| Evelyn in Purgatory | Angry Fags | Perfect Arrangement |
In 2014, The American Theatre Critics Association awarded Topher Payne’s play Perfect Arrangement the M. Elizabeth Osborn Prize for Best Play by an Emerging Playwright. The play went on to be produced off-Broadway in 2015 by Primary Stages and MARS Theatricals, and was a finalist for a 2017 Lambda Literary Award. He was the 2018 inductee into the Georgia Theatre Hall of Fame.
His other works for the stage include Evelyn in Purgatory, Swell Party, The Only Light in Reno and Angry Fags. He has scripted five films for The Hallmark Channel: My Summer Prince, Broadcasting Christmas, Rome in Love and A Gift to Remember I and II. Topher is a three-time winner of The Gene-Gabriel Moore Playwriting Award. He has been named Atlanta’s Best Local Playwright by readers of Creative Loafing seven times, and received the 2016 Suzi Bass Award for Outstanding World Premiere for the holiday comedy Let Nothing You Dismay.
His latest work, You Enjoy Myself, premiered in 2023 at Local Theater Company in Colorado.