“Black Women Speak initiative aims to give voice to real stories seldom told in theater”

ALEXIS HAUK
OCTOBER 28, 2021

Horizon Theatre Company kicks off an innovative initiative, the New Georgia Woman Project: Black Women Speak, this weekend. This “Fall First Look” at the project offers audiences, both in person and over Zoom, the opportunity to not only watch stories forged from real conversations but also the chance to meet and discuss the work with the artists driving it.

Black Women Speak is the brainchild of Horizon Associate Artistic Producer Marguerite Hannah, who said the idea grew out of the dramatic collision of different ideas accelerated by the events of 2020.

Horizon Theatre Associate Artistic Producer Marguerite Hannah had the seed of an idea that evolved into the New Georgia Woman Project: Black Women Speak.

Hannah, who serves on the boards for Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Alliance Theatre, Arena Stage and others, said she kept having conversations early in the pandemic with fellow arts professionals about whether the arts are essential. This fed into her gnawing concern about how the arts could possibly be so if art-makers no longer knew their own audiences and communities well, she said.

And then there was the fact that not enough stories about Black women were being told on stage — something that Hannah had experienced firsthand for 35 years as an actor, producer and director.

“For me, it was important not only to expand the theatrical canon of plays about and by Black women but to hear from everyday Black women,” she said. “Right now, we are all in the shadow of our sisters that are at the forefront of changing the world or holding back the walls of the dams. But it was also, ‘What are women like me thinking? The ones that aren’t being written up and profiled on MSNBC. What are we thinking, what are we feeling?’

To develop the Black Women Speak plays, Horizon commissioned nine playwrights — four relatively established writers and five emerging talents — and gathered more than 150 Black women from metro Atlanta and across the South to join a series of small group conversations. Hannah said that this turned into 25-plus two-hour “Coffee Chats” over Zoom since the kickoff in June.

The conversations would begin with prompts, with topics ranging from travel, voting, religion, or even more specific questions such as one about the fictional African country from Marvel Comics: “If Wakanda were a real place, what part of it would you want?”

Hannah carefully organized each session to keep them small and intimate, around six to 12 participants on average. The playwrights often would join, but also could watch the recordings afterwards. The space they fostered together throughout the process has been described as safe, open and inclusive. And at times, in ways that were sometimes surprising to Hannah, it sparked catharsis.

“At the end of the chat one night, this woman said, ‘This has been so good I don’t think I need to go to therapy,’” she recalled. “The conversations were able to celebrate who you are but also talk about traveling, taking a nap, having permission to say no.”

From these Coffee Chats, the nine playwrights are creating new scripts, featuring dynamic Black women characters, in a wide variety of genres and formats. The chats will continue into 2022 and, as part of the project, Horizon will nurture the plays toward full-fledged production over the next five years. 

The four established playwrights who will have scenes showcased at the “First Look” are Candrice Jones (The Golden Hours), AriDy Nox (Homegirls), A’ndrea J. Wilson (Lead Me Home) and Shay Youngblood (Boss Black Ladies and Tender-hearted Girls).

“I was jazzed about the idea of creating a show in deep concert with Black women,” said New York playwright AriDy Nox.

A New York City resident who grew up in Stone Mountain and earned her bachelor’s degree at Spelman College, Nox said that her ties to the South and specifically Atlanta continue to inform her work as a writer. That’s a factor in why she felt drawn to this project.

“The real insight that comes from listening to Black women within our particular social context has always been a huge underlying concept of my plays,” she said. “I was jazzed about the idea of creating a show in deep concert with Black women about what does it mean to return to our roots and for playwrights to be amplifiers and megaphones for the community.”

Gravitating toward magical realism and science fiction, Nox has penned works including a “historical reimagining” of the life of Sally Hemmings, Black Girl in Paris (2020), and the “afrofuturist ecopocalypse musical” Metropolis (2019). “Weird is a good descriptor of most of the things I write,” said the Tisch School of the Performing Arts at NYU graduate.

Shay Youngblood, whose playwrighting credits include Shaking the Mess Out of Misery, Talking Bones and Amazing Grace, calls her Boss Ladies and Tender-hearted Girls a “love letter to all Black women.

