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Hello again.  Andy Wassenich here once more to weigh in on our collaboration with eXtreme eXchange this past Saturday evening. 

Wow.  It was a really great night for us.  The H Street Playhouse was packed.  We had 80-90 people in the house.  Very, very exciting for us.  And with only a suggested donation to get in the door, we ended up doing quite well for ourselves!

A little bit about our friends at eXtreme eXchange and what they do and why we asked them to be a part of the Inkubator Festival. . .

eXtreme eXchange is a group of D.C. actors, directors and writers who have banded together to fill what many of us in the theatre community in D.C. feel is a major hole here in our Nation's Capitol -- a lack political theatre.  But not political theatre for the sake of political theatre.  The idea isn't to be didactic, or to shove opinions down the audience's throat.  In a town where the majority of people live and breath issues and politics, it's not about taking one side or the other.  This town has enough of that.  The idea is to foster a discussion, a dialogue.  And that dialogue includes asking and exploring the question, just what exactly is political theatre?

Every few months, eXtreme eXchange presents an evening of short plays written and performed by local artists that explore the topical issues and events of the day.  The writers are encouraged to throw caution to the wind and not censor themselves.  They're encouraged to just sort of riff on whatever subject it is that they want to tackle.  Just put it out there.  And so the result is an eclectic evening of theatre.  Much of it absurd.  Much of it ridiculous.  Which, if you think about it, is a clear reflection of the times we live in. 

This is one of the major reasons we wanted to partner with eXtreme eXchange.  We at The Inkwell want to encourage the writers we work with to throw caution to the wind.  To not censor themselves.  To write without fear; without consideration of what might be "economically feasible" or technically practical.  To simply write the plays they want to write.  And in so doing, our hope is to develop an incredibly diverse body of work in the plays we foster.  And I think that diversity is already more than apparent in the three pieces we are developing and presenting during this Inkubator Festival.  You would be hard pressed to find three plays so completely different from each other than The F Word, Underground, and OK (the DC Theatre Scene blog just posted a nice description of each play and the festival.  Check it out!). 

Saturday's show was something of the very best of eXtreme eXchange.  All the pieces had been written for prior eXtreme eXchange events (you can check out the list of plays on the eXtreme eXchange blog).  Unfortunately, as I was in one of the plays (Patrick Bussink's Ceasefire Chow Mein) I didn't get to watch.  But judging from listening from backstage to the audience's response to the plays and then seeing the large percentage of people who stayed for the discussion afterwards, I can say that it was a great night of theatre. 

The spirited and lengthy discussion afterwards was the best part of the evening. This is another, and maybe the biggest reason why we wanted eXtreme eXchange to join us in our festival.  One of The Inkwell's major goals is to foster a dialogue with the audience about the artistic and writing processes; and to encourage the audience to become participants in the process.  To contribute to the process.  To be partners in the process.   

So come on over to H Street Playhouse and participate with us in the remainder of our Inkubator Festival.  We have more open rehearsals, and of course the Inkubator productions of Underground and OK still to come.  Come on over and tell us what you think.

Top Photo: Marietta Hedges and Frank Britton in "A Political Menagerie" by Llewelyn Hinkes

Bottom Photo: The Inkwell's Artistic Director Jessica Burgess and eXtreme eXchange co-producer Rachel Grossman lead the audience in a post-show discussion at H Street Playhouse. (photos by Melissa Blackall)