Horizon Theatre Company to Present the World Premiere of SQUARE BLUES by Shay Youngblood This Month

Love and revolution are at the center of the world premiere of acclaimed Shay Youngblood's play, Square Blues, about three generations of a southern Black family who share a passion for activism, art, and following your heart. But they don't always agree on the methods, especially when their protests threaten their freedom and safety. Square Blues will make its premiere on the Horizon stage from July 22 - August 21 (Press Opening July 29).

In this expansive, timely, and magical comedy-drama, the Blue family faces a crossroads. Only together can they find the courage to stand up for their beliefs as they redefine what makes a family and what holds it together. Horizon is located in Little Five Points/Inman Park (1083 Austin Avenue N.E., Atlanta, GA 30307, at the corner of Euclid and Austin Avenues). Free parking. Performances are Wed through Fri at 8 pm, Saturdays at 3 and 8 pm, Sundays at 5 pm. Tickets and information are available at www.horizontheatre.com or 404-584-7450.

Directed by Thomas W. Jones II (Horizon Artistic Associate, Blackberry Daze, Da Kink in My Hair, Sweet Water Taste), Square Blues has "...a virtue of gut, urgency, and necessity...unadorned honesty..." (Edward Albee, Judge for the 21st Century Playwrights Award). Shay's first play Shakin' the Mess Outta Misery premiered at Horizon in 1988 and has been seen all over the world in the past three decades. This production features a cast of Atlanta-based professional actors and designers from theatre and TV, including multi-award-winning resident set designers Moriah and Isabel Curley-Clay.

"We are thrilled to be premiering Shay's play about passionate activists from three generations at this time of upheaval and change in our world. With the great racial reckoning over the past two years, Square Blues is current and urgent," comments Horizon Co-Artistic/Producing Director Lisa Adler. "The play looks at how activism changes as we age and the need for each generation's work and perspective. What can we learn from the past? What needs to change to make progress? What is the future of activism? How can different generations work together to make progress? We hope that the play sparks discussion about how we can work together across generational divides to find common ground that unites and amplifies our effort for change."

ABOUT THE PLAY Square Blues

Welcome to the Fifth Avenue Happy Café, an Atlanta kosher soul food restaurant and meeting place for civil rights activists in the 60s. It's now the early 90s and the Blue family, matriarch Odessa, son Square and granddaughter Karma are still serving up fried catfish and lemon pound cake and working for social change. Square (played by Jay Jones) has been collecting names on petitions demanding financial reparations and a public apology for slavery for decades. But now he's holding a large (and illegal) tax refund received by claiming a Black Reparations tax credit. His mother Odessa demands he pay it back before he is arrested. So does his long-time girlfriend and fellow activist Miss Tuesday. Odessa doesn't want to risk losing the cafe, which she was given by her great love, Blue's father, a white Jewish Russian. They were rebels too, an interracial couple deeply in love in the 40s and 50s when intermarriage was illegal. Odessa's granddaughter Karma (played by Chantal Maurice) continues the activist tradition today in a new form, creating provocative public performance art with spray paint and nude models to bring attention to homelessness, LGTQ rights and AIDS/HIV. She's in love with partner-in-crime Lola (Patty De La Garza), a Latinx poet who is coaxing her to move away to in California. But when Karma ends up in jail for her "art actions" and Blue risks prison with his "black payback", the three generations of the family must decide how to move forward - together or on different paths -- and how much to risk in their quest for change.

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