JOIN US FOR
COMPLETENESS IN MARCH, 2021 @ the ATLANTA SCIENCE FESTIVAL!
FREE LIVE/
VIDEO EVENT!
3 SHOWS ONLY!
Horizon is partnering with the Atlanta Science Festival to present Completeness and LIVE post-show discussions with scientists from Emory working in the field of neuroscience and the science of attraction.
What happens when brain and heart collide? Two grad students might have the answer, if they can look up from their research long enough to find out. This romantic comedy takes a modern look at love through a scientific lens.
Tickets are free! Any donations are welcome.
(Suggested gift of $10)
All proceeds support artists for Horizon at Home virtual programming.
UPCOMING ATLANTA SCIENCE FESTIVAL EVENTS
Horizon is partnering with the Atlanta Science Festival to present Completeness and LIVE post-show discussions with scientists working in fields related to the play.
SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 2021 @ 7:30PM (EST)
Watch the show and chat LIVE with Sena Agezo (neuroscience) afterwards about his work in the science of attraction. Learn more about our special guests below!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 17, 2021 @ 7:30PM (EST)
Watch the show and chat LIVE with Charles Ford (neuroscience) afterwards about his work in the science of attraction. Learn more about our special guests below!
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 24, 2021 @ 7:30PM (EST)
Watch the show and chat LIVE with Sarah Blumenthal (neuroscience) afterwards about her work in the science of attraction. Learn more about our special guests below!
ABOUT THE PLAY
How does a computer scientist hook up with a molecular biologist? He blinds her with science, of course!
It may sound like a joke, but for Elliot and Molly, two intellectuals struggling with the realities of romance, it’s a very real equation that will take both of them working together to solve. When Elliot builds a computer program to help Molly with her research project, the variables in their evolving relationship shift as rapidly as the terms of their experiment.
Written by the Tony-Award-Winning playwright Itamar Moses (Band’s Visit, Nobody Loves You, Fortress of Solitude) this modern rom-com inspires both laughter and empathy when it comes to nerds in love.
OUR SPECIAL GUESTS!
Expert Scientists
SUN, MARCH 14, 2021: Sena Agezo
SENA AGEZO is a fourth-year Neuroscience PhD student working jointly in the labs of Drs. Robert Liu, Gordon Berman and Larry Young at Emory University. His research focuses on understanding how the oxytocin system in the striatum influences the neurophysiological mechanisms in behaviors such as social attachment. He is also interested in using machine learning to elucidate the subtle behavioral differences that emerge as a result of social bond formation. Sena obtained his Master and Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University. He spent some time in industry working with Abbott Point of Care as a project engineer.
WED, MARCH 17, 2021: Charles Ford
CHARLES FORD graduated from Davidson College with a BS in Neuroscience in 2012. He began a combined MD-PhD program at Emory University in 2015 and is currently completing his PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Larry Young. His dissertation work focuses on oxytocin and the neurobiological basis of social bonding, behavior, and cognition.
WED, MARCH 24, 2021: Sarah Blumenthal
SARAH BLUMENTHAL is a second year Neuroscience Ph.D. student at Emory University working in the lab of Dr. Larry Young. Her research focuses on the neurobiological mechanisms underlying empathy-like behaviors and social bonding. Sarah obtained her Master’s degree in Experimental Psychology at William & Mary and her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and German from Wake Forest University.
ARTISTS
PLAYWRIGHT
ITAMAR MOSES is the author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach At Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four Of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back, Completeness, And The Whistleblower, the musicals Nobody Loves You (with Gaby Alter), Fortress Of Solitude (with Michael Friedman), and The Band’s Visit (with David Yazbek), and the evening of short plays Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used To It). His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Venezuela, Turkey and Chile, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. Awards for his work include Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie awards in New York, as well as awards from the Portland, San Diego, Dallas, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circles. He’s received new play commissions from The McCarter, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, The Wilma Theater, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, and The Goodman. Itamar holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Born in Berkeley, CA, he now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
DIRECTOR
HEIDI McKERLEY has been fortunate to work with most professional theatres in Atlanta during her thirty-two years of living here; including, the Alliance Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Serenbe Playhouse, Georgia Shakespeare, Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern, Aurora Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Actor’s Express, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Theatre Emory, Dad’s Garage, Fabrefaction, Jewish Theatre of the South, Theatre in the Square, Push Push Theatre, and has been a guest artist for the Gainesville Theatre Alliance, Berry College, Kennesaw State University, the Lagrange Lyric, and the University of Georgia. She has also taught for the acting intern companies of Actor’s Express and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. Heidi has been nominated for thirteen Suzi Bass Awards, and won for Best Director of a Musical in 2011 for Avenue Q. She enjoys writing and wrote the book for one of the three first official entries to be showcased in the Atlanta Musical Theatre Festival, The Fine Art of Forgetting. Heidi was the Founding Producing Artistic Director of Soul-stice Repertory Ensemble, offering thirty-one theatrical classics at 7 Stages in eleven years. She is also an Artistic Associate with the Horizon Theatre. Regionally, Heidi has worked for the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and the Oasis Theatre and Hippodrome State Theatre in Florida. She is a member of the Southern Order of Storytellers, the National Storytelling Network, the Alliance for Theatre in Education, Georgia Thespians, the Georgia Theatre Conference, and the Educational Theatre Association of America.