“I want people to come to this play and walk away feeling new ways of looking at this present moment and the future,” Youngblood said. “I want them to laugh and laugh so hard, they cry. I want them to experience some of the emotions that these women inspired in me.”

The casts for each show include some newer performers along with Atlanta favorites, including Cynthia D. Barker and Enoch King. The writers will workshop their plays in November and December before moving into full readings in January and February.

Along with that initial core of four writers,Horizon also has formed an Emerging Playwrights Collective that includes five Atlanta-based playwrights, Tramaine Brathwaite, Amina McIntyre, Chiwuzo Ife Okwumabua, Kelundra Smith and Dana Stringer. These writers will have their plays read in summer 2022.

Both cohorts will have full readings next year for theaters that are members of the National New Play Network, with the aim of landing a full-scale production for each of the nine new plays.

“First Look” performances will take place in person at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Alpharetta Arts Center and November 5-7 at Horizon Theatre. Each night will also be livestreamed on Zoom. In-person and virtual tickets are free and available here. COVID policies for the theater can be found here.

A Groundbreaking Project Amplifying the Stories and Voices of Black Women 

(Atlanta, GA) – Horizon Theatre Company announces the launch of the nationally recognized New Georgia Woman Project: Black Women Speak (BWS) program to develop plays that will amplify the voices of African-American women.  BWS is a groundbreaking initiative to create works of and by Black women and for all, inspired by conversations with real Black women of Georgia.  Horizon through Black Women Speak has commissioned a cohort of nine Black female playwrights to create new plays to bring to the stage the stories, lives, and concerns of Black women.  Black Women Speak is the recipient of the National New Play Network (NNPN) inaugural Bridge Program funding awarded to only 18 theaters in the US and an innovation grant from the National Alliance for Musical Theatre.

One year after America’s latest period of social reckoning, the BWS initiative seeks to explore the question: What are Black women thinking, feeling, and doing now? 

Led by Horizon’s Associate Artistic Producer Marguerite Hannah, Horizon’s BWS team has gathered to date over 150 Black women in and from the Atlanta metro area and across the south to join Horizon for a series of small group conversations or Coffee Chats.  Conducted via Zoom, Coffee Chats have brought together Black women to meet, share life stories, engage, and grow in community with one another. They include women from various backgrounds, including career professionals and business owners, physicians, educators, community activists, stay-at mothers, and retirees. In turn, these chats are inspiring nine playwrights to create new scripts featuring dynamic Black female characters to expand the canon of work by Black women writers. Through this project, Horizon aims to seed plays that will be produced on our stage over the next five years, beginning in 2023. 

Though these plays will be based on the thoughts and feelings of Black women in Atlanta and across Georgia, the goal is to create works that resonate with Black women nationwide and with audiences of all genders and races.  These powerful stories will be developed by and grounded in the cultures of Black women. This increased canon of work by female playwrights of color will positively impact audiences, the American theatre, and the world by expanding the narrative of Black voices.  We will also provide artistic opportunities for BIPOC actors and creative teams as these scripts continue to develop into full productions. 

The BWS Playwright Artists Cohort of four playwrights developing plays for Black Women Speak includes: Candrice Jones, AriDy Nox, A’ndrea J. Wilson, and Shay Youngblood. The BWS Emerging Playwrights Collective of five playwrights includes Tramaine Brathwaite, Amina McIntyre, Chiwuzo Ife Okwumabua, Kelundra Smith, Dana Stringer (biographies for each playwright are listed below).

The power of the BWS project is best exemplified by the words of Associate Artistic Producer Marguerite Hannah: The past, present, and future of Black America cannot be told without referencing Atlanta and its people. We have political power, culture, wealth, higher education, and a proud history as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement. The cultural upheaval of 2020 has stirred many powerful images of Black women and their impact on the landscape of America. We must not miss the opportunity to use our art to give voice to these times.

Horizon Co-Artistic/Producing Director, Lisa Adler shares: Our goal through this project is to develop new relationships with artists and audiences who will have an ongoing, long-term connection with Horizon and the BWS project. We hope and believe that these relationships will also generate new connections for Horizon Theatre, helping to create a more diverse and equitable organization on all levels.

