Horizon Theatre’s presents the Black Women Speak New Play Festival, featuring four new, heartfelt and complex stories from Dana Stringer, Chiwuzo Ife Okwumabua, Tramaine Dowell and Amina S. McIntrye on Nov. 14 – 15. Horizon’s Black Women Speak program was founded in 2021 to amplify the voices of Black women playwrights and bring more of their work to the American stage. This festival celebrates the creativity and range of Black women storytellers right here in Atlanta. Following each performance by professional actors, audiences will engage in discussions that offer an inside look at the writing process and a chance to share their responses with the artists. Tickets are FREE, reservations encouraged. For more information, visit horizontheatre.com
WHAT: Black Women Speak New Play Festival
WHEN: Saturday, Nov. 14
3 p.m.: Mother Machine by Dana Stringer
Two sisters – Robi, an ambitious executive and Kat, a nurturing free spirt – return home to SW Atlanta for their father’s funeral. Their widowed mom is holding up, feisty as always, but her memory is failing. Robi’s college student daughter who lives with her aunt is caught between these two very opposite sisters. Each of them has a secret and is on the cusp of change. Are the ties that bind greater than the challenges and difference that threaten to pull them apart?
Sunday, Nov. 15
2 p.m.: The Post-Partum Social Club by Tramaine Dowell
Four Black mothers gather for margaritas and a much-needed escape but as laughter gives way to buried secrets, their night off becomes a reckoning with motherhood’s invisible costs—a sharp, tender tragicomedy about finding themselves before it costs them everything.
4 p.m.: Lucy’s Sol A Southern Black Girl Rock Gospel by Chiwuzo Ife Okwumabua
Lucy faces her own mortality and stages the concert of her life with the help of futuristic technology. Through gospel, blues and rock, she relives her rise, her regrets and her revelations, hoping to inspire her daughter to live boldly before the final curtain falls. This joyful, soul-stirring story celebrates Black women's resilience and reminds us that rest and letting go are acts of bravery! This reading is primarily the book of the musical with 2 musical numbers included.
7 p.m.: Silver Boots by Amina S. McIntyre
Two high school friends from dance team Sasha and ReRe return home for a 20th high school reunion. Sasha is moving back home to take care of her now ailing grandmother. She hopes to make amends with Re Re, her estranged childhood best friend and participate in the Alumni Homecoming but the truth about incidents that happened during their high school dance squad days could ultimately seal the fate of their friendship.
WHERE: Horizon Theatre
1083 Austin Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30307
HOW: This event is FREE and open to the public. Guests can RSVP here or call 404-584-7450.