Atlanta, June 2016 – Tickets are now on sale for the 18th Annual Essential Theatre Play Festival, which kicks off in less than two months!

This summer, Essential Theatre continues its tradition of premiering the best new work by Georgia playwrights for Atlanta audiences with the 18th Annual Essential Theatre Play Festival, the eighteenth since its inception and the fifth consisting entirely of Georgia-created world premieres.

The festival runs July 29 through August 28 at the West End Performing Arts Center, located at 945 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard.

This summer, audiences will see the World Premieres of Dispossessed by Karen Wurl and When Things Are Lost by Derek Dixon,

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-by Artistic Director Peter Hardy

Getting ready for the 2016 Essential Theatre Festival, I’ve been thinking back on how our dedication to working with Georgia playwrights has developed over the past eighteen years.  We opened our first Festival in January of 1999, and from the start we knew we wanted to produce at least one new play by a Georgia writer every year.  Back then we’d collect about 30 submissions per year, mostly from the Atlanta area – for 2016 we received 80 of them, from all over the state.

In 2012 we presented our first Festival of all new work by Georgia writers,

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Last week, our power2give funding goal was met, a full WEEK before the deadline. THANK YOU to everyone that contributed to help us reach our goal. Your support is essential and we appreciate you SO MUCH:

Chelsea Steverson,
Amanda & Scott Cantrell,
Klimchak,
Deadra Moore,
Milton Sams,
Jessica Linden,
Brent Darnell,
Yolanda Asher,
Cathy Jamison,
Hank and Barbara Kimmel,
Susan and Alan Stiefel,
Aaron Gotlieb,
Patrick Hill,
Mark Perloe,
Andrea Ivory,
Thom Lori and Sydney Stanley
and Festival Sponsors Rover.com

Funds raised through this power2give campaign are making it possible for Essential to increase artist fees and provide documentation for our Playwriting Award Winners of the world premiere productions of their shows. 

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Now through May 25, your dollars will go twice as far when you make a donation through our power2give campaign.

All donations are 100% tax-deductible, so give today!

About the Project

Essential Theatre has been supporting Georgia playwrights and presenting new plays to Atlanta audiences since 1987. This summer, we are proud to be presenting the fifth all-Georgia Essential Theatre Play Festival from July 29 to August 28 at the West End Performing Arts Center (945 Ralph David Abernathy Blvd, Atlanta, GA 30310).

In 2011, five years ago this summer, we presented our first festival exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights.

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Join the Essential Theatre at Red Brick Brewery on February 29 to celebrate 18 years of the Essential Theatre Festival, the fifth festival of all-Georgia-written plays. Be first in line to get your Festival Passes and meet this year’s Essential Theatre Playwriting Award co-winners, Karen Wurl and Derek Dixon!

2016 Festival Announcement Event PR

This year, Essential Theatre is celebrating our Playwriting Award Winners in style on February 29 at Red Brick Brewery. Partygoers will have the chance to mix and mingle with this year’s award-winners, have fun and win prizes with Trivial Matters,

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JOIN ESSENTIAL THEATRE AND FRIENDS ON FEBRUARY 29 AT RED BRICK BREWERY FOR OUR 2016 FESTIVAL ANNOUNCEMENT EVENT!

Meet the co-winners of the 2016 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and the directors of their WORLD PREMIERE PRODUCTIONS.

Mix and mingle with past Essential playwrights and company members.

Win prizes and just plain have fun with Essential Trivia by Trivial Matters!

Sample great beer from Georgia’s oldest operating craft brewery, Red Brick Brewing.
Brewery Tours at 7 and 8pm! Gluten-free beverage options (ie, wine) generously provided by Ansley Wine Merchants.

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Caleb Zane Huett is the playwright featured in tonight’s Bare Essentials reading, The End of William Henry.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.
I’m a bookseller at Avid Bookshop in Athens, Georgia. I graduated with degrees in Theatre and Public Relations from the University of Georgia. I can name every Pokémon. I’ve never, personally, murdered anyone.

Please share in your own words a little bit about the play we’ll be seeing.
The End of William Henry is my favorite kind of mess. It’s got two different timelines happening at once,

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Click here to read the full article.

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by Jennifer Kimball
2015 Festival Highlights.pdf 

Our seventeenth Festival, the fourth all-Georgia Festival, our second year partnering with the West End Performing Arts Center and with Eyedrum Art & Music to showcase a local visual artist and further support Georgia artists of all kinds.

Two great and well-received world premieres by two talented and gracious Georgia Playwrights,

Our best-attended Bare Essentials Play Reading Series ever — despite a power outage during one reading as the result of an afternoon thunderstorm.

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As the dust settles from this summer’s festival and we’re looking ahead to our next Bare Essentials reading, I got to spend some time with Amber Bradshaw. Amber is directing the next Bare Essentials reading on September 30, but she has been a backbone of Essential’s play development work for years. Read on to hear her thoughts on developing new plays, working with Essential and The End of William Henry, our next Bare Essentials reading this coming Thursday night.

Tell us a little about yourself as an artist. What kinds of projects do you most enjoy working on?

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