Standing by their slogan “Giving Georgia Playwrights A Voice On Georgia’s Stage,” Essential Theatre is an Atlanta theatre group with a strong focus on encouraging local works with local talent. Their most recent production, THE LOCAL, is an original theatre piece about Atlanta, developed by local artists, including playwrights, photographers, a poet, choreographers, a graffiti artist, dancers, a rapper — and it also contains true stories collected from people who live here.
Robby Glade, the Assistant Director of the production, filmed a video about The Atlanta BeltLine that is featured in Act Two of THE LOCAL.
Like the BeltLine itself, THE LOCAL seeks to connect Atlantans from disparate neighborhoods and backgrounds and hopefully move them to a greater understanding of each other — and themselves. Act One opens with an acknowledgement of Atlanta’s origin in trains, its primary existence as Terminus, the southernmost point on the Western and Atlantic railroad. Act Two begins with this video about the BeltLine, showing how trains have moved through and with Atlanta from its beginning and how the BeltLine plans to carry trains into our future.
Check it out!
The Atlanta Beltline from Robby Glade on Vimeo.
I made this video by filming along the BeltLine’s self-guided tour over the course of a few afternoons, slowly building up many shots of interesting or pretty places along the route.
If you missed the first couple runs of THE LOCAL, there’s still time to catch the following performances!
- Thursday 7/12 at 8:00pm – Opening Night
- Saturday 7/14 at 8:00pm
- Friday 7/20 at 8:00pm
- Tuesday 7/24 at 8:00pm – Industry Night
- Thursday 7/26 at 8:00pm
- Sunday 7/29 at 2:00pm
- Thursday 8/3 at 8:00pm
For more information, visit THE LOCAL’s Facebook event page. And thanks to Essential Theater for their community love!
