Essential Theatre's Silver Anniversary Festival to Continue with THE ROCK & THE HARD PLACE
The Rock & The Hard Place by Emily McClain premieres August 16.
On August 16, the 2024 Essential Theatre Silver Anniversary Play Festival rolls out its next World Premiere, 2024 Essential Playwriting Award Winner Emily McClain's The Rock & The Hard Place.
About The Rock & The Hard Place A searing drama, this play follows Elsie Tully as she is driven to extreme lengths in her attempts to exonerate her father, who is on Death Row, condemned to be executed for a crime she's sure he didn't commit.
Begun in 2019 as a single scene for the Courtroom Drama Series at Actor's Express, The Rock & The Hard Place addresses topics near to the playwright's heart, including "the death penalty, the difficulty in exonerating innocent people, and the responsibility we have as a society to build a system of true restorative justice.”
“Currently, twenty-seven states maintain Death Row and execute people in this country," McClain explains, "and the majority of those are in the South, so these are issues that we must grapple with more intensely than in other parts of the country."
Despite its weighty themes, this fast-paced legal drama keeps audiences on the edge of their seats, riveted by the high stakes and impossible odds.
About the Playwright, Emily McClain
This is McClain's second Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, the first being for her very first full-length play, Slaying Holofernes, which was co-winner of the 2019 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and received its world premiere in the 2019 Essential Theatre Play Festival.
"Essential has played a huge role in my career as a professional playwright," shares McClain. "My first full length play was a festival winner in 2019, and through that experience I grew so much in my skills as a playwright and as an artistic collaborator."
Since 2019, McClain has been prolific, with readings, productions and accolades earned locally, nationally and abroad.
McClain says she is thrilled to see her work back at Essential Theatre this year. "Obviously, I am thrilled to be back at Essential for this Festival season and I'm grateful to Peter and everyone at Essential for continuing to support me and everyone in the Georgia playwriting community. Essential welcomes and includes playwrights at every stage of the production process and really provided me with a solid foundation for how I interact with other theaters producing my work."
About the Essential Theatre Playwriting Award
Started in 2001 with Could Be Pretty Cool Productions sponsoring since 2021, the Essential Theatre Playwriting Competition is the only one of its kind, exclusively for Georgia writers, with the winner receiving a cash prize and a full production. Many past Award Winners have gone on to publication and future productions around the country, including the very first Essential Theatre Playwriting Award Winner, Lauren Gunderson, who has been one of the most produced playwrights in America (American Theatre Magazine) since 2015, topping the list three different times.
Based on her own experience, McClain asserts, “I consider the playwriting contest to be one of the most important parts of our artistic ecosystem here in Georgia. I encourage all Georgia playwrights to submit, because developing new work is the lifeblood of this art form.”
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