Horizon Theatre Conjures Oakland’s Dead In ‘Freed Spirits’
BreeAnne Clowdus / Horizon Theatre
Think of settings in Atlanta that would make the most sense for a ghost story and Historic Oakland Cemetery should be near the top of the list.
The folks at Horizon Theatre would agree. “Freed Spirits” is their new production. It’s a comedy mystery about a group of misfits tracking the supernatural around a tornado-ravaged Oakland.
Atlanta-based playwright Daryl Lisa Fazio spent years researching the landmark in preparation to write the show, as well as many days in and around Oakland, observing the comings and goings of its diverse visitors.
“Oakland houses 70,000 dead,” Fazio writes, “but IT. IS. ALIVE.”
“Freed Spirits” is part of Horizon’s New South Play Festival, which puts local stories by local writers onstage. In the past, that’s been “The Waffle Palace,” co-written by longtime Atlanta theater mainstay Larry Larson, and “Third Country” by Suehyla El-Attar (who plays lead Susan Dickey in “Freed Spirits”), about a soccer team of refugees in Clarkston.
“The mission of our theater is ‘Connect people, inspire hope, and promote positive change through the stories of our times,’” explains Horizon’s co-artistic director Lisa Adler, “and finding a comedy that fits that, that’s not dark and cynical, is hard. So we have to write our own.”
Freed Spirits begins performances at Horizon Theatre in Little 5 Points this week and runs through Oct. 30.
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