron. Firestone Theatre is producing the world premiere of this play.

Playwright, Eric Mansfield 

The Archbishop Hoban Knights are going for another football state title! They'll play the Massillon Tigers at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium Thursday night. Coach Tim Tyrell of the Hoban Knights joined the Ray Horner Morning Show to talk about the matchup.

Akron Police Chief Steve Mylett has released the results of an internal investigation into the Jayland Walker shooting, which exonerates the officers of any wrongdoing in the incident which made national headlines, and resulted in months of civil unrest in Akron; some of it violent.

Walker, who was black, was shot on June 2, 2022, following a high speed chase along the highway, during which he shot at police.

At the time; Police claimed that they were acting in self defense, because he made a gesture they interpreted as threatening. It wasn't until after he was dead, that they discovered his gun was still in his car, and that when he turned toward police and made the cross-body gesture they thought meant he was going to shoot at them; he was actually unarmed.

Since that time, the the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation looked into the incident, and their findings were presented to a Grand Jury in Summit County, which last April declined to return criminal indictments against any of the eight officers involved.

In addition, attorneys for the Walker family have filed a $25 million dollar civil lawsuit against the City of Akron, and they have asked the US Departent of Justice to look into their claims of police excessive use of force and civil rights violations.

Mylett concludes: "While certainly tragic, after having reviewed the BCI investigation and Lt. Lieke’s investigation, and the City’s policy, similar to the Special Grand Jury, I find that that the use of deadly force was objectively reasonable and the officers complied with the use of force policy. As I already stated, this was a very dynamic, dangerous and fluid event and all officers were focused on safely apprehending the fleeing suspect and when presented with a reasonably perceived life-threatening danger, acted to protect themselves and their fellow officers."

You can read the entire Executive Summary, below:

Tim Stried, Director of Media Relations with OHSAA, joined the Ray Horner Morning Show. The Football State Championships kick off Thursday at the Tom Benson Hall of Fame Stadium in Canton. Tim talked about the teams, matchups, and keeping the playoffs in Canton.