2026 Essential Play Festival opens with a play humanizing Helen of Troy

The Essential Theatre, which focuses solely on producing new work from Georgia writers, will present the premiere run of “Helen of the West” at 7 Stages from Thursday night through Aug. 23. The script — which reimagines the Greek myth of Helen of Troy in the American Old West — won the 2026 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award and opens the 2026 Essential Theatre Play Festival.

Swavely said in an interview that the play attempts to present Helen’s perspective in the story, reimagining her as a mail-order bride and giving her a voice and agency in her own fate.

"Helen of the West" playwright Susan Swavely says the play tells the title character's story "in a very human way: taking a myth and making it very human and intimate.” (Courtesy of Essential Theatre)

Too often in historic tellings, such as translations of Homer’s “Odyssey,” Helen is an obscure object of desire, a sort of chess piece captured and fought over by warring factions in ancient Sparta and Troy. Her own desires and opinions are often a mystery. Starring Karine Dieuvil in the title role, “Helen of the West” will shed more light.

“This story doesn’t make her the good guy,” Swavely said. “It also doesn’t make her the bad guy. It’s the myth as if it happened out West. So she does cheat on her husband. She does make decisions that probably some people would think are the wrong choice, but she’s also young, and she has no idea what she’s doing. Helen has been lied to a lot and tricked, and she doesn’t have any kind of support system out West. She’s relying on people whom she can’t really trust. So this is just her story in a very human way: taking a myth and making it very human and intimate.”

“The Odyssey’s” popularity has skyrocketed this summer, thanks to the Christopher Nolan epic film now in theaters, featuring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong’o in some scenes. Swavely said she hopes the movie audience’s enthusiasm extends to her work.

“It just feels very serendipitous and very cool to get to have a play on a similar theme at the same time as ‘The Odyssey,’” Swavely said. “Maybe some people who’ve already seen ‘The Odyssey’ are excited to come check out another show that’s about Helen of Troy, Helen of Sparta. But I also hope that if people go see the play or the movie, they become more interested in Greek mythology.”

Fred Galyean plays Helen's cheated-upon husband Matthew Laus in "Helen of the West." (Courtesy of Essential Theatre)

In the play, Helen will find herself caught between her husband Matthew Laus (Fred Galyean) and her lover, Alexander Paris (Kyle Brumley). The women of the town — Aphrodite (Elaine Wadsworth), Claudia (Hannah Brumley) and Effy Gene (Kat Stoneback) — provide her with perspective on her limited options in the era.

“Director (and Essential Theatre founder) Peter Hardy just really understands what I was trying to convey and get across with the play,” Swavely said. “And he’s just bringing it to life so beautifully. He’s introduced the concept of putting music into the show with a live musician, not just a recording. So, we’ll have George Kotler-Wallace playing on stage basically the entire time. And it’s a beautiful way to incorporate more of the Greek chorus almost to me.”

The playwright, who has been a fan of mythology since reading the Percy Jackson book series as a child in Anderson, South Carolina, developed the script’s first draft while she was a student double majoring in English and theater at the University of South Carolina. She has been workshopping it for four years.

“I wrote it first as a short story for a creative-writing class in college,” she said. “And my professor, who was a huge mentor to me, Elise Blackwell, was like, ‘I think you’re writing in entrances and exits in this story. You should rewrite it as a play.’ And I was like, ‘Wait, that’s a great idea!’”

Essential Theatre Artistic Director Peter Hardy presents 2026 Essential Theatre Playwriting Award winner Susan Swavely with an "Essential Tradition" commemorative T-shirt. (Courtesy of Essential Theatre)

Swavely graduated in 2021 and relocated to Atlanta in 2023. In her day job, she works as a senior staff writer for Secret Atlanta, a website focused on introducing readers to undiscovered attractions around the city.

She recently produced her own show, “Sirens,” as part of this summer’s Atlanta Fringe Festival. But the Essential prize is the first time an outside company has produced her scripts, which she said was thrilling. “I was blown away,” Swavely said. “I’m so excited. Obviously, Lauren Gunderson won this prize way back in 2001.”

Gunderson won Essential’s first-ever award for her script “Parts They Call Deep” and has gone on to become one of the most produced playwrights in America. Other notable winners include Topher Payne, Emily McClain, John Mabey, Jean Sterrett, Theroun Patterson and Gabriel Jason Dean.

Swavely said the process has been rewarding.