-by Artistic Director Peter Hardy

Getting ready for the 2016 Essential Theatre Festival, I’ve been thinking back on how our dedication to working with Georgia playwrights has developed over the past eighteen years.  We opened our first Festival in January of 1999, and from the start we knew we wanted to produce at least one new play by a Georgia writer every year.  Back then we’d collect about 30 submissions per year, mostly from the Atlanta area – for 2016 we received 80 of them, from all over the state.

In 2012 we presented our first Festival of all new work by Georgia writers,

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Last week, our power2give funding goal was met, a full WEEK before the deadline. THANK YOU to everyone that contributed to help us reach our goal. Your support is essential and we appreciate you SO MUCH:

Chelsea Steverson,
Amanda & Scott Cantrell,
Klimchak,
Deadra Moore,
Milton Sams,
Jessica Linden,
Brent Darnell,
Yolanda Asher,
Cathy Jamison,
Hank and Barbara Kimmel,
Susan and Alan Stiefel,
Aaron Gotlieb,
Patrick Hill,
Mark Perloe,
Andrea Ivory,
Thom Lori and Sydney Stanley
and Festival Sponsors Rover.com

Funds raised through this power2give campaign are making it possible for Essential to increase artist fees and provide documentation for our Playwriting Award Winners of the world premiere productions of their shows. 

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Click here to read more, or sign up for our mailing list at the bottom of the page to receive our newsletter directly!

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Congratulations to this summer’s casts for the 2016 Essential Theatre Festival!

When Things Are Lost, by Derek Dixon, directed by Amber Bradshaw
Kerwin Thompson, Alex Towers, Anthony Goolsby, Alex Van, Jill Perry, Barrett Doyle, Chelsea Steverson and Gina Rickicki

and

Dispossessed, by Karen Wurl, directed by Peter Hardy
Amelia Fischer, Jake Krakofsky, Kathleen McManus, Scott Rousseau, Alyssa Caputo, Chris Schulz, Christie Vozniak, Tony Larkin and Jacob McKee

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Now through May 25, your dollars will go twice as far when you make a donation through our power2give campaign.

All donations are 100% tax-deductible, so give today!

About the Project

Essential Theatre has been supporting Georgia playwrights and presenting new plays to Atlanta audiences since 1987. This summer, we are proud to be presenting the fifth all-Georgia Essential Theatre Play Festival from July 29 to August 28 at the West End Performing Arts Center (945 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30310).

In 2011, five years ago this summer, we presented our first festival exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights.

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The Essential Theatre will hold General Auditions for its 2016 season on March 19, from 12:30 – 5:30 p.m. We’ll be seeing people in the Atlanta Jugglers’ Association room in the Little Five Points Community Center (where Horizon Theatre is located) at 1083 Austin Avenue, Atlanta, GA 30307.

Please bring headshot and resume and prepare two contrasting monologs whose total running time will be no more than four minutes. For an appointment time, e-mail Peter Hardy.

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Co-winner of the 2016 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, Karen Wurl is a playwright, dramaturg, director, teacher, and semi-retired slam poet. She’s spent half her life in Chicago, half her life in Atlanta, and the extra bits in Michigan, Wisconsin and Texas. Her plays include Transference, Kim’s Theory about the Struggle Between Good and Evil, Only Children, The Play about Frank, Death or Serious Injury Can Occur, The Secret Life of the Proletariat, Miss Macbeth, Vampires, Now and at the Hour Of, Daughter of Fate: The True Story of a Caterer, In Which I Lose My Virginity to My Best Friend’s Older Brother,

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Co-winner of the 2016 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, Derek Dixon originally hails from Raleigh, North Carolina. He studied at Marymount Manhattan College and acting at the The Terry Schreiber Studio in New York. He’s performed in plays including The Lion in Winter, Romeo and Juliet, and The Boys In The Band and has written several full length plays in the last five years, including Homewrecker, Red Snow, Pictures of People, Work of Art, and Green Light. In 2015 he joined Working Title Playwrights, with whom he workshopped the play we’ll be seeing this summer.

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