-by Peter Hardy

Vynnie Meli is a local playwright and member of Working Title Playwrights.  In 2008, she won the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award for JIM CROW AND THE RHYTHM DARLINGS, about an all-female jazz band of (mostly) African-Americans touring the American south during World War Two.  One of our patrons called it “the most powerful play I’ve ever seen.”

Since then, Vynnie has worked on a number of projects including the book and lyrics for a musical called PLAGUED: A LOVE STORY that, after workshops with Working Title, was chosen for development at the New York Musical Theater Festival. 

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Musicals abound this summer, both here in town and across the country. Check out these Georgia playwrights who are making music in New York in the next few months:

Vynnie Meli’s second New York Musical Theatre Festival contribution, A Capella, will take the stage this summer as part of the 12th NYMF. Her first NYMF musical was Plagued – A Love Story, which was part of the 2009 Festival. NYMF selects upwards of 50 new projects each year to present over its three-week summer season.

Daryl Fazio’s lift is part of the lineup for the 27th Annual Festival of New Musicals, 

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How does the Festival Pass work?
When you purchase a two, four, or eight ticket Festival Pass, you can use those tickets however you wish. You can bring a big party on one night or divide your tickets across multiple performances. You can use them all for one play, or you can use your pass to see different plays at different times.

How do I redeem my Festival Pass for tickets to see a show?
To redeem your Festival Pass, simply email [email protected] with your preferred dates. We strongly recommend doing this a minimum of 24 hours before the start of the show you’d like to attend.

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Joshua Mikel is an actor, playwright, and music video director from Conyers, GA and a graduate of Florida State University’s Theatre and Creative Writing programs. A six time published playwright, Josh is known primarily for his theatre for young audience works Good Good Trouble on Bad Bad Island and The Monster Hunters. As a director, Josh has created videos for the bands Against Me!, Neon Trees, American Authors, and Waxahatchee. As an actor he has made (albeit small) appearances in the films We’re the Millers, The Good Lie, Million Dollar Arm, and can be seen as Stanton Beachhead in VH1’s new scripted series Hindsight.

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We’re proud to announce our 2015 Festival crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo, running now through the end of the Festival. Consider making a contribution today!

Funds will be used to cover production expenses, artist fees and festival promotion.

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Recently, we met Brent Owen, active member of the West End Neighborhood Association and dedicated member of the all-volunteer team that publishes the monthly OWEN newsletter. As has so often been the case since we moved to West End last summer, Brent immediately welcomed us with enthusiasm, recommending local restaurants and businesses we should make sure to visit this summer (you can see several of his recommendations as well as ours on the Find Us! page on our website) and offering to showcase our festival in his newsletter.

Click here to read this month’s OWEN,

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Essential’s artistic director, Peter Hardy, doesn’t just work hard to give Georgia playwrights a voice. He’s also a playwright himself. A play of his is opening this weekend, in fact: read on as he shares some reflections on SALLY AND GLEN’s journey to the present day:

SALLY AND GLEN AT THE PALACE is a very special play for me, a deeply personal one, and it took a long time to grow up. When I was in college at UNC in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, I worked at a movie theater from 1972-1976, and years later (sometime in the early-mid 1990s) I was walking on the beach and thinking back to my college years,

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As we are gearing up for this summer’s festival, it seems like an appropriate time to feature long-time Essential sponsor and supporter, the Fulton County Arts Council.

The Fulton County Arts Council grant is actually the first grant that Essential ever applied for – and the first grant we ever received, back in 2005. Since that time, Fulton County has been a steadfast supporter of Essential’s work – and 2015 is the second summer in a row that we’ve partnered with a Fulton County Performing Arts Center to produce the festival, in addition to receiving a grant from the FCAC.

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You already know about our annual Playwriting Competition, open to all ages as long as you’re a resident of Georgia. But did you know that there are playwriting opportunities across Atlanta geared to students ages 8 through out of school?

Check out some of the opportunities we’ve found:

Playwriting Camp at Georgia Tech with Suehyla El-Attar

Registration is still open for the Georgia Tech Office of the Arts Playwriting Camp,  June 1-12. For students age 8-14, the play created in this camp will be performed at the end of Drama Camp on July 2.

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Essential Theatre owes a lot to one very special mother: Martha Nell Hardy, the mother of our founder and artistic director, Peter Hardy. Though she passed away in 2005, she still has a tremendous presence. For those of you who never met Martha Nell, here are some of Peter’s reflections on her life and her influence on Peter and Essential:

I was blessed to have remarkable people for my parents – Bill and Martha Nell Hardy. Two great people of theatre , winners of numerous awards and honors.  I’ll be lucky to achieve a quarter of what they did. 

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