Peter Hardy

From August 11 to September 3, Essential Theatre is presenting its 24th Festival featuring two World Premiere productions, four staged readings, partner presentations of two more plays, and a 10 Minute Play Bootcamp Showcase - all by Georgia playwrights.

From August 11 to September 3, Essential Theatre is presenting its 24th Festival featuring two World Premiere productions, four staged readings, partner presentations of two more plays, and a 10 Minute Play Bootcamp Showcase - all by Georgia playwrights.

From August 11 to September 3, Essential Theatre is presenting its 24th Festival featuring two World Premiere productions, four staged readings, partner presentations of two more plays, and a 10 Minute Play Bootcamp Showcase - all by Georgia playwrights.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 19th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Atlanta Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Atlanta Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 12th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Atlanta Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The latest standings as of Monday, December 5th, have been released for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Atlanta Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

The first live standings have been announced for the 2022 BroadwayWorld Atlanta Awards! Nominations were reader-submitted and now our readers get to vote for their favorites.

What did our critic think of THE OUTRAGE MACHINE BY DANIEL CARTER BROWN at West End Performing Arts Center?

From July 29 to August 28, Essential Theatre presents its 23rd Festival with the world premieres of two plays and four staged readings, all by Georgia playwrights. The two full productions, The Outrage Machine and A Complicated Hope, opened the first two weeks of the festival, and next in the lineup is the Bare Essentials Play Reading series, produced with support from Georgia Humanities.

From July 29 to August 28, Essential Theatre is presenting its 23rd Festival with the world premieres of two plays and four staged readings, all by Georgia playwrights. The Outrage Machine, written by Daniel Carter Brown and directed by Peter Hardy, opens Friday, July 28, 2022 at 8pm at the West End Performing Arts Center.

Essential Theatre is back live this fall with the 2021 Essential Play Festival, featuring the world premiere productions of two award winning plays by Georgia playwrights. Opening the Festival this year is Erin K. Considine's Raising the Dead, directed by Peter Hardy and Ellen McQueen.

Essential Theatre is back live this fall, bringing their 2021 Playwriting Award winning plays, Calming the Man by Anthony Lamarr White and Raising the Dead by Erin Considine, to the stage along with a two night only encore performance of Shelby Hofer's High Risk, Baby!

The 2020 Essential Play Festival was cancelled due to COVID - making 2020 the first year since the Festival began in 1999 that there hasn’t been a festival - and the company moved to online play readings and launched community playwriting classes to fill the programming gap.

Essential Theatre is proud to announce the winners of the 2020 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award: The Outrage Machine by Daniel Carter Brown and The Wishing Place by Beverly Trader Austin. The Outrage Machine and The Wishing Place will each receive a full production in the 2020 Essential Theatre Festival this summer as well as a cash prize. Now in its twentieth year, the Essential Theatre Playwriting Competition is the only competition of its kind. The 2020 Award is sponsored in part by Corbin Real Estate Team.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET), the professional North Fulton theatre company, will open its 27th season this September with a southern classic from Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production will be directed by GET Associate Artistic Director James Donadio and run September 12th through 28th, 2019, at the company's home in the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. The Robert W. Hagan Family Foundation is graciously sponsoring this show.

Georgia Ensemble Theatre (GET), the professional North Fulton theatre company, will open its 27th season this September with a southern classic from Tennessee Williams: Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The production will be directed by GET Associate Artistic Director James Donadio and run September 12th through 28th, 2019, at the company's home in the Roswell Cultural Arts Center. The Robert W. Hagan Family Foundation is graciously sponsoring this show.

Essential Theatre is presenting its 21st Festival with the world premieres of three plays and four staged reading all by Georgia playwrights. "Slaying Holofernes", by Emily McClain, directed by Peter Hardy, opens Friday, July 26, 2019 at 8pm at the West End Performing Arts Center. "Baby Shower for the Antichrist", by Ben Thorpe, directed by Shannon Eubanks, opens Friday, August 2, 2019 at 8pm at the same venue.

Essential Theatre is presenting its 20th Festivals with the world premieres of three plays and three staged readings, all by Georgia playwrights. BUILT TO FLOAT, by Rachel Graf Evans, directed by Peter Hardy, opens Friday, July 27, 2018 at 8pm at the West End Performing Arts Center. WOKE, by Avery Sharpe, directed by Ellen McQueen, opens Friday, August 3, 2018 at 8pm at the same venue. Both plays reveal uncomfortable truths and conflicts which often lie dormant in everyday superficial interactions.  

A young girl runs through the forest, chased by her uncle who seems to be mal-intentioned. As she stops to catch her breath, she fills the audience in on her story, setting the scene for the chilling ABIGAIL/1702.