Congratulations to Tre Whitley, Odelia San Diego, Beverly Sylvester, Abe Johnson, Keely 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

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The Southern Fried Bake-Off returns January 3 and 4, 2025 to start your year off right by having fun with folks from across our community, doing what we do best: making theater together.

New year, new home
Last year’s Bake-Off at CORE in Decatur was a hit. We literally had standing room only by showtime! So this year we’re thrilled to announce our move to a bigger venue: go ahead and block off Saturday evening January 4 and come spend it with us and this year’s producing partner, 7Stages!

New look,

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2024 marks the 25th Anniversary of the Essential Theatre Play Festival, and it has been a banner year.

From the Southern-Fried Bake-Off 24 Hour Play Festival in January, to our summer playwriting classes, to the array of panels and speaking events we presented or were invited to participate in, and of course our Celebration of Georgia Playwrights in April and the Silver Anniversary Play Festival in August, 2024 has been a year to remember and a powerful testament to the legacy of creativity, strength, and talent of Georgia playwrights.

In a retrospective article in ArtsATL, Luke Evans wrote, “Founding Artistic Director Peter Hardy’s goal to support Georgia playwrights from conception to full production has resulted in some of the best works of the last quarter century.”

Atlanta Magazine says,

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Monday’s Bare Essentials Play Reading is False Awakening by Jacob Ryan Martinez. Read on to learn a little more about the playwright and the play we’ll be seeing on Monday!

Jacob Ryan Martinez is an actor, writer and director originally from San Antonio, Texas. He grew up as the son of a theatre teacher and has been acting since childhood.

Jacob graduated from Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi in 2022 with a B.A. in Acting/Directing through their Honors Program. Shortly after, he moved to Atlanta with his beautiful fiancé and their dog. He has since been collaborating on many projects in theatre,

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Meet the Cast of Emily McClain’s The Rock & The Hard Place, opening August 16

Winner of the 2024 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, The Rock & The Hard Place tells the searing story of a young woman’s desperate efforts to free her innocent father from Death Row.

Featuring the acting talents of Roger Payano, Indya Bussey, Chase Steven Anderson, Durell Brown, Jennifer Brown, Mala Bhattacharya, and Ali Bhamani.

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Meet the Cast of Peter Hardy’s The Other Part of the Picture, opening August 9

Winner of playwriting prizes from the Best Script Awards – London and the New York Script Awards as well as being chosen for the Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, The Other Part of the Picture is a comic drama about friendship and storytelling, centering around a group of students who find some mysterious old letters.

Featuring the acting talents of Caleb Wilkinson, Ash Anderson, Iniki Roberts, Brock Kercher, Tommy Sullivan-Lovett, Rebecca Van Kirk, and Ellie Styron and the voiceover talents of Carolyn and Matt Cook.

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Free preshow conversation led by Amina McIntyre of Hush Harbor Lab, featuring playwright Kelundra Smith and more.

Join Hush Harbor Lab, Essential Theatre, Impact Theatre and Synchronicity Theatre for a conversation led by Amina McIntyre of Hush Harbor Lab, featuring playwright Kelundra Smith and more. Hear these powerful women speak about their own creative processes and their different paths to artistic and professional success, including The Wash‘s own journey from idea to its current World Premiere Production.

Stay after for the Pay What You Can performance of 

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Registration is now open for Essential Theatre’s online Introduction to Playwriting course, which meets on Tuesday afternoons  June through mid-July and is offered free of charge in partnership with Fulton County Arts & Culture.

Hungry for a challenge? Registration is also open for our 10 Minute Play Bootcamp, a four-week in-person playwriting intensive that concludes with a public showcase of participants’ plays as part of the 2024 Essential Theatre Play Festival.

Read what past participants have to say about their experiences, and join us!

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We’re excited to announce the lineup for the 25th Annual Essential Theatre Play Festival, which will be running from August 9 – September 1 at 7 Stages!  For our Silver Anniversary Festival we will continue our long tradition of bringing new work by Georgia playwrights to the stage by producing a repertory of two World Premiere productions, along with staged readings and other special presentations.

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.

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We are pleased and excited to announce that the 2024 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner is Emily McClain, with The Rock & The Hard Place! Her play will receive a full production in this summer’s Festival as well as a $1,000 cash prize. The 2024 Award is sponsored by Could Be Pretty Cool, our Playwriting Award Sponsor since 2021. Emily will be honored at this year’s Celebration of Georgia Playwrights event in April – plan to join us and show your support for Emily and your appreciation for Georgia’s rich dramatic heritage!

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