The 2009 Essential Theatre Power Plays includes our Playwriting Award Winner, JIM CROW AND THE RHYTHM DARLINGS by Vinnie Meli, as well as ICE GLEN by Joan Ackermann.  She’s a playwright who’s been produced around the country for some years now – Horizon did her play THE BATTING CAGE a few years back.  This one’s a romantic drama, set in 1919, about a reclusive poetess who does not want her poems published, and the editor to tries to persuade her otherwise.  That may sound rather dry and dusty, but it’s immensely charming, touching and very funny.

• “Beautifully written…a story of nature and change.”

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Plagued A Love Story
Book and lyrics by Vynnie Meli [2009 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award Winner]
Music by Casey Filiaci
Directed by Susan Reid

Cinderella celebrates her 20th anniversary to a man who isn’t always so charming. And Cinderella’s daughter, Dust Bunny, takes on an even greater challenge: the Bubonic Plague. Dust Bunny has to say goodbye to the handsome chronicler, and any chance of finding a cure, when her Queen Grandmother forces her to marry a rich old Prince. Fairy Godmother comes out of retirement in sunny south Florida to convince Dust Bunny she doesn’t have to wait for someone else to turn her life into a fairy tale.

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On Feburary 5, Essential Theatre’s Artistic Director Peter Hardy took part in a panel discussion on new play development, along with celebrated national authors Thomas Gibbons and Joseph Skibell. This was for a theatre class at Emory University and was connected to Brave New Works, a new play development program that is presented by Theatre Emory every two years, bringing in playwrights from around the country.

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Essential Theatre is very proud of its reputation for presenting high quality productions of new works including a world premiere by a Georgia Playwright. We employ a diverse group of participants and cater to a diverse audience.

To help us further promote our mission and grow our company, Essential Theatre is actively seeking four to six new board members. Although not required, Essential Theatre hopes to find persons who fall into one or more of the following categories: An entrepreneur who has successfully started and run a small business. A person with management experience in a large corporation that may be interested in charitable giving and/or corporate sponsorship.

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The Essential Theatre is pleased to announce that Vynnie Meli’s play JIM CROW AND THE RHYTHM DARLINGS has been chosen as the winner of the 2009 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award competition. Vynnie will receive a cash prize of $600.00 and her play will be produced as part of the Essential Theatre’s 2009 Power Plays Festival, to be presented in July of 2009 at the Actor’s Express performance space.

The story of JIM CROW AND THE RHYTHM DARLINGS centers on the members of an all-female jazz band, touring through the Deep Sou th during World War Two. The musicians are all African-American except for one Jewish woman,

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Dramatists Guild of America

Regional Report from Atlanta

Pamela Turner

July 2, 2008

New Play Festivals can be a playwright’s best friend or they can be the crassest means for a theatre to benefit on the backs of the eternally hopeful. In the first case, the playwright can get exposure and a chance to learn more about her work. In the latter, the play is just fodder for someone else’s money cow: be it a grant, a newly oriented mission statement, or some coins toward last season’s deficit. Fortunately, there are Forces of Good positioned throughout the country to face off the forces of evil (those guys will get no capital letters from me).

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October 19th 8:00pm
Playreading
Me Own Personal Hero by Pamela Turner
As part of Georgia Open Arts Month,Go ARTS    the Essential Theatre in conjunction with Working Title Playwrights will be hosting a FREE playreading of Pamela Turner’s ME OWN PERSONAL HERO, a script we’ve been workshopping.  It will be held at Horizon Theatre 8:00 p.m., Oct. 19, .  A discussion lead by playwright Pamela Turner, director Peter Hardy and James Beck will follow the reading.
Cast
Musician — Patricia McLaughlin
Seamus Monaghan – Alex Van
Padraic McCarry –

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I know the Power Plays Festival is underway, and I have told all my WTPers that I intend to see all three plays after Tuesday (once I have the first of my two readings accomplished), but I’m hoping to entice you to one of the two of Daphne Mintz’s play, In Lieu of Flowers. It’s the first of our two Summer Reading Series selections will be read at Actor’s Express this coming Monday and Tuesday, 7:30pm.

Daphne Mintz’s romantic drama, In Lieu of Flowers, asks many questions about love and commitment and the possible moral ambiguities inherent in both.

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The 2008 Metropolitan Atlanta Theater Awards is proud to nominate the following people/theaters:

Leading Actor, Play:
Spencer G. Stephens – “Man” – Fix Me So I Can Stand – The Essential Theatre

Leading Actress, Play:
Johanna Linden – “Mrs. Bob Cratchit” – Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge – The Essential Theatre

Major Supporting Actor, Play:
Bobby Labartino – “Fezziwig, etc” – Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge – The Essential Theatre

Major Supporting Actress, Play:
Sarah Falkenburg – “Little Nell, etc” – Mrs. Bob Cratchit’s Wild Christmas Binge –

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