Author Archives: jennifer

Meet your 2018 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winners!

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

And the winner is…
Essential Theatre announces the winners of the 2018 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award

February 2018 – Essential Theatre is proud to announce there are two winners of the 2018 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award: Rachel Graf Evans’ Built to Float and Avery Sharpe’s Woke.

Built to Float and Woke will both receive a full production in the 2018 Essential Theatre Festival this summer as well as a cash prize.

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The Mystery of Love and Sex

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The Mystery of Love and Sex, written by Bathsheba Doran and directed by Amber Bradshaw, has its Southeastern Premiere February 1st, 2018 – February 18th, 2018 at Out Front Theatre. Don’t miss it!

 

Deep in the American South, Charlotte and Jonny have been best friends since they were nine. She’s Jewish, he’s Christian, he’s black, she’s white. Their differences intensify their connection until sexual desire complicates everything in surprising, compulsive ways. An unexpected love story about where souls meet and the consequences of growing up.

 

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I AND YOU by Lauren Gunderson

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Essential familiar Efrem Whitaker (The Darker Face of the Earth – 2010, BeltLine & Beyond – 2017) returns to the stage in Impact Theatre’s production of I and You, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by another Essential regular, Brenda Porter.

 

Running February 9-25 at the Hapeville Performing Arts Center. Don’t miss it!

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THE MIRACULOUS JOURNEY OF EDWARD TULANE

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Essential audiences will recognize Jimmica Collins in the cast of Synchronicity Theatre’s next production, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.

“Edward Tulane, a vain porcelain rabbit, learns how to love and discovers a true miracle in Dwayne Hartford’s adaptation of the enchanting book by Kate DiCamillo (BECAUSE OF WINN DIXIE).”

Running February 2-25 with daytime and evening performances.

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“2017 was for playwrights to shine” ArtsATL Year in Review

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Year in Review: 2017 was for playwrights to shine . . . and Serenbe’s “Cabaret,” old chum

Andrew Alexander and Jim Farmer – Dec 26, 2017

This was a busy year of theater, with world premieres popping up in every corner and local companies flexing their creative muscles. ArtsATL critics Andrew Alexander and Jim Farmer saw most of the major shows during the year, and share their reflections on the productions and trends that defined 2017 in Atlanta theater…[read more]

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Celebrating 20 Years: A Look Back At The 2015 Festival

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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 seventeenth Essential Theatre Festival, in 2015.

The 2015 Essential Theatre Festival was our second one at the West End Performing Arts Center, and we had a big bump in attendance as more and more people learned about this lovely performance venue! Josh Mikel’s LILLIAN LIKES IT took a comic look at social media and Natalia Temesgen’s OLD SHIP OF ZION was about the member of a small church who begins to realize that he’s gay.

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Celebrating 20 Years: A Look Back At The 2014 Festival

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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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Celebrating 20 Years: A Look Back At The 2013 Festival

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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 fifteenth Essential Theatre Festival, in 2013.

Our second year of all-Georgia-written plays. MYSTERIOUS CONNECTIONS, which Artistic Director Peter Hardy took to the Eugene O’Neil Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, got a splendid production from director Ellen McQueen. Hardy directed the World Premiere of STRAY DOGS by Matt Myers, and Katie Grant Shalin’s SWIMMING WITH JELLYFISH was directed by Bill Murphey (who acted in the very first Essential Theatre production, back in 1987).

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Celebrating 20 Years: A Look Back At The 2012 Festival

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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 fourteenth Essential Theatre Festival, in 2012.

Continuing our look back at 20 years of Essential Theatre Festivals …
2012 was a big, big year for us, with our highest attendance and box office records ever. Not conincidentally, it was also our first year of doing ALL new work by Georgia writers!
There was Topher Payne’s EVELYN IN PURGATORY, which is now published by Samuel French and has had at least two further productions.

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