The Magnolia Ballet at Shotgun Players

The Magnolia Ballet is a tale of four men: a son, a lover, an ancestor, and a father. They dance in the sticky heat of a rural, Southern Gothic landscape fraught with secrets and possibilities. With expansive poetry and whispered prose, this piece finds love underneath the bloom of fresh magnolias.

Shotgun Players presents Terry Guest’s award-winning play, The Magnolia Ballet, running July 12–August 10 at the Ashby Stage. Directed by AeJay Antonis Marquis, this poetic Southern Gothic tale follows Z, a Black, queer teen in small town Georgia, as he explores deeper love and the legacies of Southern masculine identity. Haunted by the ghosts of elders past – and all their secrets – this immersive production blends surreal elements, dance and music while inviting the audience closer to its raw emotion to with intimate on-stage seating.