Tag Archives: Atlanta

TONIGHT AT ACADEMY THEATRE: Shirlene Holmes’s Pathways, performed by Brenda Porter

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The Academy Theatre’s been up to some pretty exciting things since their move from Avondale Estates last year. With two new homes, one in Stockbridge and one in Hapeville, the iconic Atlanta theater is growing so fast it makes your head spin.

This weekend, they’re hosting a long-time Essential family member, Brenda Porter, as she performs the one-woman show, Pathways, written by Shirlene Holmes. Pathways takes audiences on a journey through the lives of some of the most engaging, dynamic and successful African American women in our history, women who have often been overlooked or marginalized by history text books.

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Essential Director Ellen McQueen Chosen for First Atlanta Artist’s Lab

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Longtime Essential Theatre director Ellen McQueen was one of the three artists chosen by the Alliance Theatre for the first Atlanta Artist’s Lab (AAL) program, through which she will be able to further develop The Projects Project, a multi-media theatre piece about the experience of people growing up in Atlanta’s housing projects. The Projects Project began as part of the 2012 Essential production of The Local, a collaborative theater project about the City of Atlanta, developed and directed by McQueen, a citywide portrait of Atlanta that Ellen conceived and directed,

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Congratulations to Karla Jennings and Theroun D’Arcy Patterson, Winners of the 2014 Essential Theatre Playwriting Competition!

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ESSENTIAL THEATRE ANNOUNCES TWO WINNERS FOR THE 2014 PLAYWRITING CONTEST

Atlanta, January 2014 – Essential Theatre has just announced Theroun Patterson and Karla Jennings as co-winners of the 2014 Playwriting Competition.  “It’s taken us a long while to come to a decision this year,” observes Peter Hardy, Founding Artistic Director of the theatre, “because of the large number of strong submissions we received.  But we feel that both of these plays are worthy of the prizes and will be excellent contributions to our Festival this summer.” Both playwrights will receive a $600 cash prize and a full production in this summer’s Essential Theatre Festival.

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Thank you, Daniel Burnley

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I’ve been meaning to write this post for awhile now, but every time I sit down to write, I get lost in the photos, my own memories and the Facebook posts from friends of Daniel’s. It’s been almost a month, and I still can’t believe we’ve done our last show together, that I’ve seen Daniel’s amazing talent onstage for the last time. This Thanksgiving, there’s a lot to give thanks for. And through the tears that still well up for a man that, let’s face it, I worked with once a year at most, I suppose it’s fitting that it took me till Thanksgiving week to be able to say it.

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“Connecting with Deaf Audiences” Final Report

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In 2013 for the first time, sign language interpretation was offered as part of the Essential Theatre Festival. This was a pretty big undertaking for us – there’s a lot of work and a lot of money that goes into making this happen smoothly and well – and we were very excited to be bringing this new aspect into our festival.
To help fund the project, we participated in our first ever power2give crowdfunding project. If you’re not familiar with power2give, it’s actually pretty awesome, and you can learn more about it here. We’d started out hoping to raise money,

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Interview with playwright Theroun Patterson

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Interview with playwright Theroun Patterson

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Learn more about actor and playwright Theroun Patterson, winner of the 2011 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and author of this Wednesday night’s Bare Essential play, That Uganda Play

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About That Uganda Play: I originally wrote the play in late 2011-early 2012 with a staged reading of the original draft with  Working Title Playwrights and Academy Theatre in January 2012.  The play started as a sort of knee jerk reaction to reading an NPR interview with David Bahati , a Ugandan Member of Parliament that introduced his Anti-Gay Legislation,

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What do you do when you simply can’t sleep?

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Julia Fracassi can’t get to sleep. Her insomnia has ruined the relationship with her boyfriend and has made her miserable. With guidance from her friend Dr. Midge, she embarks on a hilarious journey to Venice to find answers. Come along for the journey. Learn More.

Dr. Midge’s recommendations are anything but orthodox. So, we’d like to ask for your help. Please post comments with your suggestions. Dr. Midge will consider all your suggestions and offer two free tickets to any Essential Theatre Festival performance for the best advice. We need your advice prior to July 4th, so we can help Julia get a good night’s sleep.

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Support Essential Theatre – Buy Your Essential Flex Pass Now

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If you are anything like me, you wait until the last minute to decide when to see a theatre production and expect to find a discount ticket as well. We’ve figured out a way to offer just that. Essential Theatre’s new Flex Pass gives you flexibility and discounted ticket prices while helping us raise funds before the summer festival opens. What’s more, the earlier you purchase, the larger the ticket package, the greater your savings will be. Each week as the festival opening approaches, these packages will cost just a tiny bit more. Just a small twist of the arm so that you might please consider buying your tickets now.

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Essential Theatre Preview Celebration: GA Wines & GA Playwrights

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Help celebrate Georgia playwrights, Georgia wines and Georgia theatre on June 27th at 5:30 pm at the Essential Theatre Festival Preview Celebration at the Atlanta Four Seasons Hotel. Stay tuned for more information. We would gratefully appreciate your donation of an item or service for the silent auction fundraiser. Send a message or read the attached sponsorship/donation information.

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2010 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award Winner

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The Essential Theatre is proud to announce that the winner of the 2010 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award competition is Gabriel Dean’s Qualities of Starlight, a modern southern family comedy. Gabriel Dean has been working for some years on the Atlanta scene as an actor and playwright, and is currently pursuing an M.F.A. in the Playwriting Program at the University of Texas in Austin. His play Buy My House – Please! Is currently running at the Aurora Theatre in Lawrenceville. Mr. Dean will receive a cash prize of $600.00 and Qualities of Starlight will be produced as part of the 2010 Essential Theatre Play Festival,

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