Horizon Theatre Company and Radio Free Georgia

Site Narrative

Horizon Theatre Company is a 172-seat theatre housed in the Little Five Points Community Center, located between the Inman Park and Little Five Points neighborhoods in Atlanta. The community center occupies the former Moreland Elementary School building. The school served Atlanta from 1919 until its closure in 1982. Founded in 1983 and one of the first occupants of the former school building, Horizon Theatre Company’s mission is “to connect people, inspire hope, and promote positive change through the stories of our times.”

The company’s more than 130 professional productions have included shows written by queer writers or containing LGBTQ+ content. Some of these include repeat performances of queer icon David Sedaris’s The Santaland Diaries, Brad Fraser’s True Love Lies (2010), Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul (2002), Craig Lucas’s Prelude to a Kiss (1992), and Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (2015).

Horizon Theatre Company is one of the theatre partners of the Atlanta based community group Gays for Plays.

Located in the same building as the Horizon Theatre Company is WRFG 89.3 Radio Free Georgia, which has broadcast LGBTQ shows since its founding in 1973. According to Touching Up Our Roots founder Dave Hayward, WRFG and the Great Speckled Bird newspaper were the only media outlets covering the gay and lesbian community in the 1970s. Radio Free Georgia’s mission is to provide a voice for “those who continue to be denied free and open access to the broadcast media” and “those who suffer oppression or exploitation based upon class, race, sex, age, creed, sexual orientation, disability, or immigrant status.” The 50-part “Living Atlanta” oral history series on Atlanta’s history, produced by WRFG from 1977–1980, won national awards. Records for this project can be found at the Atlanta History Center.

Resources

Horizon Theatre Company. https://www.horizontheatre.com/about/mission-and-history/

Radio Free Georgia. https://wrfg.org/

WRFG records of the Living Atlanta oral history project. https://aspace-atlantahistorycenter.galileo.usg.edu/repositories/2/resources/1213