Fresh Ink Theatre – Report from the field by Jessie Baxter, ’10
Fresh Ink Theatre, a company I co-founded with a few other Boston theatre artists last year, is an organization dedicated to new work by local writers. Starting a new company in the middle of a recession was (and still is!) a bit scary, but the positive response we’ve received so far has been tremendous. We are already cranking out lots of programming, including a few workshops this past fall, a community launch party, and our inaugural production of Walt McGough’s play Priscilla Dream’s the Answer in December. Our spring production, Trog and Clay: An Imagined History of the Electric Chair by Michael Vukadinovich, is just about to begin rehearsals and we are smack dab in the middle of our first submission cycle.
As the company’s Literary Director, I’m in charge of submissions and serve as point of contact for our playwrights. I also plan our reading and workshop programs, and serve as the company’s resident dramaturg. Our Artistic Director,
Managing Director, Marketing Manager, and Treasurer make up the rest of our small staff. Because we are so focused on the local community, we also have a community liaison that helps us find venues all over Boston for our public events and readings. We are committed to being accessible, both as a company and as individual staff members, so these public events are an excellent way for us to stay tapped in to our audience and fellow artists.
Fresh Ink is also unique because each play we select gets a reading, workshop, and full production over the course of a year. We hope to craft long term relationships with artists and give opportunity to playwrights regardless of their educational background or career level. This bold approach to play development, including our unusual submission policy (which you can read more about on our blog), is our attempt to shake up the field a bit. Our specific mission fills the development void in Boston and fosters growth in the local new play sector, which has really blossomed in recent years. Watching the arts scene grow, even in the short time since I graduated, has been fascinating – I can’t wait to see what Fresh
Ink adds to the mix!
Jessie Baxter
Literary Director, Fresh Ink Theatre Company
Emerson Alum ‘10
