On Saturday August 22, Essential Theatre is proud to present We Hold These Truths, a series of four short plays followed by guided conversation on the American Experiencem developed by Out of Hand Theater. Read on to learn a little more about the playwrights and plays you will be seeing in August!
Tell Them About the Dream
Dana L. Stringer is an Atlanta-based playwright, poet, screenwriter, and educator with an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University Los Angeles. She is a Cave Canem fellow and an associate artist at Out of Hand Theater. Her plays, staged readings, and short works have been produced by True Colors Theatre, Theatrical Outfit, The Billie Holiday Theatre, Out of Hand Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, Vanguard Repertory Company, Fade to Black Play Festival, Coleman & Smith Artistic Company, and additional organizations. Dana is the author of the chapbook In Between Faith. Her poetry has been published in anthologies and literary journals like the African American Review and Obsidian: Literature & Arts in the African Diaspora. Dana is a member of the Dramatists Guild of America.
ET: Hi Dana! Can I ask you where you got the idea for your play?
DS: The inspiration for a part of the narrative [Tell Them About the Dream] is based on true family history of my maternal grandfather being conned by two white men into selling acres of land he owned in Hernando, Mississippi—land my grandfather never had the opportunity to pass down to his descendants. That real-life scenario is painfully familiar and centers racial and economic injustice that Black Americans know all too well; however, I wanted to reimagine it as a Black family having a more favorable outcome—something less common but demonstrating the power of resistance and resilience.
ET: I love that. Could you explain how you found your way to playwriting?
DS: Many years ago, I started writing church skits that conveyed theological concepts and themes. The pastor thought it would be a good idea to have my skits enacted out when it was relevant to his message. So, I recruited and cast a couple of church members who performed my skit(s) for the church. However, it wasn’t until the early 2000s, when I relocated from Louisville to Los Angeles and saw Runt – a solo show by Michael Phillip Edwards – that the force and impact of storytelling ignited something inside me that has been burning ever since. So, I started studying everything about storytelling I could get my hands on, and that led me to enrolling in playwriting workshops, labs, and classes.
ET: What excites you about working with Essential Theatre in particular?
DS: Essential Theatre’s Play Festival has been on my radar ever since I saw Theroun Patterson’s That Uganda Play in 2014. It was an impressive performance, and it’s been a goal of mine to have my work in this festival. So I was elated when I found out that the We Hold These Truths stories would be included in this year’s play festival. It’s an honor to be premiered in this reputable, long-running play festival in Atlanta.
ET: What do you hope audiences take away from viewing and discussing “Tell Them About the Dream”?
DS: If the work helps to restore and/or reinforce faith in humanity as well as the dream that something different, something better can become our reality – like reconciliation,understanding, and healing among and between diverse groups of people – then I think it’s serving its function. I hope the work serves as an acknowledgement of differences but also as a bridge to connect and explore them, promote shared beliefs around access, equity, and economic justice for all who are in pursuit of the American Dream.
ET: In what ways do you feel storytelling connects you with your community?
DS: For me, storytelling serves as a spiritual practice first, where I ask questions, invoke the imagination, search for meaning, explore the human experience – how we mask, avoid, project, ignore, and enact pain, while also expressing joy at times – and then construct narratives that convey that in compelling ways. Storytelling is also revelation and collective acknowledgement that we all experience pain, suffering, and joy. So these narratives are pathways into discovering what we hide, sometimes even deny, but then moves us towards healing as we uncover ourselves and come to know one another in deep, meaningful ways through story.
Faded Dream
Melissa Simmons is an Atlanta-based playwright, director and producer whose work explores the body, memory, and the uncanny through immersive storytelling. She is the founder of MerryCat Productions, an experimental theater company that creates original, movement-driven performances rooted in horror, folklore, and historical trauma. Melissa also serves as Production Manager for Out of Hand Theater, an Atlanta non-profit working at the intersection of art, social justice, and civic engagement. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Playwriting from Hollins University.
ET: Hi Melissa! Where did you get the idea for this play? What made you want to write it?
MS: Out of Hand does community listening sessions, and during mine I heard a lot of stories about white families who had once been thriving but were now struggling. There was a lot of loss and resentment that echoed through these stories. I want to write about what happens when people feel that the life they were promised is slipping away from them, and how that feeling can shape the way they understand the world around them. The American Dream has always been tied to economic success. At a time when so many people are struggling, can the American Dream still exist at all? Who gets to participate in that dream, and who feels entitled to it?
ET: How did you find your way to playwriting?
MS: I actually started as a director, and writing came later for me. In 2025, I wrote my first original play, Witch Cake, for the Atlanta Fringe Festival. That experience really opened the door for me as a playwright. I’ve now started an MFA in Playwriting at Hollins University, which has been an exciting next step in developing my work.
ET: Congratulations! Are you working on any new projects at the moment? What’s next for you?
MS: I’m currently revising Witch Cake and editing it with the tools and knowledge I’ve gained in grad school. I’m also working on a new religious horror play set in Appalachia called Tender Mercy, which I’m super excited about!
ET: Are there any thoughts you’d like to share about having this play presented as part of the Essential Theatre Play Festival?
MS: I’m excited that Faded Dream is being presented alongside the other We Hold These Truths plays. Out of Hand hasn’t had the opportunity to see all four plays presented back to back, so I’m really looking forward to hearing these four stories in conversation with one another. I think there’ll be something powerful about seeing different American perspectives side by side and allowing the audience to make connections between them.
