Join us on August 10 at 2pm for the dramatic conclusion of this year’s 10-Minute Play Bootcamp, a public showcase of brand new 10-Minute Plays sure to delight and entertain!
Featuring brand new 10-Minute Plays by our Bootcamp playwrights read by local Atlanta actors.
Join us on August 12, 20 and 27 at 7:30pm for developmental readings of four new plays.
All readings in the Bare Essentials series are free and open to the public. Be sure to stay after for exciting conversation with the director, cast and playwright!
The 2024 Bare Essentials Play Reading series will feature four new plays by Georgia playwrights:
Aug 12 – FALSE AWAKENING by Jacob Ryan Martinez, directed by Lilliangina Quiñones
In shards of glass like the pieces of a shattered mirror, we see a man running away from his feelings of failure as a husband and father and from the fear of his own sexuality.
One night only: August 22, 2024 at 7:30pm
African Roscius: a black in the box play by Marlon Andrew Burnley is a journey into a liminal realm where an enigmatic Maker conjures masks that unveil the told and untold narratives of Black history. Centered on the life and impact of Ira Aldridge, this one-man show transcends time and space to celebrate a legacy of resilience and artistic innovation.
Cast:
O’Neil Delaphena
Artistic Team:
Playwright: Marlon Andrew Burnley
Director: Mia Kristin Smith
Dramaturg: Anterior Leverett
Stage Manager: Erika Toney
Meet the Playwright
Marlon Andrew Burnley has a passion for community engagement.
For one night only on August 29, Essential Theatre presents Bridget McCarthy’s Fat Juliet.
A hopeful and painfully comic journey through love, loss, loneliness, purity culture, religious trauma, eating disorders and the death of a parent.
Audience Advisories: contains references to many challenging themes, including racism, loss of a parent, purity culture, and sexual assault. For a complete and specific content note, click here.
The performance runs approximately 70 minutes with no intermission.
Performance Schedule
One performance only!
Thursday, August 29, 7:30pm
From the Artist:
I couldn’t be more stoked!
Entering the repertory on August 16 will be Emily McClain’s The Rock & The Hard Place, a powerful drama about a young woman’s desperate efforts to free her innocent father from Death Row. Emily’s play is the winner of the 2024 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, the competition that is exclusively dedicated to the work of Georgia writers, with the winner getting both a full production and a cash prize of $1,000.
Audience Advisories: This play deals with serious issues regarding injustice and the death penalty. There will be physical violence and a gunshot onstage.
Opening the Festival on August 9 will be The Other Part of the Picture, a comic drama about a group of students who find a mysterious batch of old letters in the house two of them are living in. Written by Essential’s Founding Artistic Director Peter Hardy, it’s won playwriting prizes from the New York Script Awards and the Best Script Awards – London. It was also chosen for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, where it was given a staged reading. This will be the play’s World Premiere production.
Audience Advisories: Adult language and sexual situations
Join us at 2pm on Saturday August 12 as Essential’s 10-Minute Play Bootcamp dramatically concludes with a public showcase of brand new 10-Minute Plays sure to delight and entertain!
Join us on August 14, 22 and 29 for developmental readings of four new plays. All readings in the Bare Essentials series are free and open to the public. Be sure to stay after for exciting conversation with the director, cast and playwright!
written and performed by Carolyn Cook
Two nights only: August 30 and 31, 2023 at 7:30pm
6:30-7:30 pm – Resource Fair; Performance at 7:30 pm
In this autobiographical play, a woman sets out to meet her loved ones with dementia where they are — and returns with a guidebook for fellow travelers.
Covering fifty years in twenty minutes, Walk With Me leads into a discussion about positive caregiving with social worker Anne McSweeney, owner of CEU Creations. Join us for evening of warmth and discovery for families,
One night only: August 24, 2023 at 7:30pm
A comedy following writer Lena and her titular character Yanni Stone as Lena completes the daunting task of writing her first play all while navigating dating, sex, and virginity in modern day Atlanta, audiences had the chance to experience an earlier draft of during Synchronicity Theatre’s Stripped Bare Arts Incubator Series in April.
Cast:
Lena, Yanni Stone – Azhane Kennedy
Gran, Dr. Graham, Cobweb 1 – Carlette Jennings
Leo, Jonathan – Kaleb Mitchell
Amber, Woman,
