You've never left our minds... have we left yours?

But before I tell you all what we have coming up, let me revisit with you our last event... the 2008 Page to Stage Festival.  You have to turn your thoughts back to last September.  Do you remember where you were?

Hopefully, some of you came out to see us at The Kennedy Center, where we produced a showcase of 20-minute nuggets of five intriguing plays, a lively and timely panel discussion, and a staged reading of one wild and raw new play.

To start, let me update you on a couple of the plays and playwrights that we brought to Page to Stage.

Adam Jonas Segaller continues to furiously work on his epic of 17th Century France, Hercule de Bergerac, and in April hosted a reading at the Clark Street Playhouse.  It featured a cast of some of The Inkwell's favorite actors, Sara Barker, Daniel Eichner, John Geoffrion, Heather Haney, and Scott McCormick.  We are excited to see what Adam continues to find in the script.

Kristen de Wulf has also been busy.  Her play, Ignis Fatuus, received a staged reading from the dynamic start-up company The Hub (here's a little more about the reading from The Hub's blog).  We hope to see more of her work, including the latest and greatest version of her surreal and hilarious Lullaby.

Melissa Blackall continues her harrowing journey into the land of bodies with The F Word.  She's in the midst of a new draft that will receive an Inkubator Production at The Inkwell's next Inkubator Festival, to be held at H Street Playhouse from September 19th through October 21st.  Yes, folks, that's a teaser.

Here are some photos from our Page to Stage festivities to help jog your memory... and hopefully to whet your appetite for what's coming up.

Here you see our illustrious artistic director, Jessica Burgess, listening intently to a full house at the panel discussion The Inkwell hosted as part of Page to Stage.  The panel -- Playwrights:  Pampered? Patronized? Pushed Aside? -- centered on a rather provocative article written by theatre critic Nelson Pressley, positing that playwrights are far too coddled in the play development processes that most theaters offer.  Nelson himself (the gentleman in the middle of the photo) joined Ari Roth, artistic director of Theatre J (sitting next to Jessi), Round House Theatre's Blake Robinson (sitting to the right of Ari), and Dramatist Guild regional representative/playwright Callie Kimball for the spirited discussion.

And here's a noted voice in new play development, Arena Stage's David Dower, offering up his thoughts and opinons at the panel discussion.  You can learn more about what he's thinking about playwriting and plays these days at his blog.

We capped off the day-long event with a stage reading of Greg Beuthin's bizarre, edgy, apocalyptic fairy tale, A Time Upon.  Here is Alex Perez as Once, a pet of sorts who only speaks through kazoo.  He's following Niki Jacobsen as Fillette, a wanderer on a mission.

Finally, here's Colin Smith ranting and raving as Slim, a dangerous and devlish shadow, a frightening presence in A Time Upon.  Niki Jacobsen as Fillette looks on.

Next up... a report on the plays we've been reading to get ready for the 2009 Inkubator Festival.

All photos were taken by the multi-talented Melissa Blackall.  You can see more of her work at her website.