MetroAtlantaBlack.com - Essential Theatre Play Festival Opens July 8th

Essential Theatre Play Festival Opens July 8th

Essential Theatre presents "Darker Face of the Earth" by Rita Dove, the world premiere of Peter Hardy's "Sally and Glen at the Palace" and the 2010 Playwriting Award Winner, "Qualities of Starlight by Gabriel Jason Dean

(Press Release) - The 12th Annual Essential Theatre Festival opens July 8th with three exciting new plays running in repertory through August 8th at Essential Theatre @ Actors Express.

Darker Face of the Earth
by Rita Dove, 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.
Adult situations, with some violence.

Qualities of Starlight
by Gabriel Jason Dean, directed by Peter Hardy
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. Winner of the 2010 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award.
Adult language and onstage drug use

Sally and Glen at the Palace
by Peter Hardy, directed by Ellen McQueen
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. Winner of a New Southern Theatre Festival Playwriting Award.

Date & Time
July 8th ~ August 8, 2010

Location
Essential Theatre @ Actors Express
887 W. Marietta St.
Atlanta, GA 30318

Tickets
General Admission ~ $16-$24 Advance online purchase saves $2
http://EssentialTheatre.tix.com or call 800.595.4849

For more information about Essential Theatre, visit http://www.EssentialTheatre.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8-RVx6JqxM&fmt=18

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Essential Theatre's mission is to challenge Georgia audiences and to support Georgia artists by encouraging the creation of new dramatic literature and giving local actors, directors and designers the chance to work on exciting new plays that have not yet been produced in this area - all World Premieres and Regional Premieres. We invite the participation of audiences in developing the work of these playwrights through workshops, staged readings and full productions.

Each year, we present the ESSENTIAL THEATRE PLAY FESTIVAL, a repertory of new plays running in rotation. From the first year of the Festival we have been committed to producing at least one new play a year by a Georgia playwright, and in 2001 we began the annual Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, the only such competition exclusively dedicated to Georgia playwrights.