a post in The Dramatist Blog.

“September has always marked the moment of New Beginnings for me—under the turning leaves and crisping air in my Oregon home town all plans seemed grand, anything was possible, and folks were sure to be impressed by the latest revision of me. I was thinking about all that while taking in Rachel Graf Evans’ intelligently quirky play Built to Float at The Essential Theatre Play Festival in late August and then discussing it with the play director Peter Hardy. To put things into perspective, Hardy is also the Founding Artistic Director of the Essential which is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year.

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“Celebrating 20 seasons of developing new plays by Georgia playwrights, Essential Theatre has launched the careers of some of the nation’s most important contemporary writers.” -Atlanta Magazine

We’re so proud to have been named Best New Play Incubator of 2018 in December’s issue of Atlanta Magazine! It’s a heartwarming and inspiring way to round out an already pretty incredible year!

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Thanks to Sara E. Crawford for shining a spotlight on Essential’s own Peter Hardy this week!

“Today, the talented Atlanta playwright and founding Artistic Director of the Essential Theatre, Peter Hardy, stops by to talk about his creative process. I first met Peter in a group called the Working Title Playwrights in Atlanta….” Read more…

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Come see Essential regulars Alex Van and Philip Mertz, along with the rest of their talented cast, in Pinch ‘n’ Ouch’s current production of Fool for Love by Sam Shepard! Runs two more weekends, with Industry Night this coming Monday night.

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“Every time I see Godot, I become more convinced that its secret stars are Pozzo and Lucky (Bart Hansard and Matt Baum), the indelibly weird master and servant…Hansard makes a delightful comedic meal of the role, with dainty body language, infantile mood swings and puffed-up prideful moments.”
-Curt Holman, ArtsATL

Running now through October 14,  catch Essential family member Bart Hansard as Pozzo in 7 Stages’ 40th season opener, Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett. Lots of other Essential friends have worked behind the scenes to bring this production to life as well: Efrem Whitaker (2010 Darker Face of the Earth and 2017 BeltLine &

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Now through October 14, you can catch Suzanne Roush (most recently seen just this past summer in our world premiere production of WOKE) in A Red Plaid Shirt at Stage Door Players in Dunwoody.

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Closing THIS SUNDAY October 12, Nomad Hotel features Essential family members Kevin Qian and Ashley Anderson in the lead roles.

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BY PHILLIP DEPOY
SEP 29 – OCT 28, 2018
HERTZ STAGE

Now through October 28 on the Hertz Stage, Nick’s Flamingo Grill by Atlanta’s own Phillip DePoy and featuring a host of familiar faces from Essential’s stage throughout the years, including Robin Bloodworth, Dan Triandiflou, Cordell Cole, and from our most recent festival, Fred Galyean (WOKE) and Asia Howard (Bare Essentials reading: BABY SHOWER FOR THE ANTI-CHRIST).

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Essential Theatre was graciously hosted by Georgia Humanities, in the Humanities Pavilion of the Decatur Book Festival, for the second year in a row, and we had a great time! We got visits from several familiar faces throughout the weekend, and we made lots of new friends too!

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Today we had some special guests in the audience: Lionell Thomas and Emmitt Stevenson, directors of long-standing Essential supporting organization, the Fulton County Arts Council.

What a great way to close out the Festival! Today FCAC Directors Lionell Thomas and Emmitt Stevenson joined us for our closing performance of WOKE. (pictured L to R: Essential Artistic Director Peter Hardy, FCAC Director Lionell Thomas, WOKE director Ellen McQueen, WOKE playwright Avery Sharpe, and FCAC Director Emmitt Stevenson)

The Fulton County Arts Council grant is actually the first grant that Essential ever applied for – and the first grant we ever received,

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