Essential Theatre Offers $12 Rush Tickets for Annual Play Festival, 7/8 - 8/8

The Essential Theatre (887 W. Marietta St.) and the Essential Theatre Festival celebrates its 12th year by offering $12 rush tickets before each of its productions during the festival, taking place July 8th to August 8th. There are only 12 rush tickets available and they will go on sale 12 minutes before each performance.

The ticket pricing structure has been simplified with tickets selling for less online. Essential Theatre does not charge any ticketing fees, and parking is free. Preview performance for each of the shows are available for only $10. The exact performance dates and times are listed on the website.

Each year, the Essential Theatre Festival offers a repertory of new plays running in rotation. From the first festival 12 years ago, the Essential Theatre has been committed to producing at least one new play a year by a Georgia playwright, and in 2001 and began the annual Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, the only such competition exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights.

DARKER FACE OF THE EARTH was written by by Rita Dove and is directed by Betty Hart. The Georgia Premiere of a stunning tragic drama by a Pulitzer Prize-winning African-American poet (and former Poet Laureate of the United States). The classic story of Oedipus is re-imagined on a slave plantation in the American South. There are adult situations along with some violence.

QUALITIES OF STARLIGHT is written by Gabriel Jason Dean and is directed by Peter Hardy. This is the World Premiere of a twisted family comedy about a successful young astronomer who brings his wife home to the north Georgia mountains and the simple country household in which he grew up. And where his parents are now addicted to crystal meth. This is the winner of the 2010 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award. There are adult language and onstage drug use.

SALLY AND GLEN AT THE PALACE is written by Peter Hardy and is directed by Ellen McQueen. This is the the Georgia Premiere of a comic drama about the growing friendship between two very different college students working together in the lobby of a 1970s movie theatre in a southern university town. This is the winner of a New Southern Theatre Festival Playwriting Award.

Tickets are general admission and range between $16-$24. Advance online purchase saves $2 and can be purchase from http://EssentialTheatre.tix.com.

The Essential Theatre is a non-profit 501(c)3 professional, theatre company is dedicated to nurturing new work by Georgia playwrights and giving Atlanta audiences the opportunity to enjoy exciting world and regional premieres. For more information about Essential Theatre, visit http://www.EssentialTheatre.com.