Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre has announced the final two pieces of its five-show 30th anniversary season: the Beethoven-meets-bluegrass musical Cowgirls and the world premiere of Right On by Darren Canady, the 2006-07 winner of the Alliance/Kendeda National Graduate Playwriting Competition (False Creeds).
The Horizon season began with a remounting of 2013’s The Book Club Play. It continues March 14-April 13 with Elemeno Pea (pronounced L-M-N-O-P), a comedy about the haves and have-nots on Martha’s Vineyard. The piece, by Molly Smith Metzler, premiered at the 2011 Humana Festival of New American Plays. Heidi Cline McKerley directs a cast that includes Adam Fristoe (Venus in Fur, Actor’s Express) and Cynthia D. Barker (Horizon’s Third Country).
Next comes Cowgirls (May 16-June 29), the longtime off-Broadway hit that had Horizon audiences clamoring for more in the 1997-98 seasons. The conceit: Three classical musicians are accidentally booked as the featured act for the grand reopening of an Opry-esque roadhouse. The Coghill Trio has been mistaken for the Cowgirl Trio, and the ‘girls have just 24 hours to make it work. McKerley again directs.
Canady’s Right On (July 18-Aug. 3) is described as “a soul-filled story with laughs, tears and a funky beat.” The story: A black radical-turned-business exec returns to the alma mater where she led protests clad in her dashiki and Afro. Along for the trip is her Harvard-bound son, who carries his own demons. The homecoming turns into a roller-coaster as the activist friends re-frame, rewrite and reclaim their complicated pasts.
The previously announced Detroit, by Lisa D’Amour (Sept. 19-Oct. 19), finishes the mainstage season, then steps aside for holiday shows. In it, suburban neighbors bond over backyard barbecue and fall apart over secrets. The Pulitzer Prize finalist was named one of the Top 10 plays of the year by The New York Times.
Four- and three-play subscription packages are available through the Horizon box office at 404.584.7450. The theater is at 1083 Austin Ave. N.E., on the edge of Inman Park and Little Five Points.
