Posted by Liz and John Attaway, 3/10/25

Southeastern premiere of tour-de-force play starring Atlanta-favorite Carolyn Cook

Horizon Theatre Company continues its spectacular 40th season with the Southeastern premiere of the winner of the prestigious 2024 Steinberg/ATCA New Play Citation play I Carry Your Heart With Me, running March 14 – April 5 (press opening March 21). Esther, a stenographer inside a top-secret Vietnam-era debriefing room, has a picture-perfect world until she encounters an airman whose story quite literally changes her life. As she captures the stories of non-coms and POWs freshly back from the front lines, Esther finds herself smack dab in the middle of a troubling investigation. With plenty of twists and turns along the way, this tour-de-force starring renowned Atlanta actor Carolyn Cook is a taut, suspenseful mystery that packs a real emotional wallop.

“This play is an extraordinary story of a formative year in one woman’s life and how it profoundly shapes her future,” says Carolyn Cook. “Esther’s journey is one of both discovery and reckoning, and I’m honored to bring her story to life for Atlanta audiences. I hope they will find themselves as captivated as I was when I first read the script and could not put it down.” 

In this solo play by Jennifer Blackmer, Carolyn Cook (Suzi Award for Best Actress for Horizon’s Time Stands Still, and Best Supporting Actress for Citizens Market, also Horizon’s solo show The Syringa Tree) commands the stage as Esther Shannon, looking back on her formative time in her early 20s as a government stenographer for the U.S. Air Force during the Vietnam War. Raised in a military family, Esther is now the new girl and best typist on the base, where she meets attractive officer Andy, who wines and dines her. Like her mother and grandmother before her, she seems destined to become a military wife and mother. Longing to make her father proud and to make a bigger difference, she thinks about taking her skills to Vietnam instead. Andy persuades her to stay stateside by pulling strings to get her a top-security clearance job on the base. Tasked with transcribing debriefings of POWs and non-coms returning from the front lines, she records their fractured memories of the war which seep into her and change her perspective on the world. Then Esther encounters a POW helicopter pilot whose story has a deep impact on her, ultimately causing a clash with her official duties and complicating her life. As she becomes entangled in an investigation, Esther grapples with her future in a suspenseful and emotionally charged journey.

A blend of fact and fiction, the play is inspired by playwright Jennifer Blackmer’s mother’s real-life experiences as a young stenographer with a similar job on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base during the Vietnam War. Blackmer’s mother revealed some of her experiences to her daughter before she passed away suddenly in her early 60s, leaving the playwright to put together the pieces and imagine the rest of her story. Jennifer Blackmer’s plays have been produced Off-Broadway and across the country, and she serves as Professor of Theatre and Executive Director of the Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry at Ball State University. Blackmer was in residence at Horizon in 2023 as one of the lead mentors in Horizon’s New South Young Playwrights Festival.

Directed by Horizon Theatre’s Co-Artistic Director Lisa Adler, the production reunites her with one of her favorite collaborators, the talented Carolyn Cook. Adler has directed Cook in many productions over the past three decades, including her acclaimed performance in the solo play The Syringa Tree, which played at Horizon and toured venues in the Southeast, as well as her award-winning performances in Time Stands Still and Skylight. The world of the play is created with an evocative, poetic set by resident designers Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay, shaped by lights from resident lighting designer Mary Parker and supported by projections from Victoria Nation (Horizon’s Amelie and Madeline’s Christmas) with sound by Whitney Leonard.

Performances begin March 14, with a press opening on March 21. Performances are Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m., with special Wednesday performances on March 19 at 8 p.m. and March 26 and April 2 at 2 p.m. Tickets start at $30 on Wednesdays and Thursdays and $35 for Friday nights, Saturday nights and weekend matinees. Prices rise as performances fill up, so patrons are encouraged to order early for the best prices and availability. Students under 25 can get $20 tickets with valid student ID by calling the box office or purchase in person before show time if seats are available. Single ticket seating is general admission, with a reserved seating section for season subscribers. There is limited accessible seating for those needing mobility accommodations, and it must be reserved by phone. For tickets and more information, visit horizontheatre.com or call the Box Office at 404.584.7450.

For full actor and creative team bios visit horizontheatre.com/plays/i-carry-your-heart-with-me

CREATIVE TEAM

Playwright                                          Jennifer Blackmer

Director                                                                          Lisa Adler

Set Designers                                                                  Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay

Lighting Designer                                                            Mary Parker

Costume Designer                                                          Carrie Giglio

Sound Designer                                                              Whitney Leonard

Projection Designer                                                        Victoria Nation                 

CAST

Esther Shannon                                                              Carolyn Cook