C.G. Brown is the 2026 Atlanta Fringe Festival Homegrown Award winner with his new play, Babylon Is An Action Verb. Read on to learn a little more about C.G. and the play you’ll be seeing in August!
C. G. Brown is a playwright, producer, and musician based in Atlanta. Babylon Is An Action Verb is his first produced play. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post and the anthology Electronic Corpse: Poems from a Digital Salon. In 2025, he executive produced Lucy Prebble’s The Effect at The Robert Mello Studio. He holds a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Princeton University.
ET: Hi C.G.! Where did the inspiration for Babylon is An Action Verb come from?
CB: I attended an Acts 29 church for eight years. If you’ve heard of Hillsong, it’s a similar world. There were beautiful moments of spirituality and humanity, and there were absurd moments of trying so hard to follow the rules that we ended up on the other side of them anyway. I started out writing about the rise and fall of a church like that. But then I met three guys who set up and tear down folding chairs every Sunday while the pastor pontificates, and they were far more interesting. So I followed them instead.
ET: I love that. Could you explain how you found your way to playwriting?
CB: I never expected to be a playwright. I always have written poetry and essays and have tried my hand at short fiction, but an argument about a friend’s Topsy doll she had inherited from her grandmother in 2023 led me back to the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin. After reading it, I saw in my mind a stage split in two, with half in darkness and silence. I knew that there needed to be a revisiting of the myth and narrative of Uncle Tom, and so I began to write. Surprisingly, it was coherent and had the bones of a good play, and more surprisingly, after finishing it, I’ve wanted to continue. Babylon Is An Action Verb is actually my second play.
ET: As a multi-hyphenate artist (musician, poet, playwright, engineer…), how does playwriting fit into your identity?
CB: Playwright was a surprise. I always have written poetry, which speaks to the subconscious mind, and short form essays, which speak to the conscious mind. I discovered that playwriting speaks to both the conscious and subconscious simultaneously. And in my studies I am finding that sound is important to me, whether it’s music or just the way people speak rhythmically. Playwriting nestles into the crevices and joints between my other interests, and has taken up a wing of its own.
ET: Does Babylon Is An Action Verb have a specific relevance in today’s world, or does it speak to religious experience throughout generations?
CB: Babylon Is An Action Verb speaks to a specific, modern American church experience hundreds of years in the making. We have exported it, but it is homegrown. However, underneath the particular absurd and satirized rules is an exploration of masculinity in our modern context, of friendship among men, and what happens to faith when the supporting structures are stripped away. I don’t think this play would make sense cast into a very different era the way you can do with some plays or as is often done with Shakespeare. Too far back and the dominant culture and religion converge more. Too far forward and you’re speculating about what other pressures that version of the church might experience or exert. But the themes of how men find their way together through patriarchal systems apply across the current civilization.
ET: What excites you about working with Essential Theatre in particular?
CB: I’m delighted and honored to be a part of a space that focuses on Georgia playwrights as I continue to develop as a playwright who was raised in and who continues to be shaped by this city and state. Thank you to the Essential Theatre team for the opportunity to be part of this showcase of talent and skill.
ET: What can audiences attending the one night only showing expect?
CB: Three men, nine chairs, a lot of laughs, and heart, all in Shakespearean meter.
ET: Thank you very much for sharing! Congratulations on receiving the Homegrown Audience Choice Award at Atlanta Fringe Festival, we are so excited to experience this dark comedy about faith, friendship, and the furnace.
Catch the encore performance of C. G.’s play, Babylon is an Action Verb, at the Essential Theatre Play Festival this Thursday, August 13th, at 7:30pm. Tickets: EssentialTheatre.Tix.com
2026 Meet the Playwright interviews conducted by 2026 Literary Management Intern Olivia Smith.
