Essential Theatre’s New Plays Festival runs June 29  to July 31 at Actor’s Express, 887 W. Marietta St. This is the 13th season of world and regional rremieres from the company. Here’s an overview of what will be on the boards:

A Thousand Circlets
by Theroun D’arcy Patterson (pictured), directed by Betty Hart
A classic new American drama, which tells the story of a prominent African-American family that has reached the pinnacle of their professional success, poised to achieve their greatest triumph – only to face the threat of having it all torn down by the illness of the father and the passions of the past. Winner of the 2011 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award, the only prize exclusively dedicated to the work of Georgia writers.

A Sleeping Country
by Melanie Marnich, directed by Peter Hardy
Winner of the 2008 Mickey Kaplan Play Prize, it’s a magical romantic comedy about a woman who travels to Italy looking for help with her terrible insomnia. In trying to find a way to fall asleep, she learns how to become truly awake. By one of the award-winning writers of the TV series Big Love.

Great Falls
by Lee Blessing, directed by Ellen McQueen
A girl and her step-father take a road trip, going on a journey that takes them across the map of America and deep into their own troubled hearts. By one of America’s best playwrights, author of Eleemosynary, A Walk In the Woods and Going To St. Ives.

For more information about the festival, visit www.EssentialTheatre.com