I CARRY YOUR HEART WITH ME
by Jennifer Blackmer
directed by Lisa Adler
WINNER OF THE PRESTIGIOUS
2024 STEINBERG/ATCA AMERICAN THEATRE CRITICS New Play Citation
Esther, a stenographer inside a top-secret Vietnam-era debriefing room, has a picture perfect world until she encounters an airman whose story quite literally changes her life. As she captures the stories of soldiers freshly back from the front lines, Esther finds herself smack dab in the middle of a troubling investigation. With plenty of twists and turns along the way, this tour-de-force starring renowned Atlanta actor Carolyn Cook is a taut, suspenseful mystery that packs a real emotional wallop.
Performance Dates
MAR 14-APR 5, 2025
Press Opening: March 21
Show Times
Wednesday 3/19 8pm; 3/26 & 4/2 2pm
Thursday, Friday 8:00 PM
Saturday 3PM and 8PM
Sunday 5PM
TICKETS: Buy Online or call 404-584-7450. Box office hours are 12-5 Tuesday through Saturday.
Show Run Time
90 minutes, with no intermission
General Admission
Tickets start at $30 on Wednesdays & Thursdays, $35 for Friday nights, Saturday nights, and weekend matinees. Reserve now for best prices! Prices will increase as the run continues.
Student tickets available for $15. Contact our box office to place an order.
Bring your neighbors!
Group pricing is available for parties of 10+. Groups of 10-24 receive $3 off the general admission ticket price. Groups of 25+ receive $5 off the general admission ticket price. Call 404.523.1477 x100 or e-mail groups@horizontheatre.com for more information.
Ticket prices are subject to change. Buy early for best pricing. Internet convenience fee added to all online orders. No refunds, exchanges, or late seating. Cannot combine discount offers.
TICKETS: Buy Online or call 404-584-7450. Box office hours are 12-5 Tuesday through Saturday.
Cast & Creatives
Directed by LISA ADLER
Featuring CAROLYN COOK
Scenic Designers: ISABEL & MORIAH CURLEY-CLAY
Costume Designer: CARRIE GIGLIO
Lighting Designer: MARY PARKER
Projection Designer: VICTORIA NATION
Sound Designer: WHITNEY LEONARD
Stage Manager: LEXI McKAY*
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association
“…profoundly and unabashedly human…a grown-up, real life story of laughter, pain, choice, loss, and realization…a story that bridges two wars…a story about family, honor, and duty, and the choices we make when we don’t have all the answers. Beautiful, Compelling and Real.”
-Angels Theatre Company
About the Play and Production
Atlanta favorite Carolyn Cook (Suzi Award for Best Actress for Horizon’s Time Stands Still, and Best Supporting Actress forHorizon’s Citizens Market, also the solo show The Syringa Tree) controls the stage as Esther Shannon, looking back on her formative time in her early 20s as a government stenographer for the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. Raised in a military family, Esther is now the new girl and best typist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base when she meets attractive officer Andy, who wines and dines her. Like her mother and grandmother before her, she seems to be on the path to become a military wife and mother. But longing to make her father proud and to make a bigger difference, she considers taking her skills to Vietnam. Andy persuades her to stay stateside by pulling strings to get her an important job on the base with top-security clearance. Tasked with transcribing debriefings of POWs and non-coms returning from the front lines, she records their fractured memories of the war which seep into her and change her perspective on the world. Then Esther encounters a POW helicopter pilot whose story has a deep impact on her, ultimately causing a clash with her official duties and complicating her life. As she becomes entangled in an investigation, Esther grapples with her future in a suspenseful and emotionally charged journey.
The play is inspired by playwright Jennifer Blackmer’s mother’s real-life experiences as a young stenographer with a similar job on this same base during the Vietnam war. A blend of fact and fiction, Blackmer’s mother revealed some of her experiences to her daughter before she passed away suddenly in her early 60s, leaving the playwright to put together the pieces and imagine the rest of her story.
Jennifer Blackmer’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and across the country, and she serves as Professor of Theatre and Executive Director of the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry at Ball State University. Blackmer was in residence at Horizon in 2023 as one of the lead mentors in Horizon’s New South Young Playwrights Festival.
Directed by Horizon Theatre’s Co-Artistic Director Lisa Adler, the production reunites her with one of her favorite collaborators, actor Carolyn Cook. Adler has directed Cook in many productions over the past three decades, including her acclaimed performance in the solo play The Syringa Tree which played at Horizon and toured venues in the Southeast and her award-winning performances in Time Stands Still and Skylight.
Production Photos
