Horizon Theatre Company, a professional contemporary theatre in Atlanta, has been bringing exciting area and world premieres to Atlanta’s audiences under the leadership of Co-Artistic Directors and Founders Lisa and Jeff Adler since 1983. Our mission is to connect people, inspire hope, and promote positive change through the stories of our times. We strive to empower and unite audiences with works that celebrate who we are, build bridges between our diverse audiences and offer new perspectives...
Horizon Theatre Company, a professional contemporary theatre in Atlanta, has been bringing exciting area and world premieres to Atlanta’s audiences under the leadership of Co-Artistic Directors and Founders Lisa and Jeff Adler since 1983. Our mission is to connect people, inspire hope, and promote positive change through the stories of our times. We strive to empower and unite audiences with works that celebrate who we are, build bridges between our diverse audiences and offer new perspectives on our ever-changing world – stories that are entertaining, thought provoking, relevant, accessible, and fresh to Atlantans. For all of our performances, we seek out today’s playwrights and new plays that have received critical acclaim across the country and abroad, while also nurturing emerging playwrights, particularly those who bring to the stage the unique and diverse voices of the urban South today. Horizon has introduced Atlanta audiences to the works of well-known contemporary playwrights (Tony Kushner, Wendy Wasserstein, David Hare, David Ives, Sarah Ruhl etc), as well as plays by talented new writers. In our annual New South Play Festival, we produce and develop new plays connected to our region. We operate on a Small Professional Theatre Contract with Actor's Equity and serve nearly 40,000 people with over 250 performances annually.
Horizon’s home is an intimate 172-seat theatre and support spaces located in the Little Five Points Center for Arts and Community in Atlanta’s eclectic Little Five Points business and arts district.
Horizon Theatre produces a mainstage season of five Southeastern, Atlanta, or world premieres of contemporary plays. We feature the best of today’s plays that are new to our region, have meaning and value for our diverse audiences, present a challenge for an acting ensemble and promote positive change in individuals and our community. In addition to critically acclaimed recent works, our mainstage season also includes new plays and playwrights that tell the stories of the ever-growing and changing urban South developed through our New South Festival.
The New South Play Festival program, begun in 1999 as a once a year event, is now a year-round program designed to develop and produce plays and playwrights that align with our mission and that speak from, for, or about the contemporary South. The program features one or two full mainstage productions that are part of our season, three to six commissions and/or workshops of new plays culminating in staged readings for the public (New South PlayWorks), and the New South Young Playwrights Festival. We give priority to developing plays that are about our community and/or are written by women, African-Americans and writers who are based in or have roots in the South. We look for ongoing relationships with playwrights who are aligned with our mission of hope and positive change.
The New South Festival has garnered national interest from theatres, funders, audiences, and the media. The Festival has received regular support from funders for its work in nurturing Southeast and culturally diverse writers, including grants from the NEA, the Edgerton Foundation, MAP Fund, Paul Green Playwrights Fellowship, and AT&T Onstage. The Festival has been featured in Southern Living, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and Creative Loafing Atlanta. Local media have lauded that the Festival “finds and defines Southern plays” and “has set a precedent of finding fine new African-American plays.” Over the past 16 years, we have produced 20 mainstage plays and provided workshops for over 60 original works, developing stories that reflect the life and culture of the diverse contemporary South.
Our education and outreach programs bring our work to new communities and train the artists of the future. These programs include the New South Young Playwrights' Contest and Festival, In-School Playwriting Residencies, the Horizon Family Series, and the Apprentice and Intern Companies. In the New South Young Playwrights' Contest and Festival, 20-30 college and high school contest finalists from across the country are invited to attend a free weeklong summer playwriting intensive, culminating in staged readings of their work. Our In-School playwriting residencies take a playwright into schools for 10-12 weeks to teach playwriting and spark each student to write a short play. Our Family Series brings Horizon's work to children and families each year through high quality productions that combine adult professionals and amateur children onstage. The Apprentice and Intern Companies give early-career artists and college students the opportunity to gain artistic or administrative experience in a professional setting.