44 Plays for 44 Playwrights - ONE NIGHT ONLY!!!!

Due to Hurricane Sandy, Monday's event was cancelled. They are exploring rescheduling options.

44 PLAYS FOR 44 PRESIDENTS
by Andy Bayiates, Sean Benjamin, Genevra GalloBayiates, Chloe Johnston, and Karen Weinberg

Hailed by the Chicago Sun Times as “zany, clever, ambitious and often surprisingly moving,” 44 Plays for 44 Presidents has garnered a history of sold out audiences and critical praise since its 2002 premiere at The Neo-Futurists Theatre Company (originally 43 Plays for 43 Presidents). 44 Plays for 44 Presidents is a 2-hour show comprised of short, biographical scenes highlighting the lives of all the American presidents.

It's free and open to the public! Reservations are strongly encouraged and can be made online. Donations will be accepted at the door for  theatreWashington’s "Taking Care of Our Own" initiative.

Participating companies include: dog & pony dc; Faction of Fools; Factory 449; Flying V; Grain of Sand; Landless Theatre Company; Longacre Lea; Pinky Swear Productions; Pointless Theatre; Red Eye Gravy Theatre Company, National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts and Washington Improv Theater.

In the days ahead, I had the opportunity to feature many of the participating companies. Here's the fabulous lineup:

MISSION STATEMENT: dog & pony dc is an ensemble of artists who devise innovative performances that incorporate new ways for audiences to experience theater. We create productions that are visceral and unexpected with a lingering impact.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Faction of Fools Theatre Company celebrates Commedia dell'Arte in Washington, DC and around the world. We preserve and promote this Renaissance theatre style by both respecting its heritage and exploring its future. We embody the spirit of Commedia, which is traditional yet innovative, international yet familiar, and classical yet accessible. In our performances, actor training, international initiatives, and educational outreach, Commedia dell'Arte is theatre at its best: physical discipline, spontaneous imagination, collaborative energy, and joyous wonder.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Challenge.  Collaborate.  Innovate. Factory 449 is committed to maintaining an ensemble of multi-disciplinary artists and professionals who are dedicated to the collaborative process of creating relevant, challenging theatre.  The members of this collective will assume roles involved in the development of new and innovative productions, affording artists the opportunity to write, act, direct, design, educate and produce.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Flying V is here to make the kind of theatre that inspires you to go out and have an adventure of your own. We are an exciting, ensemble based company dedicated to the development of vibrant original work and offbeat contemporary plays. Inspired by genre fiction, comic books, and other modern mythologies, we produce work that embraces high concept situations without sacrificing the emotional resonance of real characters in intimate moments. The company is made of a core of multi-disciplinary theatre practitioners committed to productions of engaging, high impact theatricality and fearless content. We are your local indie theatre. Expect Awesome. Be Awesome.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Grain of Sand Theatre is dedicated to telling stories that stimulate the audience and artist by exploring the unusual through the familiar, and the familiar through the unusual.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Landless Theatre Company s a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to producing exciting and accessible art to cultivate new audiences for live theatre.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Longacre Lea is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) theater company specializing in absurdism, magical realism, and whatever other isms explore the role of the unseen and unexplained in the human condition.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Pinky Swear Productions' mission is to produce modern plays with strong, engaging women’s roles where people talk to each other and things happen. Our productions are a little funny, a little dark, and a lot entertaining.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Pointless Theatre Co. is dedicated to creating bold, visceral, and affordable spectacles that gleefully smash the traditional boundaries between puppetry, theatre, dance, music, and the visual arts.  Through our work we excite a passion for adventurous art in the nation's capitol and nurture a diverse, active, and inspired audience.

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MISSION STATEMENT: Red Eye Gravy Theatre Company strives to produce high quality, bare bones theatre. We aren't interested in the run of the mill production. We want to excite our audiences in a unique way, while working to support causes we believe in, local and otherwise.

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MISSION STATEMENT: The National Conservatory of Dramatic Arts is a non-profit, accredited, post-secondary school for individuals who wish to train for professional careers in the performing arts.  The Conservatory was founded in 1975 to provide residents of the greater Washington metro area the opportunity to accomplish a caliber of training previously only available in New York or Los Angeles .  The mission of the Conservatory is to provide training that incorporates sound technique and a practical approach in a supportive and professional atmosphere based on collegiality between faculty and students and mutual respect for the time honored craft of acting.

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MISSION STATEMENT: WIT'S MISSION is to unleash the creative power of improv in DC. We engage audiences with performances that exhilarate and inspire. We ignite the spirit of play in Washington with a revolutionary training program. We create a home for improv, connected to the life of the city.

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ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Plays for Presidents Festival 2012 is a national collaboration of theatre and educational artists interested in elevating political discourse and highlighting the impact of history through the production of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents. No fewer than 44 theatres, colleges, and high schools will produce the play in conjunction with the 2012 Presidential Election - culminating in an online composite video production of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents made up of contributions from all 44 productions. “This experiment is a way of uniting the theatre community around something specific,” says Andy Bayiates Festival Co- Chair and Co-Writer of 44 Plays for 44 Presidents. “It puts high school drama kids side-by-side, virtually speaking, with professional

ABOUT TAKING CARE OF OUR OWN:
Taking Care of Our Own is a new initiative of theatreWashington and was born to meet a critical need in our community, assisting currently active Washington area theatre professionals and artists in personal emergency situations. Taking Care of Our Own raises funds in a number of ways including: The Bucket Brigade: Following curtain call at performances in participating theatres, artists and staff will hold the buckets to collect audience donations for the fund; Virtual Buckets: Collection of funds on theatrewashington.org.