CAST
CHRIS HECKE (he/him/his) is a Regional Actor and a proud Immigrant from Brazil. He holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Arkansas. Since moving to the US at the age of 18, Chris has been blessed to work from Atlanta, to Fayetteville, to Greenville, to Gainesville. Since making Atlanta his professional, home-base in 2016, his favorite credits include: Hotspur (Henry IV Pt.1), Edmund the Bastard (King Lear), and Berowne (Love’s Labours Lost) at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern; stints in Shakespeare in Love and My Father’s War at Theatre Squared; and Pablo (Native Gardens) at Aurora Theatre. He is honored that this is his 3rd consecutive year back at Horizon’s YPF. He has also been an actor in Horizon Theatre’s Young Playwright’s Festival from 2018-2020.
NAIMA CARTER RUSSELL is an Atlanta resident, FSU Alumnus, and a Suzi Bass Award winner for her role as Felicia Farrell in Memphis (Aurora Theater /Theatrical Outfit). Other regional credits include: The Nacirema Society…and Christmas Carol (Alliance Theatre); Big Fish and Godspell (Theatrical Outfit); Tranced and Lark Eden (Aurora Theatre); Antigone (Georgia Shakespeare), Caroline, or Change (St. Louis Black Rep), and Rejoice (True Colors Theatre Company). Film/TV credits include: “House of Payne”, “Let’s Stay Together”, and “Banshee”. She is a passionate diverse book reviewer and shares the drama of mothering 2 girls @itsthedramamama on Instagram.
SHELLI DELGADO recently played Siobhan in Horizon’s & Aurora Theatre’s joint production of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Regional Credits: A Christmas Carol, Max Makes a Million, Tiger Style!, Little Raindrop Songs and Dinosaur! (Alliance Theatre); A Doll’s House Part 2, The Crucible*, RENT (Actor’s Express, *Suzi Bass Award for Featured Actress), Hamlet (Atlanta Shakespeare Company), Much Ado About Nothing (Warehouse Theatre), Into the Woods, Don’t Dress for Dinner, 4000 Miles, Les Misérables (Aurora Theatre), Sense & Sensibility (Synchronicity Theatre), Grease, Miss Saigon (Serenbe). TV: “The Vampire Diaries”. IG: @shellidelgado Black Lives Matter.
ERIC J. LITTLE is an actor, teacher, director, and writer. Having received his MFA in acting from Louisiana State University, he has acted on professional stages across Atlanta, as well as in New York and Louisiana. His Film/TV work includes “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne,” “Necessary Roughness,” “The Clubhouse – (Pilot)”, “The Know Better Effect – (Pilot),” “Hamlet’s Ghost,” “Lottery Ticket,” the lead in two short films “Perfect Day” and “A Beautiful Death,” and also various commercials. Eric’s been nominated for Five Suzi Awards, and the winner of the 2011 Suzi Award Winner Lead Actor for Superior Donuts (Horizon Theatre Company). Eric is currently an Adjunct Professor at Clark Atlanta University where he teaches acting and where he has directed productions of “for black boys who have considered homicide when the streets were too much,” “Before It Hits Home,” and “The Brothers Size.”
MORE ABOUT THE PLAY
Moses links the idea for Completeness back to a college engineering course, where he learned about the “Traveling Salesman Problem.”
“I remember liking how simple the problem was and that it had this evocative, non-science sounding name,” says Moses. “The Traveling Salesman Problem…is essentially a problem of choice-making when there are too many possibilities, and it suddenly occurred to me that it was a good metaphor for choosing a life partner. I immediately saw the seeds of a romantic comedy about someone working on the problem who also sees it manifest in his personal life, and my protagonist, Elliot, was born.”
At its heart, Completeness is a play about the impossibility of certainty…in life, love, and cellular reproduction. At turns hilarious and seductive, Completeness will inspire both laughter and empathy.
In addition to the Sept. 26 talk with playwright Itamar Moses, Atlanta-area scientists will also weigh in on the real implications of the science posed in the play thanks to a partnership with Science ATL. “I’ve invited scientists with a wide range of backgrounds and experiences within the fields of computer science and molecular biology,” shares Kellie Vinal, Ph.D., Public Events Coordinator for Science ATL. “I think the unique combinations of expertise and experiences will make for lively discussion.”
