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PRESENTS IN PARTNERSHIP WITH BY CLARINDA ROSS DIRECTED BY HEIDI McKERLEY PRODUCED BY LISA ADLER VIDEO EDITOR & SOUND DESIGNER AMY L. LEVIN Timothy.................................................................LAMMAN RUCKER Myrtle......................................................................TERRY BURRELL Deborah...................................................................CLARINDA ROSS Chris.............................................................................CHRIS HECKE Streaming on Facebook & YouTube Horizon Theatre Company is a professional, nonprofit, tax-exempt corporation. Horizon Theatre Company is a member of the following: FROM THE PLAYWRIGHT In early June 1989, I was working at the Alley Theatre in Houston and my best friend from acting school and Atlanta, Christian Hesler, called me to say good-bye. In that final phone call, we professed our love for one another and he made a simple request, “Will you visit my grave?” “Of course I will, my darling.” He died from AIDS at his parents' home in Indiana on June 11, 1989. His parents and I exchanged letters over the years and then the letters stopped after the birth of my youngest son who, coincidentally, was born on Christian’s birthday. It took me twenty years but I finally got to Indiana to fulfill my promise. I also reconnected with his mother. All those years later, and now a mother myself, I had a new-found empathy for Christian’s mother and for all mothers of people who died from AIDS. Here they were getting older without the love and comfort of their sons. They were orphaned mothers. I embarked on a mission to interview these women about their experiences in the early days of AIDS when there were so many unknowns, so much fear and misinformation. Some mothers wanted to talk to me, but many did not. I am indebted to the sisters, the cousins, the nieces, and nephews who shared their loved ones with me. This play, much like the AIDS Memorial Quilt itself, has taken years to assemble and is stitched together with love. Love, M. is based on extensive conversations with mothers from the last pandemic. I wanted to understand those mothers and their stories before we lost them. Ultimately, I came home to a very personal story full of humor, humanity & the healing power of love, acceptance, and the thing we all crave – connection. My heartfelt thanks to Horizon Theatre, Lisa Adler, Heidi Cline McKerley, Marguerite Hannah, Imara Canady, David Thomas, Michael Hidalgo, ART Station, The Writer’s Well, Sewanee Writer’s Conference, Mickey Birnbaum/UCR/PD Low-Residency MFA Creative Writing for Performance program, Adilah Barnes, The LA Women’s Theatre Festival, The Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, Julie Rhoad, Roddy Williams, Gert McMullin, Ritchie Crownfield, The Name’s Project and to my friends and family who supported me during this process. Clarinda Ross, Playwright, Love, M. ABOUT THE CAST LAMMAN RUCKER (Timothy) Best known as “Jacob Greenleaf” on OWN’s hit drama series, Greenleaf; the handsome “Sheriff Troy” in Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married film sequel and “Will” on hit film/sitcom Meet The Browns; Rucker is maintaining a powerful small and large screen presence in films such as BET’s The Man in 3B and Black Coffee; UPtv’s Where is The Love as well as feature film Service to Man. Rucker will also be starring in upcoming feature films Terror Lake Drive, Albert & Paul, Cooking Up Christmas, and This Love Wins. Beyond film, his award-winning acting range has spanned Off- Broadway theater as well as television such as Black Angels Over Tuskegee, Half and Half, WEtv’s South of Hell, As The World Turns and All My Children. A passionate activist, Rucker relentlessly advocates for social justice, community empowerment, health and more. He is a spokesperson for several charitable efforts and community action initiatives including the American Heart Association, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, Association of Black Cardiologists, The Black AIDS Institute, BMe Community, The Magic Johnson Foundation and his non- profit The Black Gents, an all-male ensemble of actors driven to resurrect the positive images of black males through thought-provoking high quality entertainment, youth empowerment initiatives and community service. TERRY BURRELL (Myrtle) is an actor and playwright whose extensive Broadway credits include Three Penny Opera, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Swinging on a Star, Into the Woods, Honky Tonk Nights, Dreamgirls, Just So Stories, Eubie!, and Show Boat. She wrote and starred in ETHEL, a tribute to Ethel Waters which was produced at Atlanta’s Alliance Theatre, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and Walnut Street Theatre. Her National Tour credits include Copacabana, Bubbling Brown Sugar, The Wiz and Show Boat. She