Congratulations to Tre Whitley, Odelia San Diego, Beverly Sylvester, Abe Johnson, Keely L. Herrick, Topher Payne, and Amanda Vick, the 2025 Southern Fried Bake-Off Playwrights!
Don’t miss out on this fun and creative way to jumpstart your new year. Watch creativity unfold! Witness the magic firsthand as playwrights, actors, and crew collaborate for an exhilarating 24 hours to create brand-new plays inspired by a Bake-Off theme and a list of “ingredients.”
Tickets to the 7pm public performance on January 4 are NOW available at EssentialTheatre.Tix.com.
*proudly brought to you by Essential Theatre and 7Stages
About the playwrights:
Tre’ Whitley is a professional actor and writer from North Little Rock, AR. I have my BA in Theatre Arts where I focused on playwrighting and acting. I have performed in 6 different states and have had my original works accepted into the Atlanta black Theatre Festival.
Odelia San Diego was raised by wild dogs (and her family) in the forest of Patagonia, Kingdom of Chile. Then, this Chilean story-teller came to the US to steal hearts and laughs through dark comedy and auto-biographical stories. Her writing works include: “Love is (Not) Enough,” “Elevenses,” and “Silver Needle”
Beverley Sylvester is a theater-maker, poet, composer, and musician whose work was most recently seen on Essential’s stage in the 2023 Bare Essentials Play Reading Series in that year’s Essential Theatre Play Festival. To read more about her, visit bfsylvester.com.
Abe Johnson is a two-time Lambda Literary Playwriting Fellow, a resident playwright with Triboro Producers Club (NYC), and has developed plays with Workshop Theater (NYC), the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center Intern/Apprentice Companies, and around Atlanta with Synchronicity, Essential, Theatrical Outfit, and Working Title Playwrights.
Keely L. Herrick is a writer based in Atlanta, Georgia. She studied playwriting at New York University and holds a BA and a JD from NYU. In addition to writing dark and twisty comedies, she is a trademark attorney with her own firm (www.kherricklaw.com). Her one-act play LIZ FRANK received a staged reading in this past summer’s Essential Theatre Play Festival. IG: Insomniacorsage.
Topher Payne is an Atlanta playwright, currently at work on a play about the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, and the cat who did it before her. His play EVELYN IN PURGATORY won the 2012 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and has since been published by Samuel French. A man of many talents, he has also performed in numerous Essential Festivals over the years.
Amanda Vick’s love of writing began in her childhood before taking her to New York City to study acting at William Esper Studio and improv with Upright Citizens Brigade. She now writes sketches and news satire with Sketchworks Comedy. Her ten minute plays have been produced at Onstage Atlanta and Onion Man Productions (now Vidalia Theatre Company).
