Did you know Atlanta has a BOOMING outdoor theatre performance scene? I talk to you about Serenbe Playhouse all the time, but right now the Aurora Theatre and the Alliance are on the road (or outside) and I just got word that the Horizon Theatre has joined the outdoor scene. Find more information below on what's playing at Piedmont Park!
Thanks to a major grant from The Charles Loridans Foundation, a supporting grant from the Mark and Evelyn Trammell Foundation and a partnership with the Piedmont Park Conservancy, Horizon continues for the third year the tradition begun by Georgia Shakespeare of bringing free professional theatre to Piedmont Park this summer, giving new audiences a chance to experience Horizon. “Our mission is to connect people, inspire hope and promote positive change through the stories of our times – and this gives us the chance to do that on a larger scale and with great joy.” said Adler. “There has been a huge influx of new residents in town, and this is the perfect show to introduce them to the amazing work they will find at Horizon and our other professional Atlanta theatres and the talented theatre artists who are thriving here.”
Park performances will be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, June 14-17 with pre-show starting at 7:30 PM, and audiences will provide their own blanket or low beach chair. Grounds open for picnicking at 6 PM. Free General Admission and $15 Reserved Seating Section Tickets are available ONLINE ONLY. General admission tickets will be available for free for each performance, but must be reserved online in advance. Reserved Seating section tickets are $15 (plus a small service charge) and get you in the reserved seating area up close to the stage. Arrive at your leisure early or at the last minute and walk past the crowds to come right down front! Limited Table Seating Tickets close to the stage on the sides are $35 ($200 for a table of 6). Tickets are available online only at www.horizontheatre.com. Audiences will bring their print-at-home or mobile tickets.
For seating, audiences will need to bring their own low chairs (30” back height maximum, 6” seat height maximum) or blankets. There will be limited numbers of low beach chairs available for low cost rental, first come, first serve. Anyone bringing a taller chair will be directed to the rear to allow good sightlines for all. Food and non-alcoholic beverages may be brought in for picnics – although no glass is allowed. No firearms allowed. Food trucks will provide dinner options for purchase and wine, beer, water and soft drinks will be available for sale onsite. The stage is in the Promenade green space at the North end of the Park, conveniently located near the Park/Botanical Gardens Sage parking garage and The Prado entrance to the Park.
More about the story of Nobody Loves You
Nobody Loves You follows grad student Jeff whose auditions for – and surprisingly finds himself cast on – a reality TV dating show. Amidst this tangled love web fighting for affection, are his cast-mates – the sexy party girl, the hunky and devout Christian, and the uptight schoolteacher. On the set, the producers, Nina and Jenny, confirm Jeff’s suspicions that reality TV is a world of carefully designed scenarios, challenges, events, and settings to encourage particular behaviors and conflicts. But wait! Is there a spark between Jeff and the enticingly prickly producer, Jenny? In a world where every kiss is staged for the cameras, can two people find a real connection? From laughter through tears, this musical is sure to become a fast favorite of Atlanta when manipulated drama and real emotions collide in Nobody Loves You.
More about Writers, Cast and Creative Team
Book writer and lyricist Itamar Moses (pronounced EAT-a-mar) and composer/lyricist Gaby Alter (pronounced GOB-bee) premiered Nobody Loves You at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego to great acclaim from The New York Times, Variety, The Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Its success there led to a featured slot in the National Alliance of Musical Theatres Festival in NYC in 2012 (where Horizon Co-Artistic Director Lisa Adler loved a 40-minute excerpt of it) and it moved to a hit Off-Broadway run at Second Stage Theatre. Moses and Alter have been writing partners on and off since their high school days in Berkeley, CA (their professor parents were friends) and created an excitingly clever success with Nobody Loves You.
Itamar Moses is an American playwright, author, and television writer. He has been a staff writer for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, TNT’s Men of a Certain Age and most recently The Outsiders. A graduate of both Yale and New York Universities, Moses also returned to his alma maters to teach playwriting for their prestigious programs. Gaby Alter is an award-winning songwriter and composer based in Brooklyn. He writes for stage, television (MTV, PBS), film, radio (NPR), video games, and straight up pop songs. He is the recipient of a Jonathan Larson grant, and has won awards from the San Francisco Theater Critics’ Circle and the New York International Fringe Festival for his scores.
