Matt Hoffman is the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner with his second full-length play, A Very Special Hospital. Read on to learn what this two-time Essential Playwriting Award Winner has been up to since The Manuscript‘s premiere in 2023 and what he’s got in store for us this summer!

ET: Hi Matt! Congratulations on winning your second Essential Playwriting Award!

MH: Thank you! It feels wonderful and also too good to be true.

ET: Well we’re thrilled to have you back. What can you tell us about the play we’ll be seeing this summer?

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The Essential Theatre, Inc. is holding the “Sand and Serenity Raffle” to support the production of the 2025 Essential Theatre Play Festival. Tickets will be sold until 4pm on August 31, 2025. The drawing will take place at 5pm on August 31, 2025, at Seven Stages (1105 Euclid Avenue NE, Atlanta, GA 30307).

The Prize for the Winner is a three-night stay at a privately owned beach house on Daufuskie Island, S.C. (Value: $1,050). Restrictions apply (see below).

Get Raffle Tickets!

Terms and Conditions for the “Sand and Serenity Raffle”
1.

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A one of a kind summer soirée you won’t want to miss!

On July 24, Join the artists and board of the Essential Theatre for a very special summer soirée bursting with theatrical flavor and Southern sass to champion the bold voices of Georgia playwrights.

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Join us on July 24 and enjoy:

⭐️ Sips & snacks
⭐️ Pop-up performances
⭐️ A silent auction
⭐️ Fun and games!

All in support of Essential Theatre and new work from the Georgia voices you’ll be bragging about in ten years.

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Purchase your Festival Pass or sign up for a summer playwriting class today!

Festival Passes

Purchase a Festival Pass to guarantee priority access to your preferred dates for this summer’s shows!

Available in Two-, Four-, and Eight-Ticket increments, Festival Passes are redeemable for individual tickets of the Pass holder’s choosing, subject to availability at the time of redemption.

Festival Pass holders will have 48 hour early access on July 5 and 6 to redeem your pass for individual tickets and ensure you get seats according to your preferred schedule before tickets become available to the general public on July 7.

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Join Essential Theatre on Saturday May 17 for a Celebration of Georgia Playwrights!

Meet the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award Winner, Matt Hoffman, and celebrate Essential’s – and Georgia’s – rich theatre tradition and the community in which our playwrights grow and thrive.

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At the Celebration of Georgia Playwrights, you’ll get to:

Mix and mingle with folks who, like you, are proud of the literary and dramatic heritage of the place we call home. 

Meet the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner, Matt Hoffman, and hear about his play, which we’ll be premiering at the 2025 Essential Theatre Play Festival this summer.

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Congratulations to Matt Hoffman, two-time winner of the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award with his new play, A Very Special Hospital, just announced as the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner.

Essential Theatre is proud to announce the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner, Matt Hoffman, for his script A Very Special Hospital.  His play will receive a full production in the 2025 Essential Theatre Play Festival this summer as well as a $1,000 cash prize. Started in 2001, the Essential Theatre Playwriting Competition is the only competition of its kind, exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights and awarding both a cash prize and a full production. 

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The deadline for the 2026 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award competition is April 23, 2025.

The only competition exclusively dedicated to the work of Georgia playwrights, the winning play will receive both a full production and a $1,000 cash prize. Playwrights must be current Georgia residents, and the plays must be previously unproduced. There are no restrictions as to style, length or subject matter.

Email your script to [email protected] or submit it here today:

Submit a play

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Now through May 1, submit your video submissions for our General Auditions! 

Submit your video audition to [email protected] by May 1, 2025. Auditions should consist of two contrasting monologues with a total length of no more than four minutes.

Please use subject line: [YOUR NAME] GENERAL AUDITION.

PLEASE NOTE: The 2025 Essential Theatre Play Festival will take place August 8-31, 2025 at 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta, GA. Rehearsals will take place in various locations in the metro area, generally during weekday evenings and weekend days in July and August.

This summer’s Festival will feature the World Premiere production of Matt Hoffman’s A Very Special Hospital (winner of the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award),

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Congratulations to Tre Whitley, Odelia San Diego, Beverly Sylvester, Abe Johnson, Keely L. Herrick, Topher Payne, and Amanda Vick, the 2025 Southern Fried Bake-Off Playwrights!

Don’t miss out on this fun and creative way to jumpstart your new year. Watch creativity unfold! Witness the magic firsthand as playwrights, actors, and crew collaborate for an exhilarating 24 hours to create brand-new plays inspired by a Bake-Off theme and a list of “ingredients.”

Tickets to the 7pm public performance on January 4 are NOW available at EssentialTheatre.Tix.com.

*proudly brought to you by Essential Theatre and 7Stages

About the playwrights:

Tre’

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