Horizon has invited Black women from across Georgia to participate in our Coffee Chats, beginning with our audiences and branching out from there.   We are honored to partner with the City of Alpharetta and Alpharetta Arts Center to reach audiences in the North Fulton area for Coffee Chats and with upcoming readings.   

Readings of excerpts from the works in development for Black Women Speak will be held virtually and in person at the Alpharetta Arts Center October 29-30, 2021 and at Horizon November 5-7, 2021.   More details and reservation/watch information will be announced in October.  Development and public readings of the BWS full-length plays will begin in 2022, and production of selected BWS plays will begin as part of Horizon’s 39^th season in 2023.

Anyone nationwide interested in the project is encouraged to sign up to receive updates by filling out the first page of our BWS survey.  Black women of Georgia can fill out as much of the survey as they like and request to join us for a Coffee Chat:  https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/bwsparticipants

Or visit the Black Women Speak page on the Horizon Theatre website for more information and regular updates: https://www.horizontheatre.com/black-women-speak/

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BLACK WOMEN SPEAK PLAYWRIGHT ARTISTS COHORT

Candrice Jones is a Steinberg awarded playwright from Dermott, Arkansas. Candrice’s artistic mission is to write love letters for and to women of the American South. A VONA Playwriting alum and CalArts Critical Studies MFA recipient, she has been a resident fellow at Ground Floor housed by the Berkeley Rep, the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, and MacDowell’s Colony of the Arts. She is scheduled to be a resident playwright at Djerassi’s Colony of the Arts in the fall of 2022. Candrice has received the Many Voices  (2020) and Jerome Fellowship (2021) from The Playwrights’ Center . Her play, FLEX, was developed at VONA, Ground Floor, the Bay Area Playwrights’ Festival, and was scheduled to premiere at Actors Theater of Louisville’s Humana Festival of New American Plays, but was cancelled due to COVID. In the 2020-21 season, Candrice received virtual commissions from People’s Light Theater (Leaving Teaching) and Actors Theater of Louisville (Beyond the Crossroads), as well as reading opportunities from Theatrical Outfit, National New Play Network, and San Francisco Playhouse. Recently, Candrice’s full length play, A Medusa Thread, received a reading in UC Santa Barbara’s BIPOC Reading Series where it will go on to receive a preview production scheduled in spring of 2022.  Currently, Candrice excited about opportunities she has received from Virginia’s Signature Theater to collaborate with composer Nolan Williams as well as upcoming opportunities with Horizon Theatre’s Black Women Speak playwriting lab, and Orchard Project’s 2021 Episodic Lab. In May 2021, she took on the role of Director of New Programs at The Arkansas Repertory Theater in Little Rock, AR where she is in the midst of creating opportunities for playwrights who focus on the American South.

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AriDy Nox is a multi-disciplinary Black femme storyteller and social activist with a variety of forward-thinking creative works under her/their belt including the historical reimagining of the life of Sally Hemmings Black Girl in Paris (2020), the ancestral reckoning play A Walless Church (2019), the afrofuturist ecopocalypse musical Metropolis (2019), and many others. AriDy writes with a fervent belief that creating a future in which marginalized peoples are free requires a radical imagination. 

Their tales are offerings intended to function as small parts of an ancient, expansive, awe-inspiring tradition of world-shaping, created by and for black femmes. As a graduate of the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at Tisch School of the Performing Arts at NYU and a beneficiary of the Emerging Writer’s Group at the Public Theatre, she has been inordinately privileged to share the workings of her imagination among a vast array of inspiring and supportive artists of various radical backgrounds throughout the city. 

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A’ndrea J. Wilson, Ph.D. is a multi-medium creative writer, educator, and speaker. She integrates her clinical background, interest in interpersonal/intrapersonal development, and love for the African-American community with storytelling. A’ndrea holds a B.S. in Psychology, a M.S. in Counseling Psychology; an MFA in Dramatic Writing, and a Ph.D. in Global Leadership.

A’ndrea works has been nominated for the Kennedy Center’s Graduate Playwrights Workshop, and selected for readings at the National Black Theatre Festival. An alumnus of the Savannah College of Art and Design, A’ndrea was the recipient of a 2017-2018 Alumni Atelier Award/Ambassadorship, a quarter-long writing residency. A’ndrea is also the Braida Endowed Chair of Creative Writing, and the Director of Diversity and Inclusion Initiatives at Grand View University. She teaches English, Creative Writing, and Theatre courses. 

