Two shows for the price of one at Dad’s Garage! The first half is Dad’s classic long form improv show. The second half features Topher Payne, who is an Essential veteran, one of Atlanta’s premier playwrights and a (we’re totally being serious about this) Hallmark channel movie writer. Topher will narrate as the Dad’s gang improvise a Hallmark movie right before your eyes.

Shows on Dec 7 and Dec 21 at 10:30pm.
dadsgarage.com for tickets.

UPDATE:  Dec 28 added performance was a success:

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Morningside, by Topher Payne, opens at the end of this month at Georgia Ensemble Theatre in Roswell, and it is absolutely rife with Essential names – starting, of course, with the playwright himself!

Directed by Shannon Eubanks, whose adroit direction Essential audiences got to enjoy during 2015’s world premiere of Lillian Likes It, more than half of Morningside’s cast have appeared on Essential’s stage in productions past, including Kelly Criss, Gina Rickicki, Ellen McQueen and Ann Wilson.

Described as The Women meets Steel Magnolias meets The Real Housewives,

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Shared by Breaking Character Magazine, a Samuel French publication, a great interview with beloved Essential and Atlanta playwright Topher Payne:

writers-room-with-topher-payne-breaking-character

Here at Samuel French, we strive to find exciting voices in the playwright community, and bring them to a wider audience. This year, one of the new writers we welcomed to our catalog is the remarkable Topher Payne. For those of you unfamiliar with Topher’s plays, get ready…read more

Only two days left: 

become a part of the Essential tradition –

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Atlanta playwright Topher Payne made his New York debut earlier this month with “Perfect Arrangement,” what the New York Times calls a “frothy but ultimately dark comedy” about two State Department employees hiding their same sex relationships during the Pink Scare of the 1950s…Click here to read the full article.

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Click here to read the full article.

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by Parker Hilley

Topher Payne, onstage soon at Steppenwolf next month! Payne’s Angry Fags is presented by Pride Films and Plays as part of the Garage Rep at the renowned Steppenwolf in Chicago. Originally premiered right here in Atlanta at 7Stages Theatre in Little Five Points,  Angry Fags shows what happens when “activism gets angry.” Described as an “Oscar Wilde-meets-‘Fight Club’ fever dream about how good ideas go bad,” the play is a riveting foray into American politics, bomb building, and pistachios. Opening February 20,

Since its inception in 2010,

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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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Topher Payne

You know him for his recent prolific writings: the Lakebottoms (Proper and Prime), Angry Fags, Swell Party and more, to include his 2012 Essential premiere, Evelyn in Purgatory.

Or maybe you know him because you’ve seen him onstage, or because of the column he’s written for years.

Regardless of HOW you know him, it’s likely that, in some capacity, you DO know him. So for today’s post, here’s a “baby picture” of one of Atlanta’s favorite playwrights and personalities, Topher Payne, who has appeared on Essential’s stage many times over the years but was first cast in our 2001 production of Lauren Gunderson’s PARTS THEY CALL DEEP.

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Today, to spice up the final 40 days of our fall power2give campaign, we’re kicking off a new series of Facebook and website posts:

“40 Days of Essential Playwrights”

Join us every morning at 10am for our next post celebrating a fun fact about one of the fantastic playwrights whose work we have produced over the past — can you believe it? — 27 years!

To kick off the countdown:

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Prolific playwright and Atlanta personality, Topher Payne!

Among his many other, wildly popular accomplishments, Topher acted in our first prize winning play (Lauren Gunderson’s PARTS THEY CALL DEEP) and has gone on to appear in four other Essential productions.

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July/August 2012 – Simply Buckhead: Topher Payne: Actor/Playwright on a roll. Actor/playwright Topher Payne lives in Decatur, but seems to be practically everywhere. In the upcoming year he’ll premier new scripts at area playhouses from Roswell’s Georgia Ensemble Theatre to 7 Stages in Little Five Points, to the Springer Opera House in Columbus.