While the show is filled with humor and satirizes pop culture, it actually takes its characters seriously and asks real questions about how romance and connection are affected by our cultural obsession with being seen. “I think the idea of being vulnerable is sort of a prerequisite for having a meaningful experience of any kind,” explains Moses. “Can’t connect with other people, can’t have real friendships, real relationships without vulnerability. And vulnerability is sort of incompatible with performance. Not just on reality shows but Facebook and Snapchat and social media-- we are able to kind of perform our lives, turn our social circle into an audience that each of us are performing for. So I guess we were interested in pointing out how potentially toxic that is. And being aware of it doesn’t make you immune from that appeal.”
Horizon Artistic Associate Heidi McKerley directs this fast-paced musical. After directing the The Toxic Avenger last year (eleven Suzi Bass Awards nominations), winning the Suzi Award for Outstanding Direction for Avenue Q, and remounting both productions for Theatre in the Park at Piedmont Park for the last two summers, McKerley has also worked her magic on this fun, new musical. Alli Lingenfelter made her Horizon debut in this show, guiding the rocking score as musical director. A Suzi Nominee in Musical Direction for her work in Rent at Actor’s Express in 2015 and musical director for Big Fish and Light in the Piazza at Theatrical Outfit, we are thrilled to welcome Alli to Horizon Theatre. Around town, the work of these two strong women artists has been seen at every professional theatre, including Aurora, Theatrical Outfit, the Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Georgia Ensemble Theatre and Actor’s Express.
Horizon Theatre brings this new musical staging of Nobody Loves You to Piedmont Park from Little 5 Points with an amazing cast of Atlanta talent reprising their Horizon roles. Patrick Wade (The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe at The Alliance Theatre) plays the too-smart-for-pop-culture Jeff, who surprisingly finds himself cast on this reality show. Since his super-NLY-fan girlfriend left him to try to score a spot on the show, he is in hot pursuit to woo her back. Instead, he falls into an onset love connection an assistant producer, played by Jeanette Illidge (Horizon’s ‘Da Kink in My Hair, Rent at Actor’s Express), who hates the fakery of the show as much as Jeff does. Entertaining audiences as she facilitates challenges and drama off the screen is no-nonsense producer Nina, played by Wendy Melkonian (world premiere of Sister Act: The Musical at Alliance Theatre, Suzi Award Nominee- The Book Club Play at Horizon Theatre). Adam Washington is our flamboyantly charming r&b singing host, Byron, joining the cast for this Park production.
And then there are our hilarious contestants. Jennifer Alice Acker (2015 Suzi Award winner- Maureen in Rent at Actors Express, ‘Da Kink in My Hair at Horizon) is ready to party as Megan. Ben Thorpe (Big Fish at Theatrical Outfit) is Christian, a loving, well, Christian, who is Megan’s odd couple love match. Leslie Bellair (three-time Suzi Award Winner for The Toxic Avenger and Avenue Q at Horizon Theatre, and Les Miserables at Aurora Theatre) comes on strong as intense 3rd grade teacher, Samantha. She has her sights on laid-back bro’ Dominic played by Leo Thomasian (Serenbe Playhouse’s Grease), new to the cast for this run, who also will provide constant updates of the reality show in his other role, Evan, a twitter-obsessed fan.
Horizon’s resident designers, the multiple Suzi Award winning Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay, tackled the set and costumes for the world behind reality television with resident lighting designer Mary Parker lighting their way. Sound Designers Rob Brooksher (Avenue Q, The Toxic Avenger, Constellations) and Preston Goodson (Actor’s Express’ Rent) will keep this musical humming. Film and theatre artisan Ryan Bradburn (Specialty Props for The Toxic Avenger and Uprising) designed props for the onstage and offstage stories from love scepter to leather room.
Tickets and More
Nobody Loves You opens in Piedmont Park June 14th and runs through June 17th. The grounds open at 6 PM for picnics and the pre-show begins at 7:30 PM. Performance site is reached most conveniently from parking at the Botanical Gardens/Piedmont Park garage. Free general admission and $15 reserved seating section. Both free and reserved seats are available now.
And don’t forget to stay after the show for your photo op and meet and greet with the cast. Tickets and information are available at horizontheatre.com or 404.584.7450.
