This powerful play kicks off 7Stages’ 39th season on a sobering and introspective note. Described by the New York Times as “a visionary new work of American theater,” Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo will leave you with plenty to mull over on your way home after the show. Masterful writing combined with frankly stellar performances from the entire cast and thoughtful, perceptive design and direction from the production team make for a very satisfying night at the theatre.

Laced with notes reminiscent of the performance Essential audiences saw in That Uganda Play back in 2014,

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More highlights from the 2017 Essential Theatre Play Festival
COMING SOON!

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From Conyers, GA, Josh Mikel is a playwright, filmmaker, and graphic artist. His play Lillian Likes It won Essential Theatre’s 2015 Playwriting Award. He currently plays Jared on the AMC drama The Walking Dead. His new play Shelter will have an open to the public free reading at the grand opening of The Windmill Art Center in East Point on 10/06 at 8p. You can find more of his work for purchase through Playscripts, Inc.
We sat down with Josh to talk with him about his experience of adapting BeltLine &

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Come visit Essential Theatre at the Decatur Book Festival this weekend! We have been invited to set up in The Georgia Humanities Pavilion, located in spaces #509-512 on the DBF map: on Ponce de Leon Ave., diagonal to Starbucks.

Wear your Essential orange, blue and white to show your support for Georgia playwrights, and find out more about our upcoming Art on the Atlanta BeltLine performance, BeltLine & Beyond, produced in partnership with the Wren’s Nest Scribes program and Brown Middle School.

Thanks to the Georgia Humanities Council for having us as their guests this weekend.

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CAST
Zaria Caldwell as Agent West
Armanio Vincent-Cole as Junior Agent 08 and Ghost of John T.
Sydney Williams as Ashley, Amber, Ensemble
Michael Cook as Scorch, Brad, Ensemble
Kalonjee Gallimore as Mark, Will, the Robot, Ensemble
Pamela Clem as Kamia, Ensemble
Efrem Whitaker as Elijah, the Robot, Ensemble
Directed by Brenda Porter, with fight choreography by Mia Kristin Smith and production support provided by Jennifer Kimball.

On September 23, 2017, at 4:00 in the afternoon in Gordon White Park, the Essential Theatre, the Wren’s Nest and Art on the Atlanta BeltLine joined forces to present Essential’s latest new play –

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The Essential Theatre will be holding auditions this weekend for our FIRST EVER Art on the Atlanta BeltLine production, BeltLine and Beyond, happening September 23 at Gordon White Park in West End.

BeltLine and Beyond, written by the Wren’s Nest Brown Middle School Scribes, adapted for the stage and performed by Essential Theatre, is a professional production showcasing works written by the eighth graders at Brown Middle School as part of the Wren’s Nest Scribes program Fall, 2016.

Read more about the Production

Auditions are on Saturday,

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Lee Raines (left) wrote the final Bare Essentials reading in our Festival series, Rick and Ricky. Read on to learn a little more about Lee and the play we’ll be seeing tomorrow night!

Tell us a little about yourself.
I grew up in the suburbs, of Washington DC. In 1977, a year after graduating from the Univ. of MD, I moved to New York City, and worked in the theater as a performer for about 15 years and then took a corporate marketing job at Time Inc., where I worked for over 20 years,

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Liz Dooley (right) wrote our second Festival Bare Essentials play, Valentino.

Read on to find out more about Liz and the play we’ll be seeing on Monday:

Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m originally from Downingtown, PA (almost exactly between Philadelphia and Amish country). I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BA in Theatre Arts and Psychology. I first came to Atlanta to take part in Horizon’s Young Playwright’s Festival, then again as a Playwriting apprentice in the Horizon Apprenticeship Program, and I’ve lived here ever since!

What can you tell us about the play we’ll be seeing on Monday?

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John has written for television, radio and the stage.  He is a contributing writer for Turner Classic Movies having written for the late Robert Osborne, and currently writing for host Ben Mankiewicz.  He also writers for Agatha’s – A Taste of Mystery, The Mystery café of Indianapolis, Laughing Matters, and Sketchworks.

In many ways, the play Independent is a departure for John.  And he is grateful and honored to be working with Dan Triandiflou on this production.

John has been married to his wife Amy for fourteen years and they are both thankful for their little red-haired girl June.

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Paul Donnelly (right) wrote the play we’ll be reading tonight, Falling Off the Edge.

Tell us a little about yourself.
I was born in Brooklyn, NY.  Grew up and spent most of my life in Washington, DC and the Virginia suburbs.  Spent eight years in Atlanta and just relocated to Honolulu in June with my husband, Frank Wong, our two dogs and three cats.

I’ve been writing plays since the snazziest technology available was an IBM Selectric.  The high points have been two Helen Hayes Award nominations, seeing an actor in one of those shows actually win a Helen Hayes Award,

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