2004-2005 Season

Andrew Weems and Henry Stram in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. Photo by Christopher Oquendo for Alliance Theatre.

The TONY Award-winning Acting Company presents the world premiere of Carson McCullers’ poignant novel The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, adapted for the stage by acclaimed playwright Rebecca Gilman, will play at The Alliance Theatre in Atlanta before embarking on a southern cities tour.

This enduring masterpiece captures a universal longing for connection.  At its center is John Singer, a deaf-mute who becomes the confidante to a constellation of lonely souls – an angry carnival worker, a crusading physician, the owner of a failing café and a fifteen-year-old girl in love with music – all seeking understanding and compassion from a man desperately in need of understanding himself.  Some fight their loneliness with violence or drink, while some give voice to the quiet, intensely personal search for beauty.

The Acting Company proudly offers the work of two extraordinary American writers.  Ms. McCullers’ other books include Reflections in a Golden Eye and The Member of the Wedding.  Ms. Gilman has been honored by The Kennedy Center, the Olivier and Jefferson Awards for her plays, which include Boy Gets Girl and Spinning Into Butter.

In addition to The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, The Acting Company is continuing its 31-year commitment to producing the work of the world’s greatest playwright, by separately touring William Shakespeare’s first romantic comedy, The Two Gentlemen of Verona in repertory with Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw, adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher. 

The Acting Company has performed over 100 plays for more than two million people in the United States, London, Australia, Russia and Eastern Europe.  It's Education Programs -- including master classes, student matinees and weeklong artistic residencies -- have reached tens of thousands of students, the artists and audiences of tomorrow.  The Acting Company was founded in 1972 by John Houseman and current Producing Artistic Director, Margot Harley, with the first graduating class of The Juilliard School's Drama Division. Winner of the Obie, Audelco and Los Angeles Critics Awards for excellence, The Acting Company is a 2003 TONY Award Honoree for Excellence in Theater. 

CAST of The Heart is a lonely Hunter                                click HERE to read a review