Essential Theatre first produced a play by Theroun Patterson in 2011, A Thousand Circlets. Winner of that year’s Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike,  Circlets went on to a second production at Detroit Repertory in 2013. The premiere of this play was an early milestone in actor-turned-playwright Theroun Patterson’s transition, and since that time he has continued writing prolifically and successfully and has come to be an important voice in the burgeoning Atlanta playwrights’ scene.

Today we want to take a moment to appreciate how far he’s come,

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Theroun Patterson

We first produced a play by Theroun Patterson in 2011, A THOUSAND CIRCLETS.

A THOUSAND CIRCLETS was enthusiastically received by audiences and critics alike and went on to a second production at Detroit Repertory in 2013.

“A THOUSAND CIRCLETS is a powerful and moving piece of theatre, and Mr. Patterson has shown himself to be not merely a playwright of promise, but one of promise already realized.”
-Brad Rudy, Atlanta Theatre Buzz

In 2014 we produced another play he penned, THAT UGANDA PLAY. Theroun Patterson has become one of the most in-demand playwrights in Atlanta,

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Theroun Patterson

Just this past summer, Theroun’s THAT UGANDA PLAY was co-winner of the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and was produced in our Festival. Inspired by an interview between Rachel Maddow and David Bahati, the Ugandan Parliament member who proposed the notorious Anti-Gay bill that year in Uganda, Theround began writing this play in 2010 and developed it with Working Title Playwrights and Academy Theatre over the next couple of years. THAT UGANDA PLAY became newly relevant this year with the passing of a version of the bill whose proposal inspired the play.

We are proud to have supported Theroun’s work.

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Interview with playwright Theroun Patterson

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Learn more about actor and playwright Theroun Patterson, winner of the 2011 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and author of this Wednesday night’s Bare Essential play, That Uganda Play

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About That Uganda Play: I originally wrote the play in late 2011-early 2012 with a staged reading of the original draft with  Working Title Playwrights and Academy Theatre in January 2012.  The play started as a sort of knee jerk reaction to reading an NPR interview with David Bahati , a Ugandan Member of Parliament that introduced his Anti-Gay Legislation,

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One of the more disconcerting recent developments on the Atlanta theater scene is Theroun Patterson’s decision to stop acting, at the relatively prime age of 37. Read More

Video Interview with Essenial Theatre 2011 Playwriting Award Winner, Theroun D’Arcy Patterson

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ESSENTIAL THEATRE ANNOUNCES TWO WINNERS FOR THE 2014 PLAYWRITING CONTEST

Atlanta, January 2014 – Essential Theatre has just announced Theroun Patterson and Karla Jennings as co-winners of the 2014 Playwriting Competition.  “It’s taken us a long while to come to a decision this year,” observes Peter Hardy, Founding Artistic Director of the theatre, “because of the large number of strong submissions we received.  But we feel that both of these plays are worthy of the prizes and will be excellent contributions to our Festival this summer.” Both playwrights will receive a $600 cash prize and a full production in this summer’s Essential Theatre Festival.

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We’re proud to announce that Atlanta playwright Theroun D’arcy Patterson has been named as the winner of the 2011 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award for his script A THOUSAND CIRCLETS.

This powerful and emotional work falls into the classic tradition of the American family drama, telling the tale of an African-American clan trying to heal old wounds as they face new challenges – and just as they are poised to reach the pinnacle of their professional success, the father’s illness threatens to bring it all crashing down. The Essential Theatre Playwriting Award is the only competition of its kind,

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We’re proud to announce that Matthew Hoffman has won the 2023 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award for his play The Manuscript!

The Manuscript is a powerful and complex drama about two women, the mother and the widow of a recently deceased writer, struggling over the emotional and artistic legacy of the woman they loved and lost.

The play was part of our Bare Essentials staged reading series in the Spring of 2022, and we’re excited to give it a full production in the 2023 Essential Theatre Play Festival, which will run from July 28 through August 27 of this year at the West End Performing Arts Center.

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Continuing our look back at the past 19 years of Essential Theatre festivals, today we take a look back at the sixteenth Essential Theatre Festival, in 2014.

This was our first year at West End Performing Arts Center, and we went from doing three plays in repertory to two, so we could put more time and resources into our World Premiere productions. The Essential Theatre Playwriting Award was split between Theroun Patterson’s THAT UGANDA PLAY (his second win) and Karla Jennings’ RAVENS & SEAGULLS (it would have been her second win if we had started the contest back when we premiered her IMAGES IN SMOKE back in the 2000 Festival).

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