THE 2008 ESSENTIAL THEATRE

POWER PLAYS FESTIVAL

The Essential Theatre is pleased to announce that the winner of their 2008 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award competition is WEST OF EDEN, written by Letitia Sweitzer of Atlanta. [video interview]

Ms. Sweitzer’s play, a comedy about Adam and Eve in middle age, will be produced as part of the Essential Theatre’s 2008 Power Plays Festival, running in June and July in the Backstage Theatre at Seven Stages.  The playwright will also receive a cash prize of $500.  In 2005, Ms. Sweitzer won the Georgia Theatre Conference One-Act Play Competition for THE LAST GOOD DEED, and a longer version of that script was produced last year at Theatre Decatur.  Other short plays of hers have been performed in Atlanta and New York City.

The Essential Theatre Playwriting Award is the only prize of its kind, exclusively dedicated to the work of Georgia playwrights, providing both a cash prize and a full production. 

Essential Theatre Power Plays Festival 2008

The Essential Theatre is proud to announce the line-up for the 2008 Power Plays Festival, to be presented in the Backstage Theatre at 7 Stages from June 27-July 27.  This will be our tenth year of presenting exciting new plays to Atlanta audiences – all we do our World Premieres and Regional Premieres.

In addition to WEST OF EDEN, our playwriting award winner, the Festival will include the Southeastern Premiere of Paul Rudnick’s hilarious comedy VALHALLA, [video] a wild historical fantasy about Ludwig, the Mad King of Bavaria.  Rudnick is the author of I HATE HAMLET, JEFFREY and one of our favorite past Essential shows, THE MOST FABULOUS STORY EVER TOLD.

“Paul Rudnick’s most ambitious and…his strongest work yet.” —The New Republic. “You can be sure that a winsomely wicked bon mot will fly by every minute or so.” —NY Times. “…a juggling act skillful enough to revive vaudeville.” —Village Voice.  

We’ll also be presenting the Georgia Premiere of Gina Gionfriddo’s AFTER ASHLEY, [video] the powerful story of a boy trying to find himself in the media circus following his mother’s murder.   First produced by the Humana Festival in Louisville, AFTER ASHLEY went on to a successful run in New York.

“Shrewd, dark comedy…absorbing and wholly unpredictable…AFTER ASHLEY is a work that virtually any audience would find accessible.” —NY Times. “Sick, ugly, and brilliantly funny…and wise.  In Gionfriddo’s plays, as in all great plays, no one is wrong, everyone is right.” —Brooklyn Rail. “Write down the name Gina Gionfriddo. Deft characterization, caustic humor, and well-deployed nips at the American slack moral conscience make AFTER ASHLEY, Ms. Gionfriddo’s acidic puree of modern culture at The Vineyard, one of the necessary shows to see this year…a play for the decade.” —NY Sun.  

	Valhalla: a behind the scenes look at rehearsal
	Before After Ashley

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Honors and Success for Previous Winners

Jean Sterrett, winner of our 2007 competition for FIX ME SO I CAN STAND, was recently named “Best Local Playwright” by Creative Loafing, who said “Sterrett showed such a vivid sense of place that Atlanta’s larger playhouses should give her work a look.” Previous winners Karen Wurl and Lauren Gunderson, were also named “Best Local Playwright” by Creative Loafing in the years their plays were produced.

Lauren Gunderson was our first prize-winner, in 2001, and won again in 2004.  She's doing very well now, has been produced and received commissions around the country, and is currently in the MFA playwriting program at NYU. Her play, The VanGogh Cafe is being produced by Synchronicity Performance Group.

Valetta Anderson, who won the Essential Prize for LEAVING LIMBO, will have her newest play, HALLELEUJAH STREET BLUES, produced by Atlanta’s Horizon Theatre in July of 2008.

Larry Larson and Eddie Levi Lee’s CHARM SCHOOL, winner of the Essential Prize in 2006, went on to a very successful second production at Horizon Theatre, who will be reviving it in January of 2008. The play was recently honored with the Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award, part of Atlanta’s city-wide Suzi Bass Awards program.

Essential Multimedia

Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts Podcasts with artistic director, Peter Hardy

Part I
Part II

YouTube 2007 Videos

	Mrs. Bob Behind the Scenes
	Fix Me So I Can Stand
	Night Travels

Essential Theatre News

Artistic Director Peter Hardy's play FLOOR PILLOWS was recently performed in the Nantucket Short Play Festival.  Both that play and Hardy's MOON ACTION were finalists in that Festival's Short Play Competition.This past fall his play LUBRICANT was produced in New York City, while COUPLES THERAPY premiered at the Pittsburgh New Works Festival.

With strong reviews and great audiences, things got even better when we were awarded Theatre Emory's $2,000 Pat Miller Playmaking Award for our work to develop and produce new plays by Georgia writers! We’ve also received a grant from Fulton County – the first government funding we’ve ever applied for.

In 2007, the Essential Theatre was selected to become a client of Community Consulting Teams-Atlanta ("CCT").  CCT is an all-volunteer, nonprofit organization of Atlanta area MBAs and senior professionals whose purpose is to help nonprofit and public sector organizations in our communities address some of the strategic issues they encounter in furthering their missions.  CCT is currently reviewing the Essential's strategic and marketing initiatives.  The Essential awaits CCT's recommendations, which will be finalized in Summer 2007.

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Wish List
If you are a professional photographer and videographer and would like to help us document the upcoming festival, please contact Peter Hardy. If you'd like to help the Essential Theatre, there are lots of ways you can get involved! We're always on the lookout for free (or inexpensive) copying or printing services. Free or inexpensive paint, wood and other building materials are needed every year. Free rehearsal space can help us save money and get our productions ready to open. Free storage space (cool and dry) for set pieces, costumes and lighting equipment would be very useful to us.

And, of course, cash donations are always welcome! As ticket prices cover a small fraction of our productoin costs we especially appreciate our donors. Essential Theatre is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization so your donations are tax deductible. Please help us to support new work by Georgia Playwrights! Make a donation or become a sponsor today!

The Essential Theatre is a proud member of the

Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts.

Funding is provided by the Fulton County Board of Commissioners under the guidance of the Fulton County Arts Council and the Georgia Council for the Arts