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Shay Youngblood is a writer, visual artist, and educator. She is the author of several novels including Black Girl in Paris, collections of short stories and numerous essays. Her published plays including Shaking the Mess Out of Misery, Talking Bones and Amazing Grace, a stage adaptation of a children’s book (all produced by Horizon), have been widely produced and her short stories have been performed at Symphony Space and recorded for NPR’s Selected Shorts. In 2021 she was appointed Commissioner to the Japan U.S. Friendship Commission and serves as a board member of Yaddo artists’ community. Her current projects include an illustrated children’s books, a super hero graphic novel collaboration, a radio play and The Architecture of Soul Sounda multi-media performance work about architecture, memory and the environment inspired by research in Japan, China and the U.S. 

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BLACK WOMEN SPEAK EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS COLLECTIVE

Tramaine Brathwaite is a Guyanese-American playwright and writes about topics that are honest, uncomfortable, and sometimes taboo. She believes that life is a play waiting to happen…just write. Some of her written plays include: Unnerving Stains, Enigma, Last Train to Glen Echo, Point…Blank…Period!, and Count It All Joy. She also wrote and produced a short film entitled Unheard. Tramaine was a 2015-2016 Horizon Theatre Company Apprentice, 2016-2017 Working Title Playwrights Rhame Scholarship recipient, a 2017-2018 Atlanta Women in Theatre Mentorship recipient, and is a member of The Dramatist Guild.  In 2017, Tramaine was published in The Louisville Review No. 81. She holds a B.S. in Business from the University of Maryland College Park and a Masters in Arts Management from Carnegie Mellon University. She uses her experiences and writes pieces that speak to the realities around her. Tramaine is a Maryland native residing in Hampton, GA.

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Amina McIntyre is a playwright from Atlanta, GA, who has had productions and readings of her plays with Working Title Playwrights at OnStage Atlanta, TipMyCup Productions at the Roy Arias Theater in New York, Wabash College, Colby College, Lenoir-Rhyne University, Spalding University, Indiana Theater Association ITWorks 2008, West Side Community CME Church, Sabrina McKenzie Ministries’ EPIC Women’s Conference, Lenoir-Rhyne University and the Hickory Museum of Art. Amina received a BA in Anthropology at Colby College, a MA in African American and African Diaspora Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington, a MFA in Creative Writing from Spalding University and a MTS from Emory University. She is a member of Working Title Playwrights, an Atlanta-based play development company, and Managing Director of Karibu Performing Arts, LLC/Songs of Karibu. Recently she presented her play All’s Fair in Jewels and Dresses at the Fort Wayne Fringe Festival and she was an invited playwright for the Atlanta One Minute Play Festival.

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Chiwuzo Ife Okwumabua (Chi Ife) has over ten years of experience in arts administration and the performing arts. She has worked as a show producer, production manager, lyricist, and actress for various productions nationally and internationally. As a producer, she is passionate about presenting innovative bodies of work that empower and create social change. As a lyricist and writer, her mission is to create original work that is thought-provoking, elevates audiences to a higher state of consciousness, and motivates people to live their best life. The original work that she creates is influenced by West African and Black American culture. Ife is the creator, songwriter, and co-writer of A Song for Adaeze, an original Afro-Futurism musical production. Presentations of Adaeze have been featured at The Atlanta Black Theater Festival, Art on the Beltline, Push Through Arts Festival, and will be a part of the 2022 Atlanta Musical Theater Festival.

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Kelundra Smith is a theatre critic, arts journalist, and playwright whose mission is to connect people to cultural experiences and each other. Her work has been published in: The New York Times, Food & Wine, American Theatre Magazine, Bitter Southerner, TDF Stages, ArtsATL, Atlanta Magazine, and many other publications. She holds a bachelor’s degrees in magazine journalism and theatre from the University of Georgia and her master’s degree from the Goldring Arts Journalism program at Syracuse University.