The filmed reading of Completeness is the second collaboration between Horizon and Moses. Horizon previously produced Moses’ musical Nobody Loves You in 2017. “We’re delighted to be working with Itamar [Moses] again, and thrilled that audiences will be able to meet him,” says Producing Artistic Director Lisa Adler. “His writing is smart, funny, and about people searching for deep connections. This is a wonderful show for our four talented actors. We’re proud of all of Itamar’s accomplishments, and happy to present this play that’s close to his heart.”
Read the full press release here.
DISCOVER MORE!
Read more about the process behind Completeness in this article by Itamar Moses for American Theatre. “The Long Goodbye” explains why Completeness, “a play about the impossibility of certainty, was singularly hard to finish.”
PAST EVENTS
At 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 25-26 and Oct. 2-3, 2020, Horizon Theatre premiered a Horizon at Home virtual production of Completeness by Tony-Award-Winning playwright Itamar Moses (The Band’s Visit), who will join the theatre live via Zoom for a special performance talkback after the show.
Post-show discussions immediately following each showing of the play will allow audience members to engage directly with the artists, as well as special guests. Moses, along with the cast and director, took questions from the audience on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020. Following the Sept. 25 and Oct. 2-3, 2020, showings, Horizon partnered with Science ATL to give audiences access to scientists studying the types of computer science and molecular biology described in the play.
PAST SPECIAL GUESTS
Playwright
SAT, SEPT 26, 2020 at 7:30PM: Itamar Moses, Playwright
ITAMAR MOSES is the author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach At Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four Of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back, Completeness, And The Whistleblower, the musicals Nobody Loves You (with Gaby Alter), Fortress Of Solitude (with Michael Friedman), and The Band’s Visit (with David Yazbek), and the evening of short plays Love/Stories (or But You Will Get Used To It). His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, Hong Kong, Israel, Venezuela, Turkey and Chile, and is published by Faber & Faber and Samuel French. Awards for his work include Lucille Lortel, New York Drama Critics Circle, Outer Critics Circle, and Obie awards in New York, as well as awards from the Portland, San Diego, Dallas, and Bay Area Theatre Critics Circles. He’s received new play commissions from The McCarter, Playwrights Horizons, Berkeley Rep, The Wilma Theater, South Coast Rep, Manhattan Theatre Club, Lincoln Center, and The Goodman. Itamar holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. Born in Berkeley, CA, he now lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Expert Scientists
FRI, SEPT 25, 2020: Charles Ford and Avani Wildani, PhD
CHARLES FORD graduated from Davidson College with a BS in Neuroscience in 2012. He began a combined MD-PhD program at Emory University in 2015 and is currently completing his PhD in Neuroscience under the mentorship of Dr. Larry Young. His dissertation work focuses on oxytocin and the neurobiological basis of social bonding, behavior, and cognition.
AVANI WILDANI is an Assistant Professor in CS and Neuroscience at Emory University. Her work is centered around information storage and retrieval across different storage models. She has worked in access prediction, data deduplication, power management, catastrophic fault tolerance, P2P networks, and recently in topological data analysis. Her lab at Emory focuses on theoretical systems models, particularly those with biological connections, with a long term goal of categorizing neural information systems.
FRI, OCT 2, 2020: Myesha Green, PhD, and Neil Green
MYESHA GREEN is a scientist at heart. She received her PhD in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory University fifteen years ago. Currently, Myesha is a Montessori teacher, consultant, and Interim Head of School here in the Atlanta area.
NEIL GREEN came to computer science by way of his undergraduate studies in particle physics. He has spent the last 20 years implementing all aspects of software design and platform architecture through his work with Atlanta start-ups and technology enterprises.
[Myesha and Neil met in college, have been together for 23 years, and have been married for 15 years.]SAT, OCT 3, 2020: Carleen Sabusap, PhD and Eric Shan
CARLEEN SABUSAP is a molecular biologist at Vanderbilt University studying drugs targeting the genetic origins of cystic fibrosis to understand why some therapeutics work better for certain patients versus others. She has designed and produced an eclectic mixture of science outreach programs; from a traveling neuroscience research lecture series involving abstract dance and an art exhibit about memory, to a training symposium for biologists to 3D print and animate molecular machinery. She enjoys painting and plans on creating a comic series about science and writing songs about the pandemic on her ukulele.
ERIC SHEN is a research scientist at Georgia Tech working on organic electronics, where he makes coatings that can change color with the push of a button, wires that can turn their conductivity on and off, and other fun applications. He has also been involved in many aspects of science outreach, such as the Atlanta Science Festival and Future Tech. When he’s not at work, Eric loves checking out Atlanta’s amazing art gallery scene and sampling the wonderful restaurants and breweries across the city.
ON DEMAND TICKETS
On-demand tickets are free! Any donations are welcome.
All proceeds support artists for Horizon at Home virtual programming.