3
Peter Hardy

Not only is Peter the founder of Essential Theatre, he is a national award-winning playwright himself who’s had over 30 productions of his work done around the country. Named Creative Loafing’s critic’s Pick for Best LocalPlaywright in 2010, Peter recently had this to say about his hopes for the Essential Theatre:

“I hope that when playwrights work with Essential, they have the kind of experience I’d like to have when my own plays are produced at a theatre.”

But this is not a new dream. From a letter he wrote in 2008:
“When we started producing these annual festivals in 1999,

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4
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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5
Gabriel Jason Dean

After the Essential Theatre premiere in 2010, Gabriel Jason Dean and the folks at the Source Theatre Festival in Washington, D.D. Theatre made significant revisions to the play and presented it again in 2012. This marked the beginning of a streak for Essential playwrights, with most of our World Premieres since that time going on to second, third and even fourth productions.

“Peter Hardy and the Essential Theatre were an invaluable help to me. A sharp playwright himself, Peter really knows how to talk to writers. He helped me get to the heart of my big and wild story.

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6
Matthew Myers

Matthew Myers first came to Essential as an actor in 2010 and later contributed a couple of pieces to THE LOCAL, a collaborative theater project about Atlanta that premiered in the 2012 Essential Festival. The followingyear, his play STRAY DOGS won the 2013 Essential Theatre Playwriting Contest and was produced as a part of the 2013 Festival.

We’re proud to have supported Matt’s work. Won’t you support ours? 6 days left to give: https://power2give.org/go/p/8445

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7
Karla Jennings

Essential first premiered a play by Karla Jennings in 2000, IMAGES IN SMOKE, and she again won the playwriting prize in 2014 for RAVENS & SEAGULLS.

“Essential’s faith in playwrights strengthens their faith in themselves, which keeps them writing. Essential Theatre helps Georgia speak for itself. Essential Theatre’s cultural impact is far greater than its annual new play festival — the inspiration a playwright gets from being selected by Essential Theatre can fuel a writing career for years.”

We are so proud to have supported Karla’s work. Won’t you support ours?

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8
Karen Wurl

Though Essential first produced Karen’s work in 1999, in 2005 she was chosen Creative Loafing Atlanta‘s Best Local Playwright for her world premiere of MISS MACBETH in the Essential Play Festival that year.

“The pitch-perfect backstage satire mingled so cleverly with homages to ‘the Scottish play’ that the only tragedy of MISS MACBETH is that it needed to be longer — and how often can you say that about any play, let alone a new one?” -Curt Holman, CREATIVE LOAFING
(http://clatl.com/atlanta/best-local-playwright/BestOf?oid=1391336)

8 days and $615 left to give.

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9
Ellen McQueen

Long-time Essential director and friend, and one of the writers in Essential’s 2007 production, NIGHT TRAVELS, in spring of this year Ellen was one of only three artists chosen for the Alliance Theatre’s first Atlanta Writers Lab, through which she was able to further develop THE PROJECTS PROJECT, an excerpt from her 2012 Essential premiere, THE LOCAL.

“The idea of THE PROJECTS PROJECT began with two pieces from The Local—a monologue and a dance—developed from and inspired by interviews with folks who grew up in the Atlanta housing projects,” says Ellen. “I was very interested by what I learned talking with those folks and wanted to know more.

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10
Matthew Myers

Did you know that STRAY DOGS (2013) was originally submitted under a different title in 2011? Peter liked the script and offered some encouragement and feedback, and the next year Matthew re-wrote, re-titled and resubmitted it — and it won the prize!

We are proud to have supported Matthew’s work. Won’t you support ours? 10 days left to give: https://power2give.org/go/p/8445

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11
Topher Payne

Happy Birthday to today’s playwright, Topher Payne!
Topher has acted and written for Essential’s stage and provided behind-the-scenes help for years.

In an interview back in 2012, the year of our first All Georgia Playwrights festival which included his play EVELYN IN PURGATORY as well as BAT-HAMLET, in which he played the title role (pictured here), Topher had this to say about being a playwright in Atlanta:

“I don’t have dreams of Hollywood. I have dreams of making Atlanta the city I moved to when I left Mississippi. We’re the town that produced Alfred Uhry,

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Thanks to everyone who came out on Wednesday to Uncle Maddio’s in Toco Hills to celebrate with us. Click here to see some photos from the evening. It was so much fun! We have some pretty amazing friends, don’t we?

With 12 days left in our power2give campaign (https://power2give.org/go/p/8445) we are thrilled to report that we are 2/3 of the way funded. Only $1,715 to go! Thanks to everyone for the support this week and for your great support throughout the years.

AND CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR RAFFLE WINNERS:
6:00 ERIC BROOKS
7:00 ROBIN BLOODWORTH
8:00 BORNA MOTTAHED
9:00 CONNOR MCRAE
GRAND PRIZE WINNER: HANNAH KRAAR

Hourly winners each received 4 vouchers to any Hawks home game in the 2014-15 season,

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