Matthew Hoffman is the 2023 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner with his first full-length play, The Manuscript. Read on to learn a little more about Matthew and the play you’ll be seeing in August!

If you’ve been following along, the name “Matthew Hoffman” might seem familiar: we also interviewed him last May in advance of his first live reading of a play he wrote (you can read that interview here). A year and a couple of months later, that play is poised to make its world premiere on our stage at this summer’s Festival.

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After 15 years performing on Atlanta’s Westside, Essential Theatre returns to old stomping grounds in Little Five Points this summer

The Essential Theatre Play Festival returns this summer with a busier lineup than ever, including the world premiere productions of Matthew Hoffman’s The Manuscript and Beverly Austin’s The Wishing Place.

Essential Theatre has given Georgia playwrights a voice for over 20 years, producing 40+ World Premieres and helping launch the careers of nation-wide successes like Lauren Gunderson and Topher Payne.  The 2023 Essential Theatre Play Festival features two world premieres:  Matthew Hoffman’s The Manuscript,

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Link to Register: https://July2023Essential10MinutePlayBootcamp.eventbrite.com

Take your playwriting to the next level with us in a 10 Minute Play Bootcamp!

In this class, you will create a 10 minute play over the course of four weeks. The class concludes with a public showcase performed by professional actors as part of the 2023 Essential Theatre Play Festival.

Class will meet in person at the following times:

• Sunday, July 9 (3-4:30pm)
• Sunday, July 16 (3-4:30pm)
• Sunday, July 23 (3-4:30pm)
• Sunday, July 30 (3-4:30pm)

And will conclude with a showcase of participants’

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Link to register: wepacintrotoplaywriting_summer2023.eventbrite.com
Registration closes at 2pm this Sunday, June 4.
Classes are all online, Tuesdays afternoons starting June 6 (next Tuesday)

Classes are 90 minutes long and meet weekly on Tuesdays at 2pm, starting June 6, 2023.

Class schedule:

• Tuesday, June 6 (2-3:30pm)
• Tuesday, June 13 (2-3:30pm)
• Tuesday, June 20 (2-3:30pm)
• Tuesday, June 27 (2-3:30pm)
• Tuesday, July 4 – WE WILL NOT MEET ON JULY 4
• Tuesday, July 11 (2-3:30pm)

This class is offered free of charge thanks to support from the Fulton County Arts Council and the Fulton County Board of Commissioners.

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Essential Theatre is the longest-running theater company exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights. The Essential Theatre Play Festival takes place annually in July and August, with rehearsals in June and July.

We are currently looking for folks to fill the following positions for this summer’s Festival. If you think you might be the right fit, please email your resume and statement of interest to Managing Director Jennifer Kimball with the role you’re applying for in the subject of your email. Preference for set design and stage management will be given to applications received by May 31.

Set Designer –

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The Decatur Arts Festival is the community’s biggest annual celebration of ART! 

Join us there for a weekend of music, theater, dance, comedy, and literary performances.

SATURDAY, MAY 6• 3-3:45 PM
Essential Theatre @ Historic DeKalb Courthouse, Performing Arts Tent

Join Essential artists Emily McClain and Cameryn Richardson as they lead our audiences in fun and interactive theatrical games!

SUNDAY, MAY 7• 2:45-3:45 PM
Hush Harbor, Inside @ the Historic DeKalb Courthouse/DeKalb History Center, Upstairs on the 2nd Floor

Join Hush Harbor Lab as they share about their mission to develop new work by Black Atlanta-based artists,

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The deadline for the 2024 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award competition is April 23, 2023.

The only competition exclusively dedicated to the work of Georgia playwrights, the winning play will receive both a full production and a $750 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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Join Essential Theatre on April 29 for a Celebration of Georgia Playwrights!

Meet the newest addition to the Essential Theatre legacy, Matt Hoffman, and celebrate Essential’s – and Georgia’s – rich theatre tradition and the community in which our playwrights grow and thrive.

At our Celebration of Georgia Playwrights Event, you’ll get to:

Mix and mingle with folks who, like you, are proud of the literary and dramatic heritage of the place we call home. 

Meet the 2023 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner, Matt Hoffman, and hear about his show, which we’ll be premiering at the 2023 Essential Theatre Play Festival this summer.

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Now through March 28, submit your video submissions for our General Auditions! 

Submit your video audition to [email protected] by March 28, 2023. 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 2023 Essential Theatre Play Festival will take place July 28-August 27, 2023 at the West End Performing Arts Center in Atlanta, GA. Rehearsals will take place in various locations in the metro area, generally during weekday evenings and weekend days, in June and July.

The Festival will feature a repertory of two full productions – the World Premieres of Matthew Hoffman’s The Manuscript (Winner of the 2023 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award) and Beverly Austin’s The Wishing Place (co-winner of the 2020 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award),

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We’re proud to announce that Matthew Hoffman has won the 2023 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award for his play The Manuscript!

The Manuscript is a powerful and complex drama about two women, the mother and the widow of a recently deceased writer, struggling over the emotional and artistic legacy of the woman they loved and lost.

The play was part of our Bare Essentials staged reading series in the Spring of 2022, and we’re excited to give it a full production in the 2023 Essential Theatre Play Festival, which will run from July 28 through August 27 of this year at the West End Performing Arts Center.

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