Out of Hand Theater’s 25th Anniversary Season
Imagining an America for ALL
This year marks 25 years of Radically Local, Fiercely Collaborative, Unapologetically Hopeful theater.
Out of Hand Theater works at the intersection of art, social impact, and civic engagement, creating a more just world through programs that combine theater and film with information and conversation.
As we mark 25 years, we are taking on our boldest theme yet: Imagining an America for ALL. This theme asks us to reflect on who belongs, whose voices are heard, and how art can move us toward a shared future. We believe: Art + Information + Conversation = Social Change.
We meet people where they are: homes, schools, offices, and community spaces, because the most powerful stories are told where people already feel safe, seen, and heard. We partner with community leaders, educators, and organizations to co-create stories that disrupt systems, disarm fear, connect strangers across differences, and set the table for social change.
This Season
🏠 Shows in Homes: Prisontown
This year’s Shows in Homes production is Prisontown by Lee Osorio. A writer goes home to Lumpkin, GA, home to one of the nation's largest immigration detention centers, and witnesses the barbarity of the nation's immigration crisis, and a small town torn by poverty and the prison industry. Written by and starring former Out of Hand Associate Artistic Director, Lee Osorio. 40 performances in living rooms across Metro Atlanta paired with cocktail parties and conversations with community partners, including El Refugio.
🍽️ Equitable Dinners
A meal, a play, and a conversation. Equitable Dinners bring together strangers and friends to spark connection and change. This year includes:
Thriving Together Atlanta: part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Public Art Challenge, produced in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Out of Hand, and the National Black Arts Festival. These dinners invite metro Atlanta neighbors to share a meal and a conversation about health equity and shared futures.
Equitable Dinners @ Work: our award-winning model adapted for workplaces, combining a short play with facilitated dialogue to help teams reduce conflict, build trust, and create stronger cultures of connection.
⭐ We Hold These Truths
As America marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, We Hold These Truths invites reflection through art and conversation. Four playwrights are being commissioned to create original short plays, shaped by community listening sessions that ground the work in local stories and perspectives. Each play becomes the spark for a shared meal and guided dialogue, offering multiple viewpoints on American identity.
🎓 Creative Kids
Creative Kids is a free program in under-resourced Metro Atlanta schools and after-school programs. It equips students with creativity, collaboration, and communication skills to succeed in school and in life. We treat imagination as a civic skill, helping young people see themselves as storytellers, collaborators, and future change-makers.
🤝 Community Collaborations
Community Collaborations are co-created with civic leaders, nonprofits, and changemakers to address urgent issues. Projects have ranged from housing insecurity and racial justice to vaccine access and child trafficking prevention. By centering community voices, these collaborations use art as a catalyst for empathy, dialogue, and action.
Why It Matters
We believe in the power of art to open hearts, increase empathy, and inspire social change. Imagining an America for ALL is not only our season theme, it is a call to action. This year, we are setting the table for dialogue, holding space for stories that need to be heard, and working with communities to imagine and create a future that belongs to everyone.
Join Us
Be part of our 25th Anniversary Season. Attend a Show in Homes or an Equitable Dinner. Partner with us to co-create bold new work. Support Creative Kids. Give to Out of Hand to help fuel the next 25 years.