is currently appearing in A Very Terry Christmas at the Alliance Theatre, where she has been seen regularly in shows such as Ever After, Angry Raucous And Shamelessly Gorgeous, Jar The Floor, Cinderella And Fella, and Sophisticated Ladies. She has previously been see at Horizon Theatre as the leading role in ‘Da Kink in My Hair. Other regional and NYC credits include: Lady Day At Emerson’s Bar And Grill, Candide, Crowns, Man Of La Mancha, Up From Paradise, Ain’t Misbehavin’, A Christmas Carol, Oklahoma!, The Women Of Brewster Place, Thunder Knocking At The Door, Cinderella, Smokey Joes Café, Time And Again, Brownie Points, Mahalia, Boys From Syracuse, Sheila’s Day, and The Roommate. Terry has performed in concert with the Duke Ellington Orchestra Venice and at the Oslo Norway Jazz Festival and Portland Oregon Jazz Festival. ABOUT THE CAST CLARINDA ROSS (Deborah) started her acting career at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta and became well-known for her one-woman show From My Grandmother’s Grandmother Unto Me, which was filmed for TV by PBS and just had its thirtieth production. Now based in LA, she worked for many years in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Alliance Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Theatre in the Square, ART Station, and the Atlanta Shakespeare Company. Clarinda recently received her MFA in Creative Writing for Performance from the University of California at Riverside where she was the recipient of the Barbara Seranella Scholarship for Excellence in Creative Writing. Her plays have been produced across the country and are published by Applause Theatre Books, The Coachella Review, and The Kenyon Review. She was born in Georgia, grew up in Boone, North Carolina, and has B.A. in Theatre from Appalachian State. Ms. Ross is a proud member of Actors’ Equity Association having served as a National Council for many years. She is a Los Angeles delegate for SAG-AFTRA, and a Southern California Ambassador for the Dramatists Guild of America. CHRIS HECKE (Chris) is delighted to return to the Horizon after starring in this season’s virtual production of Completeness by Tony Award-winning playwright Itamar Moses. Chris is a Regional Actor and a proud Immigrant from Brazil. He holds an MFA in Acting from the University of Arkansas. Since moving to the US at the age of 18, Chris has been blessed to work from Atlanta, to Fayetteville, to Greenville, to Gainesville. Since making Atlanta his professional home-base in 2016, his favorite theater credits include: Hotspur (Henry IV Pt.1), Edmund the Bastard (King Lear), and Berowne (Love’s Labours Lost) at the Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern; stints in Shakespeare in Love and My Father’s War at Theatre Squared; and Pablo (Native Gardens) at Aurora Theatre. He has been a featured actor in Horizon’s New South Young Playwrights Festival 2018-2020. ABOUT THE DIRECTOR HEIDI McKERLEY (Director) is a Horizon Artistic Associate who has been directing for Horizon for over two decades, including most of Horizon’s musicals, most recently the acclaimed Once and the virtual production of Completeness. She has been fortunate to work with most professional theatres in Atlanta during her thirty-two years of living here; including the Alliance Theatre, Horizon Theatre, Serenbe Playhouse, Georgia Shakespeare, Atlanta Shakespeare Tavern, Aurora Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, Georgia Ensemble Theatre, Actor’s Express, Atlanta Lyric Theatre, Theatre Emory, Dad’s Garage, Jewish Theatre of the South, Theatre in the Square, Push Push Theatre, and as a guest artist for the Gainesville Theatre Alliance, Berry College, Kennesaw State University, Lagrange Lyric, and the University of Georgia. Heidi has been nominated for thirteen Suzi Bass Awards, and won Best Director of a Musical in 2011 for Avenue Q. Heidi was the Founding Producing Artistic Director of Soul-stice Repertory Ensemble, offering thirty-one theatrical classics at 7 Stages in eleven years. Regionally, Heidi has worked for the Walnut Street Theatre in Philadelphia and the Oasis Theatre and Hippodrome State Theatre in Florida. ABOUT HORIZON Now in our 36th season, Horizon Theatre Company is a professional contemporary theatre that connects people, inspires hope, and promotes positive change through the stories of our times. Horizon brings you exciting area and world premieres of contemporary plays from around the world that are smart, funny, provocative, relevant and hopeful. Plays by today’s writers, created by Atlanta’s best professional actors, directors and designers in our intimate theatre. Since 1983, Horizon has produced over 190 contemporary plays and reaches over 35,000 patrons every year with an adventurous mix of nationally and internationally acclaimed plays and our own Atlanta stories. Horizon annually offers a mainstage season of 5-7 contemporary