The deadline for the 2026 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award competition is April 23, 2025.

The only competition exclusively dedicated to the work of Georgia playwrights, the winning play will receive both a full production and a $1,000 cash prize. Playwrights must be current Georgia residents, and the plays must be previously unproduced. There are no restrictions as to style, length or subject matter.

Email your script to [email protected] or submit it here today:

Submit a play

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Now through May 1, submit your video submissions for our General Auditions! 

Submit your video audition to [email protected] by May 1, 2025. Auditions should consist of two contrasting monologues with a total length of no more than four minutes.

Please use subject line: [YOUR NAME] GENERAL AUDITION.

PLEASE NOTE: The 2025 Essential Theatre Play Festival will take place August 8-31, 2025 at 7 Stages Theatre in Atlanta, GA. Rehearsals will take place in various locations in the metro area, generally during weekday evenings and weekend days in July and August.

This summer’s Festival will feature the World Premiere production of Matt Hoffman’s A Very Special Hospital (winner of the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award),

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Congratulations to Matt Hoffman, two-time winner of the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award with his new play, A Very Special Hospital, just announced as the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner.

Essential Theatre is proud to announce the 2025 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner, Matt Hoffman, for his script A Very Special Hospital.  His play will receive a full production in the 2025 Essential Theatre Play Festival this summer as well as a $1,000 cash prize. Started in 2001, the Essential Theatre Playwriting Competition is the only competition of its kind, exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights and awarding both a cash prize and a full production. 

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

About the playwrights:

Tre’

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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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