Ben Thorpe is the man behind the final Bare Essentials reading in this summer’s festival, Baby Shower for the Anti-Christ, happening this Wednesday August 22 at 7:30pm.

Hi Ben! We’re looking forward to your upcoming reading. Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a local Atlanta actor and playwright, originally from Snellville, GA. I went to Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA and lived in New York City before moving back to Atlanta in 2015. I’ve acted in productions around town including ‘Hand to God’ and ‘Candide (Alliance)’, ‘Titanic’ (Serenbe), ‘Nobody Loves You’ (Horizon), and ‘Big Fish’

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The 2018 Essential Theatre Play Festival opens THIS MONTH!

The twentieth annual Essential Theatre Play Festival is almost here! Festival passes and individual tickets are now on sale. Get yours today!


Essential Artists Onstage

Are you an Essential artist? Would you like us to feature your work in our email newsletter? Let us know! Email [email protected] with details about projects you’d like us to share.

In Atlanta:

The latest scripted show at Dad’s Garage, Black Nerd opens Friday July 13 and runs through August 4.

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ANOTHER MOTHER press kit with photos

Join Essential Theatre for the professional world premiere of Another Mother, by Atlanta playwright G. M. Lupo, opening August 4.

Winner of the 2017 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, Another Mother follows the journey of Genevieve as she pieces together the mysterious identities and relationships between her biological mother, her birth mother and the mother who raised her.

Featuring the acting talents of: Rylee Bunton (Genevieve Duchard), Nina Jones (Rosalind Duchard), Kristin Storla (Abigail Worthy), Christine Vozniak (Alyssa Caine), Trey York (Steven Asher,

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ADA AND THE MEMORY ENGINE press kit with photos

July 2017 – Join us for the regional premiere production of Ada and the Memory Engine by Lauren Gunderson, opening July 28.

One of the latest plays penned by our very first Essential Theatre Playwriting Award Winner and the Most Produced Living Playwright in America in 2016, Lauren Gunderson, this play is about the world’s first computer programmer, Ada Lovelace. Described by the Huffington Post as “a rare and special artistic achievement: an intelligent play about intelligent historical people that has been crafted by intelligent theatre artists for an intelligent audience,”

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Thanks to everyone who came out to this year’s Festival Announcement Event. We had a great time!

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JOIN ESSENTIAL THEATRE AND FRIENDS ON FEBRUARY 25 AT GET SCENE STUDIOS FOR OUR 2017 FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENT EVENT!

Meet and congratulate the 2017 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner.
Be there when the 2017 Festival lineup is revealed!
Mix and mingle with past Essential playwrights and company members.
Be first in line to get your 2017 Festival Pass, which go on sale Feb 25!
Celebrating 19 years of the Essential Theatre Festival, during which we’ve produced 29 new works by 24 different Georgia playwrights, with readings of over 25 more.
Celebrating Essential’s – and Georgia’s –

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DISPOSSESSED // ESSENTIAL THEATRE PLAY FESTIVAL
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- ATLANTA, GA
downloadable press kit

DISPOSSESSED, written by Karen Wurl:
PROFESSIONAL WORLD PREMIERE

Join us for the professional world premiere of Dispossessed, by Atlanta playwright Karen Wurl, opening July 29.

Dispossessed is a romantic comic-fantasy, set in 1928 New York City, about a Yiddish theater company that is rehearsing the classic play “The Dybbuk” (in which a bride is possessed by the ghostly spirit of her dead true love on the day she is supposed to marry another man). 

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Atlanta, June 2016 – Tickets are now on sale for the 18th Annual Essential Theatre Play Festival, which kicks off in less than two months!

This summer, Essential Theatre continues its tradition of premiering the best new work by Georgia playwrights for Atlanta audiences with the 18th Annual Essential Theatre Play Festival, the eighteenth since its inception and the fifth consisting entirely of Georgia-created world premieres.

The festival runs July 29 through August 28 at the West End Performing Arts Center, located at 945 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.

This summer, audiences will see the World Premieres of Dispossessed by Karen Wurl and When Things Are Lost by Derek Dixon,

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-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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