Lionheart Presents Our 2023 Season
The Lionheart Theatre Company is excited to announce our 2023 season, marking the 23rd Anniversary of Lionheart.
Ten-Minute Community Theatre Play Festival
Dates: January 13 -22, 2023
Lionheart will kick off our 2023 season by hosting a showcase of ten comedic ten-minute plays presented by Lionheart and our friends from OnStage Atlanta, Merely Players Presents, Live Arts Theatre, and Main Street Theatre.
“Deli” by Diane Dexter (World Premiere)
Dates: March 3-19, 2023
Directed by Jeremy King
Lionheart is pleased to present the premiere production of this play by local playwright Diane Dexter. “Deli” explores the question of, “What happens to a neighborhood institution when the neighborhood changes?” That’s what the Davidson family is confronting in “Deli.” It’s 1990; chain restaurants are cutting into their business, the customer base is shifting, and the younger generation of Davidsons sees opportunity elsewhere. At the heart of “Deli” is a decision we all face at one time or another: Whether to hang on, adapt or let go.
“Jeffrey” by Paul Rudnick
Dates: May 5-21, 2023
Directed by Scott King
Jeffrey, a gay actor/waiter, has sworn off sex after too many bouts with his partners about what is “safe” and what is not. In gay New York, though, sex is not something you can avoid. Suddenly, just after he’s reconciled himself to celibacy, Jeffrey’s flamboyant friends introduce him to the man of his dreams, who also happens to be HIV-positive. What follows is an audacious and moving romantic comedy with a difference—one in which the quest for love and really fabulous clothes meet, and where unflagging humor prevails even when tragedy might be just around the corner. *Recommended for ages 16+ for mature themes and sexual content.
“The House at Pooh Corner” Adapted by Bettye Knapp, From the work by A.A. Milne
Dates: July 14-16, 2023
Directed by Barry West
Christopher Robin has decided to run away with his friends Pooh, Piglet, Eeyore, Tigger and the rest. Probably they’ll go to the North Pole or to the South Pole. For there is a dark, mysterious threat that he’s to be sent away to Education. Nobody knows exactly what or where that is, and if he’s sent to such a distant place, what can his friends possibly do without him? So it’s generally agreed that they’ll run away. As the situation becomes clearer, Christopher Robin isn’t quite so sure that running away is the answer.
“The Nerd” by Larry Shue
Dates: September 8-24, 2023
Directed by Rick Adams
Now an aspiring young architect in Terre Haute, Indiana, Willum Cubbert has often told his friends about the debt he owes to Rick Steadman, a fellow ex-GI whom he has never met but who saved his life after he was seriously wounded in Vietnam. He has written to Rick to say that, as long as he is alive, “you will have somebody on Earth who will do anything for you” —so Willum is delighted when Rick shows up unexpectedly at his apartment on the night of his thirty-fourth birthday party. But his delight soon fades as it becomes apparent that Rick is a hopeless “nerd” —a bumbling oaf with no social sense, little intelligence and less tact.
Bewitching 2023
Dates: October 6-15, 2023
Lionheart’s spooky (appropriate for ages 16+) collection of Halloween and horror themed shorts returns for another year of scares.
“Deathtrap” by Alfred Levin
Dates: November 3-19, 2023
Directed by Scott Rousseau
Comfortably ensconced in his charming Connecticut home, Sidney Bruhl, a successful writer of Broadway thrillers, is struggling to overcome a dry spell which has resulted in a string of failures and a shortage of funds. A possible break in his fortunes occurs when he receives a script from a student in the seminar he has been conducting at a nearby college—a thriller that Sidney recognizes immediately as a potential Broadway smash. Sidney’s plan, devised with his wife’s help, is to offer collaboration to the student for co-credit. Or is it? DEATHTRAP provides twists and turns of devilish cleverness, and offers hilariously sudden shocks in such abundance that audiences will be spellbound until the very last moment.
“The Last Night of Ballyhoo” by Alfred Uhry
Dates: December 7-17, 2023
Directed by Myrna Feldman
This play takes place in Atlanta, Georgia, in December of 1939. Gone with the Wind is having its world premiere, and Hitler is invading Poland, but Atlanta’s elitist German Jews are much more concerned with who is going to Ballyhoo, the social event of the season. Especially concerned is the Freitag family: bachelor Adolph; his widowed sister, Beulah (Boo) Levy; and their also widowed sister-in-law, Reba. Boo is determined to have her dreamy, unpopular daughter, Lala, attend Ballyhoo, believing it will be Lala’s last chance to find a socially acceptable husband. The family gets pulled apart and then mended together with plenty of comedy, romance, and revelations along the way.