Interactive Play NUTT AND BOLT Spotlights Upcycling at Arts on the Horizon

Arts on the Horizon, an interactive theatre for children ages zero to six, is excited to announce the premiere of Nutt and Bolt, the story of two rival robots who unite to create something fantastic together.

With playful beeps, bops, and competitive frenzy, two robots, Nutt and Bolt, spend their days using random junkyard objects in creative games of skill and sound until they soon realize that by working together, they can make something even more wonderful than they could on their own. Specifically designed for children ages 2-6, Nutt and Bolt features props, costumes, and sets created entirely out of upcycled or recycled objects to inspire a child's transformative power of imagination and their own ability to make ordinary objects into something extraordinary.

Nutt and Bolt is created and directed by Matt Bassett, a Helen Hayes nominated director and a proud company member of Arts on the Horizon. Additionally, Matt is the Associate Artistic Director of The Hub Theatre in Fairfax, VA, where he directed Failure: A Love Story and Typographer's Dream. An area teaching artist, Matt has worked with Montgomery College, Imagination Stage, and the National Academy of Dramatic Arts. He has served as a chair for the Metropolitan School of the Arts, and has directed for Kaiser Permanente's Educational Theatre Programs. For Arts on the Horizon, he directed and created Under the Canopy (2014) and Out of the Box (2012) with his wife, Tia Shearer.

The cast includes Justin J. Bell (Nutt) and Daven Ralston (Bolt). Justin J. Bell is a DC-area actor, writer, and director. He is a company member and teaching artist with Synetic Theater, where he was most recently seen onstage in Dante's Inferno. Justin is also a teaching artist for GALA Hispanic Theater's Paso Nuevo, Art 180 in Richmond Public Schools, and Smithsonian's Tools of Discovery. Daven Ralston is a DC-area actor who was recently seen in The Hub Theatre'sThe Magi, and has worked with such area companies as WSC Avant Bard, The Kennedy Center MFA Playwrights' Workshop, Center Stage, and Young Playwrights Theater. She was last seen at Arts on the Horizon in Snow Day.

Costumes will be designed by Julie Cray Leong. Sound Designer and DC-area composer Patrick Calhoun will helm Nutt and Bolt's expansive soundscape. Alexandria's own Susan Miranda, Co-Founder and Artistic Programs Director of UpCycle, will serve as the UpCycle Consultant for Nutt and Bolt's set and props.

Nutt and Bolt is supported in part by the Alexandria Commission for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.

Performances run March 8-25, 2017 at the Lab Theatre at Convergence: 1819 N. Quaker Lane, Alexandria, VA, 22302. Schedule: March 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23 and 24 at 10:30am; March 11, 18*, and 25 at 10am and 11:30am. *Sign-Interpreted Performance on March 18, 2017 at 11:30am.

Tickets are $9 for children and adults and can be purchased online at www.ArtsOnTheHorizon.org. Children under 12 months old are admitted free of charge.

Arts on the Horizon offers a military family rate of $6 per ticket for all performances in Virginia. Active duty military personnel and their family can purchase these discounted tickets directly on the website and will need to show a current military ID when picking up their tickets on the day of the performance.

For a full schedule of times and ticket purchase information, visit: www.artsonthehorizon.org/nutt-and-bolt.html.

Additionally, Nutt and Bolt will be presented at the Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St NE, Washington, DC 20002 from March 29-April 2, 2017. For the performances at the Atlas, tickets can be purchased at www.atlasarts.org.

Arts on the Horizon, founded in 2009, is a non-profit theatre with a specific focus of providing performances and education programs for the very young. Our performances are designed to take place in an intimate setting where children not only feel comfortable to learn and explore, but are also an integral part of the performance. We have the utmost respect for children and want what may be their first theatrical performance to entertain them, challenge them, spark creativity and enhance the imaginative play in which many children this age engage. Since 2011, our non-verbal productions have been performed on the Kennedy Center's Millennium Stage, Atlas Performing Arts Center, Workhouse Arts Center, The Athenaeum and other venues and schools in the DC metro area. In Spring of 2015, Arts on the Horizon's show, Blossom's Rainbow, was an event of the 2015 National Cherry Blossom Festival. Arts on the Horizon was honored to be nominated for The 2016 John Aniello Award for Outstanding Emerging Theatre Company.

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