American Dream
Jeilianne Vázquez is a playwright, actor, and teaching artist whose work explores identity, family, culture, and the complexities of the Latino experience. Her plays include Mi Familia, a Gainesville Theatre Alliance New Works Festival winner and Playwrights’ Choice Award recipient; Patient, Not Priority, produced with Out of Hand Theater and exploring healthcare inequity in Atlanta’s Latino community; and American Dream, with Out of Hand Theater and presented with Essential Theatre Play Festival, centering on a child of immigrant parents. She is also the writer of the short film Collateral Breakup, which has screened at film festivals across the country and internationally and received the Latin Film Award at the Cobb International Film Festival. Jeilianne is passionate about creating honest, culturally grounded stories that amplify underrepresented voices and invite audiences to see themselves reflected in the work.
ET: Hi Jeilianne! How did this story come to you?
JV: When OOH approached me with this topic, I was very nervous but excited. I was nervous because I wanted to do it justice; this topic was and is very important to the Latino community. Even as a Latina, we all have different experiences. The prompt was a Latino/a who immigrated from Latin America. I originally wanted to write a play about a Puerto Rican man in his late 20s who was born and raised in PR and now lives in the States. Puerto Ricans are born U.S.A citizens, as PR is a territory of the US. That doesn’t always mean they will be treated as such. That is an experience I can relate to as a Puerto Rican woman. Then, I was brought to a listening session at an Atlanta high school. These students inspired me. They were brave, engaged, and overall a great group. Many of them immigrated here, but the majority were born here, with most or all of their family from outside the U.S. They had many fears—fear of losing their family, fear for their community, fear of wanting more. My heart was with them, and I knew they needed their story told. I hope that someone can see this show and listen to the words. No life should have a foundation of Fear.
ET: Absolutely. Can I ask how you found your way to playwriting?
JV: I was always writing as a kid. My imagination was all over the place. I would come up with crazy stories and write them down in my diary as if they were real–gave my mom a scare one or two times. When I got older, I took a writing workshop and had an idea for a play. It wasn’t the best idea, but it was my best at the time. When I got into college, the director of our theatre program introduced “New Works!” for any students who wanted to submit their own work. We even got feedback, got to cast our peers, and even had student directors! The rest is history.
ET: What’s next for you? Are you working on any new projects?
JV: I’m currently working on a play called “Divided We Stand” with Play Haven ATL. It’s about three roommates in Washington, D.C, all BIPOC, all with different political stances, taking place before the storming of the Capitol. I am super excited to get started on this development! It should be taking place at the end of the year. We have Play Haven ATL at the end of the year. I wrote a short film called ‘Collateral Breakup” that has made its way around the film festival circuit this past year. I’m also working on a TV pilot, and I’ve been obsessed with making short film scripts.
ET: Do you have any thoughts you would like to share about your involvement with Essential Theatre?
JV: It’s an honor, truly! I think Theatre is the best way to bring people together to talk about these issues. Emphasis on talking! We live in a digital age where we see so much discourse online, and we hide behind screens, either scared, confused, or angry. Coming together to see shows like these, having heart-to-heart discussions, listening, and actively communicating is so important and much needed.
Ancestral Reckoning
Marcie Rendon, White Earth Anishinaabe. Rendon’s Say Their Names and Sweet Revenge will be produced by Mni Giizhik Theater, 2026. Say Their Names was part of NPXs MMIW nation-wide reading event May 5, ’26 at the Guthrie Theater, Mpls. and UofColorado. Out of Hand Theater, Atlanta staged a reading of Say Their Names, 2025. Rendon has four published plays; ten scripts and nine shorts produced. Under the auspices of Raving Native Theater, Rendon creates and produces work. Rendon’s children’s books include Stitches of Tradition (Heartdrum 2024) and Napeshni Renegade (Charlsebridge 2026). She is the author of the award-winning Cash Blackbear crime series; and the best-selling, MN Book Award novel Where They Last Saw Her (2024). She received the Loft McKnight Fellowship in Younger Children’s Writing, 2026 and was the 2020 MN McKnight Artist of the Year. Rendon was on Oprah’s 2020 list of Native American Authors to read.
ET: Hi Marcie! Can I ask you where you got the idea for your play?
MR: I heard Thomas Banynka (Hopi Elder-since passed) talk about the Hopi prophecy in 1978 – which detailed what we are currently living.
ET: Could you explain how you found your way to playwriting?
MR: I saw a one woman show, MoonDance, by Margo Kane, First Nations woman, in 1991 – I left and thought, “No one ever told me we as Native women could be on stage” and i started writing for theater then…
ET: Are you working on any new projects at the moment? What’s next for you?
MR: I am writing crime novels AND my theater piece – Sweet Revenge – about a serial killer of ice cream truck drivers will be produced by Mni Giizhik Theater in St. Paul, MN in October of 2026.
ET: Where else can we see your work?
MR: You can read my Cash Blackbear crime novels AND my standalone novel Where They Last Saw Her – or come to St. Paul in october for the show then.
ET: Do you have any thoughts you’d like to share about having this play presented as part of Essential Theatre Play Festival?
MR: It is an honor to have this piece performed and to have it performed by a young Native woman – miigwech…
We Hold These Truths is showing for one day only at the Essential Theatre Play Festival on Saturday August 22 at 2pm. Tickets: EssentialTheatre.Tix.com
2026 Meet the Playwright interviews conducted by 2026 Literary Management Intern Olivia Smith.
