ESSENTIAL THEATRE
ANNOUNCES TWO WINNERS FOR THE 2014 PLAYWRITING CONTEST
Atlanta, January
2014 – Essential Theatre has just announced Theroun Patterson and Karla
Jennings as co-winners of the 2014 Playwriting Competition. “It’s taken us a long while to come to a
decision this year,” observes Peter Hardy, Founding
Artistic Director of the theatre, “because of the large number of strong
submissions we received. But we feel that both of these plays are worthy
of the prizes and will be excellent contributions to our Festival this
summer.” Both
playwrights will receive a $600 cash prize and a full production in this
summer’s Essential Theatre Festival.
Having two
contest winners in one year is not unprecedented, as this
was also the case in 2006, when both Valetta Anderson’s “Leaving Limbo” and
Larry Larson and Eddie Levi Lee’s “Charm School” shared the prize. Since
that time there has continued to be an increase in both the quantity and
quality of plays submitted to this competition.
Karla Jennings’s play, Ravens and Seagulls, is a heartfelt
story about four sisters going through the process of losing one of them to illness.
“It’s often painful,” says Hardy, “but also has a lot of humor and some hope at
the end.”
That Uganda Play, by Theroun Patterson, was written in reaction to Ugandan Parliament
Member David Bahati’s “Kill the Gays” bill of 2010. “With the virulent
anti-homosexual sentiments and violence in Africa and recently with the
legislation signed into law in Russia, this play is timely and sheds light on a
very American involvement with such a controversial figure like Bahati,” states
Patterson in a 2013 interview. “My hope is that [this play]
provokes debate and conversations late into the night long after it’s over.”
Both plays were previously
workshopped by Working Title Playwrights, and That Uganda Play was also featured in the Bare Essentials Reading
Series during the 2013 Essential Theatre Festival. Both Karla and Theroun have
had other plays produced by Essential, Images
in Smoke by Karla in 2000 and A
Thousand Circlets by Theroun in 2011.
About
Essential Theatre
Essential
Theatre has been supporting Georgia playwrights and presenting new plays to
Atlanta audiences since 1987. Since 2011, the Essential Play Festival has
presented all world premieres by Georgia playwrights. Dates and venue for the
2014 Festival will be announced soon. For additional information about the
festival, the contest or Essential Theatre, visit www.EssentialTheatre.com.
# # #
For
media inquires
Jennifer Kimball, Managing Director
Jennifer Kimball, Managing Director
jennifer@essentialtheatre.com
(404) 587-3853