Kelundra is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Theatre Critics Association, where she serves on the executive committee and the equity, diversity & inclusion committee. She has been a fellow at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre Center’s National Critics Institute and guest critic at the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival. Today, she primarily reviews plays by and about diverse people from marginalized communities and writes articles about artistic works created by women and people of color.

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Dana L. Stringer is a playwright, poet, screenwriter, and writing instructor with an MA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is an adjunct creative writing instructor in the Inspiration2Publication program at Antioch University Online. Dana has served as a guest playwright and judge for the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival and serves currently as the Artist-in-Residence at Out of Hand Theater. 

Her recent play, We the Village, was selected for Theatrical Outfit’s Made in Atlanta new play development program and the Unexpected Play Festival (2020), as well as Working Title Playwright’s First Light Series (2018). Dana’s work have been presented by Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Billie Holiday Theatre, Black Theatre Network, Vanguard Repertory Company, Ain’t I a Woman Playfest, Blue Pearl Theatrics, National Black Theatre Festival, Fade to Black Play Festival, and MoJo Fest, amongst other companies. She is a member of the Dramatist Guild and Working Title Playwrights.

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Horizon Associate Artistic Producer Marguerite Hannah will be the lead artist on the project. She is a Black female, Producer, director, and actor with over 30 years in the industry and 15 years at Horizon. She has been in a leadership role at Horizon for 15 years, serving as business manager first, director of the Horizon Apprentice Company, and now director and Producer. She began her 30-year professional acting career as an actor at Horizon. She is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., another “Black Mecca.” In addition to her work at Horizon,  Marguerite Hannah is also working to further equity in the theatre industry through leadership positions with the National New Play Network (where she serves as the current Board Secretary) and the National Alliance for Musical Theatre (where she serves on the Board and Co-Chair of the NAMT Festival)

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Horizon Theatre Company connects people, inspires hope, and promotes positive change through the stories of our times. We produce professional area and world premieres of smart, funny, and provocative contemporary plays. We also develop the next generation of diverse artists and audiences. We are currently producing online theatre and special events through our new “Horizon at Home” program, which can be found at horizontheatre.com/horizon-at-home. For more information about Horizon Theatre Company, call 404.584.7450, email boxoffice@horizontheatre.com, or visit horizontheatre.com.

Major funding is provided bythe City of Atlanta Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners and Fulton County Arts and Culture, the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, The Shubert Foundation, The Community Foundation of Greater Atlanta, and Bloomberg Philanthropies. Horizon is also supported in part by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations from the Georgia General Assembly. GCA is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. We are grateful for our play and program corporate sponsors: Warner Media; Macy’s; the National Alliance of Musical Theatres; and the National New Play Network. 

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MEDIA:  Click here for images to go with this release. 

For more information and to set up interviews, please contact Elizabeth Hodges at elizabeth@horizontheatre.com.

Watch some of your favorite Horizon artists celebrate our planet and its future!
Experience a dozen short plays and scenes from local and national writers whose stories and styles are as diverse as their settings.

From RuPaul’s fracking ranch in Wyoming to a dreamworld of talking trees,
go on a series of adventures with over 20 characters straight from your computer.
This show was recorded with a live Zoom audience on May 13, 2021 at 8pm.

You’re sure to leave this virtual live performance full of theatrical Love for our Earth!

Thank you to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution for your coverage of the Horizon Theatre Company Young Playwrights Festival held virtually the week of May 26, 2021.

We are proud of these college-aged students who participated in an intensive week-long training workshop for some of the country’s most promising playwrights and storytellers. The workshop culminated in professional actors performing the short plays, with each show streamed online by Horizon. We’re especially proud of Chayton Pabich Danyla, Yazmeen Mayes, and Kalani Washington for being the faces of this great article!

ATLANTA (September 2019) – Horizon Theatre Company is continuing its outstanding 35^th Anniversary Season with one of the most critically acclaimed plays of the past decade, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Winner of 7 Olivier Awards and 5 Tony Awards including ‘Best Play,’ the show brings Mark Haddon’s beloved best-selling novel to thrilling life on stage, adapted by two-time Olivier Award-winning playwright Simon Stephens.  Horizon Theatre Company’s Atlanta premiere starts performances September 20, 2019 (Press Opening September 27, 2019) and runs until October 27, 2019 at Horizon Theatre in Little Five Points/Inman Park (1083 Austin Avenue N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307)  Atlanta. This show is a co-production between Horizon Theatre Company and Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville, Georgia. This production will move to Aurora for a run from January 9 through February 9, 2020. The play is sponsored in part by The Marcus Autism Center, a subsidiary of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Osiason Educational Foundation.

