Actress Dee Freeman will have a month-long run of her play, “Poison Gun,” which tells the story of an event from her Louisiana childhood, at the Hudson Theater in Los Angeles in April 2025. The show will run for four weekends, with 8 PM performances on Saturdays and 3 PM performances on Sundays.
The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement, a time when white supremacy, cross burnings, and lynching were a way of life for poor Black people living in the South. Juliette Jeffers will direct, and videographer-editor Peter Hermes will provide film elements to enhance the production.
Freeman’s granddaddy was a farmer and a bootlegger—a very successful bootlegger. He was so successful that he branched out and became the local loan shark for anyone who needed money. Two things about her granddaddy were widely known: he was legally blind, and he didn’t trust banks. So, her granddaddy hid all of his money in coffee cans and buried them around his farm. Freeman knew this because she helped him. She was his eyes and his accountant. To this day, she remembers where each coffee can was buried and exactly how much was inside.
When both of her grandparents were murdered and their house was burned to the ground to cover up the crime, it set a series of events in motion that changed Freeman’s life forever. For many, the question of who killed her grandparents remains a mystery to this day.
Told through Freeman’s naïve, young eyes, “Poison Gun” recounts the story of her grandparents’ murder, the investigation, the cat-and-mouse game she had to play with a corrupt white police officer who was searching for her granddaddy’s hidden money, and the eventual conviction that followed.
When asked about the show, Freeman says, “I am going to provide a glorious evening of entertainment to audiences that will keep them on the edge of their seats while they try to guess who’s behind the double murder that changed my world.”
Dee Freeman was born in Louisiana and raised in Los Angeles, CA. After high school, she entered the United States Marine Corps on a dare and left six years later as a Sergeant. She then lived in Japan, where she worked for an all-Japanese radio station, FM Aomori, as a disc jockey. Freeman has been a working actress for more than two decades in theater, television, and film, performing in over 40 stage productions, beginning with Shear Madness at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. She has won numerous awards, including a 2013 ISA Award for Best Supporting Actress. Freeman has also been nominated twice for the NAACP Image Award—first for Homegirl at the Court Theater in Los Angeles, CA, and then for The Last Street Play at the Colsac Theater in Los Angeles, CA.
Juliette Jeffers is an award-winning Caribbean-American actor, playwright, producer, solo show coach, and director. On screen, she has appeared in 22 films, 42 television shows, and over 65 national commercials. She currently has a recurring role in Tulsa King starring Sylvester Stallone and will soon be seen in another recurring role in Shondaland’s The Residence on Netflix.
Jeffers has produced several theater productions in New York and Los Angeles. She has written five solo plays and performed them throughout the U.S. and the Caribbean. As a coach, she has helped develop and/or directed over 80 solo shows.
Peter Hermes has been a producer, director, and cinematographer for over 20 years. He has worked on large-scale productions for companies such as Disney and Warner Bros., as well as independently produced feature films, documentaries, and advertisements. Hermes and Freeman have collaborated for the past 12 years on projects ranging from web series to narrative films to live theater.
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