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Peter Hardy

Not only is Peter the founder of Essential Theatre, he is a national award-winning playwright himself who’s had over 30 productions of his work done around the country. Named Creative Loafing’s critic’s Pick for Best LocalPlaywright in 2010, Peter recently had this to say about his hopes for the Essential Theatre:

“I hope that when playwrights work with Essential, they have the kind of experience I’d like to have when my own plays are produced at a theatre.”

But this is not a new dream. From a letter he wrote in 2008:
“When we started producing these annual festivals in 1999, it seemed to us that the best way for us to help Georgia writers was to give their plays a full production, rather than the staged readings which were pretty commonplace back then. I’m a playwright myself, and I’ve had productions and workshops and staged readings of my plays done all over the country — and there’s no question in my mind that you can learn more about a play from a full out production than from even the best-intentioned reading. The set, the lights, the costumes, the (rehearsed!) actors, the audience — they’re all vital to the theatre experience, and to the fulfillment of the playwrights’ vision.”

We’re proud to support Peter’s vision and work, and we’re committed to always doing our best to serve our Georgia playwrights. Won’t you support us? 3 days left to give: https://power2give.org/go/p/8445