Horizon Co-Artistic Director Lisa Adler and Aurora Associate Artistic Director Justin Anderson co-direct the play along with guest artist movement director Roger Ellis (movement professor, Northwestern University).  “The production is highly theatrical – using choreography, the actors’ imagination, projections, lights and sound to create Christopher’s very different world from his perspective,” said Adler.  “The ensemble of eight actors creates Christopher’s environments and all of the people and places he encounters in his incredible journey.  It’s part mystery/detective story, part whimsical peek into a young man’s mind and part suspenseful thriller.”   

Tenacious and intelligent, Christopher is an autistic teenager who’s better at solving equations than navigating a world that’s stubbornly out of sync with how his mind works. After being wrongly accused of murdering his neighbor’s dog, he resolves to find the real culprit. But, when his investigation uncovers painful truths about his family, he dares to strike out on his own, embarking on a thrilling adventure that turns his whole world upside down.

Playwright Simon Stephens’ stage adaptation of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time won the 2013 Olivier Award and the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play. He is an artistic associate at the Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London and is an acclaimed writer whose plays have been produced in London, New York and around the world. Mark Haddon‘s novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time was published in 2003 and was the winner of more than 17 literary awards and became a New York Times bestseller. He has written extensively for both adults and children as well as for BBC Television.

ABOUT MARCUS AUTISM CENTER

Marcus Autism Center is maximizing the potential of children with autism today and transforming the nature of autism for future generations. As one of the largest autism centers in the U.S. and one of only five National Institutes of Health (NIH) Autism Centers of Excellence, Marcus Autism Center offers families access to the latest research, comprehensive testing and science-based treatments.

What started as an act of compassion for local children with autism by Bernie Marcus, is today one of the country’s largest clinical centers for pediatric autism. After realizing the difference the Marcus Autism Center was making for kids with autism, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta saw potential to combine efforts to provide top-quality healthcare to all children. In 2008, Marcus Autism Center became a part of Children’s. When it became clear that the transformative work being done should be shared nation- and even worldwide, Children’s with collaboration from Emory University, helped make that a reality.

Marcus Autism Center is the comprehensive resource for children with autism, and the only place poised to change autism for kids today and into the future. Marcus goes beyond the center’s doors to share research and train providers worldwide so that all kids with autism live happier, healthier lives.

A Visit From Sweet Water Taste’s Playwright, Gloria Bond Clunie

Horizon Theatre Company’s production of Sweet Water Taste opened on July 12th to audience acclaim and critical kudos.  We were lucky enough to have the show’s playwright, Gloria Bond Clunie, with us for the opening weekend. Playwright Gloria Bond Clunie was inspired to write Sweet Water Taste after reading an article in Time Magazine about Jefferson & Hemings. While the play is set in modern day, it is not hard to see the connection.  Originally from North Carolina, Clunie set Sweet Water Taste there.

W. E. B. Dubois declared that the most difficult question of the 20^th century is the color line! Even as we slip into the twenty-first century, this question still begs to be addressed. Though integration in some arenas is evident, the vestiges of racism still lurk under the trappings of a legally desegregated society.

As cities explode over which monuments should stand or fall, we wonder when the next “Charlottesville” will erupt. We ask ourselves, “Are ‘both sides’ really to blame?” In this “Post- Obama Era,” why are some outraged when NFL players drop a knee with Kaepernick? What are the unspoken thoughts when two African-American sisters compete at Wimbledon? Are there times when integration is inappropriate? Should all doors swing wide? Should some remain closed? In 2019, why do descendants of Thomas Jefferson still refuse burial to descendants of Sally Hemings’ in the ‘family graveyard’ at Monticello?

Are we truly brothers and sisters under the skin?

As we become a more homogenous, yet diverse society, these are subtle issues we must continue to reexamine as new generations view icons like Dubois and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as historical figures instead of living leaders. When addressing such serious issues, perhaps if we sometimes open our mouths to laugh, we might open our hearts to a wider understanding of humanity and hopefully discover unique solutions to the challenges we face in our future.

Peace! Joy! Power! Blessings!

-Gloria Bond Clunie“

Gloria Bond Clunie is an award-winning playwright, director and educator. Clunie is a founding member of the Playwriting Ensemble at Chicago’s Regional Tony Award winning Victory Gardens Theater where her plays North Star, Living Green and Shoes premiered. She is also the founding Artistic Director of Evanston’s Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre. Other plays include SMOKE, Malindy, Sing!, Buck Naked, DRIP, Merry Kwanzaa, Mercy Rising and QUARK. Her plays have been workshopped and produced in a variety of theaters including Victory Gardens Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, ETA, Alliance Theatre, Triad Stage, Her Story Theatre, MPAACT, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, Penobscot Theatre and Orlando Shakespeare Theater. She and her husband Basil live in Evanston, Illinois and are the proud parents of daughter Aurelia.

Horizon Theatre Company is continuing its 35th Anniversary Season with a production from the writer of TV’s biggest hit, This Is Us – Bekah Brunstetter! THE CAKE, a touching new comedy, will hit the Little Five Points stage from May 17 – June 23, 2019. THE CAKE is hailed by STAGESCENELA as “A DEEPLY PERSONAL, DELIGHTFULLY DOWN-HOME PORTRAIT OF THE GAY-WEDDING-CAKE-WARS.”

“This play is so wonderfully funny and full of heart that I immediately fell in love with each of the characters the first time I read it,” says director Lauren Morris. “The real magic of Bekah’s writing is that as you are drawn in, you can’t help but also begin to look at yourself. I think it is really rare right now to encounter a divisive issue and not know immediately which side you’re on. Politically, we’re often so isolated from people who think differently than we do, that we forget that ‘they’ really are a lot like ‘us’ — doing the best they can to do what they truly believe is the right thing. The Cake is full of love, in all of its complexities, contradictions, comforts, and hopes, for not only for us, but also for them. And to me, that’s maybe just the medicine we all need right now.”

All is going well for Della. Her North Carolina bakery is legendary and she’s just been cast on her favorite television baking competition. And when the girl she helped raise comes home and asks her to make a cake for her upcoming wedding, she’s overjoyed – until she discovers that the fiancé is actually a fiancée. Della’s life is suddenly turned upside down. She can’t really make a cake for a gay wedding, can she? Struggling to reconcile her deeply-held belief in “traditional marriage” and the love she has for the woman she helped raise, Della finds herself in strange new territory. Inspired by a story still in the headlines, this marvelously funny new play by Bekah Brunstetter (TV’s This Is Us) is proof that love is the key ingredient in creating common ground.

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Bringing this story to life is four of the best Atlanta actors out there. As Della, the baker forced to re-examine, is the fabulous Marcie Millard (Horizon’s Third Country, City Spring’s 42nd Street). Opposite Millard as Jim, Della’s husband, is Horizon favorite Allan Edwards who has been in atr least one show each season over the past five years (Horizon’s Waffle Palace Christmas, Citizens Market, City of Conversation). As Jen, a woman returning home to plan her dream wedding, is Rhyn McLemore Saver (Alliance’s Ever After, Aurora’s Bridges of Madison County). Finally, as Macy, the woman set to marry Jen, is Parris Sarter (7 Stage’s Angry Fags, Actor’s Express’ Angels In America).

Lauren Morris leads a Suzi Award Winning creative team that includes scenic design from Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay, lighting design from Mary Parker, costume design from Cole Spivia, and sound design from Amy L Levin.

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ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT & HOW THE CAKE WAS BAKED:
Playwright Bekah Brunstetter hails from Winston-Salem, North Carolina and currently lives in Los Angeles. She is a producer on NBC’s This is Us and is currently working on a musical adaptation of The Notebook with Ingrid Michaelson. Brunstetter grew up Southern Baptist in a conservative, religious family. In fact, her father, a former state senator, voted for a 2012 amendment that prohibited same-sex marriage in North Carolina, although it was declared unconstitutional in federal court in 2014. So, she had been grappling deeply with the challenge of how to talk to people you love about your very different beliefs.

The idea for the play was sparked by the Masterpiece Cakeshop case that went before the Supreme Court. That’s the story of a Colorado same-sex-couple who became snarled in a legal battle with a baker who refused to make them a wedding cake because they were gay. She used that incident as a jumping off point for a story that was personal to her, but explored the same issues of people with diametrically opposing values. “People are making assumptions and judgments and just getting angry and storming out. It’s rare that people are forced to be together and listen to each other,” says Brunstetter. She wrote a play that would offer hope and model of how we might begin to talk to each other. “You still have to love your family. You still have to reach across the table … Della is lovable because most of the time your family members are lovable … You have to give people time to change, reevaluate and change some more.”

Brunstetter has previously written for ABC Family’s Switched at Birth and Starz’s American Gods. Her other plays include Going to a Place Where You Already Are (South Coast Rep), The Oregon Trail (Portland Center Stage), Be a Good Little Widow (Ars Nova) and Oohrah! (Atlantic Theater Company). Brunstetter is currently working on musicals with Karen O and Cinco Paul. She holds a BA UNC Chapel Hill & a MFA in Dramatic Writing from the New School for Drama. Brunstetter was a founding member of the Kilroys.

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THE CAKE will run May 17 – June 23, 2019 (Press Opening: May 24, 2019). Performances are Wednesday through Sunday (Wed-Fri at 8pm, Sat at 3pm & 8pm, Sun at 5pm). There are no matinees on May 18, 2019 and June 1, 2019. There is an ADDED MATINEE on Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 11am. Tickets start at $30 for weekdays and $35 for weekends. $20 anytime for teens and full-time student under 25 with valid student ID. Prices are subject to change and will rise as performances fill up. Patrons are encouraged to purchase tickets early for best prices. Seating is general admission. Our intimate theatre is in the heart of Inman Park and Little Five Points at the corner of Euclid and Austin Avenues (1083 Austin Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30307), and includes FREE parking. Tickets and information are available at horizontheatre.com or 404.584.7450.

GROUP RATES
Group discounts are available for parties of 10 or more. Horizon Theatre offers a lounge space available for rental for pre-show gatherings. Contact Group Sales at 404.523.1477 x111 for more information.

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“PIPELINE SHOWCASES AN AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHT IN FULL BLAZE!” — Huffington Post

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Horizon Theatre Company is continuing its 35th Anniversary Season with production from the recipient of the MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant” for 2018 – Dominique Morisseau! PIPELINE, a groundbreaking new play, will hit the Little Five Points stage from March 22 – April 21, 2019. PIPELINE is hailed by Village Voice as “A POWERFUL, PASSIONATE, AND INTELLIGENT NEW PLAY.”

“Pipeline feels ripped from the headlines,” say Marguerite Hannah, Associate Producer at Horizon, “but, this time we are allowed to witness the human backstory of a mother’s fight for her teenage son and her high school students. It is an American story of a family operating in two worlds – the urban inner city education system where the mother works & the affluent private school in which her son attends. The story is set where life and well-meaning choices really exist. Rarely do we see this picture of the black family of today – the love, strength and hope behind the statistic we think we know well.”

In Dominique Morisseau’s PIPELINE, Nya Joseph is a dedicated, inner-city public high school teacher who is committed to her students’ achievement, while she sends her only son, Omari, to a private boarding school. When Omari is involved in a controversial incident which threatens him with expulsion from his school, Nya is forced to reconcile Omari’s actions, her own parental decisions, and the public and private school systems, as she rallies to save her son.

The wife/husband duo of Tinashe Kajese-Bolden & Keith Bolden lead a Suzi Award Winning creative team that includes scenic design from Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay, projection design from Bradley Bergeron, and lighting design from Mary Parker.

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A mother’s hopes for her son clash with an educational system rigged against him in PIPELINE, the riveting new play by Dominique Morisseau. Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher, is committed to her students but desperate to give her only son Omari opportunities they’ll never have. When a controversial incident at his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. But will she be able to reach him before a world beyond her control pulls him away?  With profound compassion and lyricism, PIPELINE brings an urgent conversation powerfully to the fore. Don’t miss this deeply moving story of a mother’s fight to give her son a future — without turning her back on the community that made him who he is.

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