On The Exhale at Slipstream Theatre Initiative

BWW Review: GROSS INDECENCY at Slipstream Theatre Initiative Embraces Creativity Through Imaginative Production Design

Slipstream Theatre Initiative has done it yet again. Since their run of On The Exhale finished last month, you can now see their next production until June 30th, a play entitled Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde.

BWW Review: ON THE EXHALE at Slipstream Theatre Initiative Confronts the Impossible Questions About School Shootings

In the days since seeing playwright Martin Zimmerman's On the Exhale, which is running at Slipstream Theatre Initiative in Ferndale through May 19th, I have been thinking a lot about the 1999 Columbine shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting, and the 2018 Parkland shooting. Slipstream's one-woman show, On the Exhale, centers on an unnamed single mother whose only child was killed in a shooting at his elementary school. This mother goes on a desperate journey to uncover what exactly happened in that school on that fateful September morning.

BWW Interview: Bailey Boudreau Talks ON THE EXHALE at Slipstream Theatre Initiative and Why It's Important Right Now

Slipstream Theatre Initiative is having a conversation that is long past due - gun violence. It's one they admit is uncomfortable, upsetting, and can make you cringe, but it is a topic that is long past time and very necessary right now. Now in their fifth season, Slipstream has always been determined to pair its productions with socially relevant issues and On The Exhale is no different. The one-woman play is set in a situation that could be a TED Talk or a college lecture and focuses on a woman whose second-grade son was killed in a school shooting. Through a recounting of the event and her irrational reaction, the audience is forced to question what it takes to become a mass shooter. Instead of describing a monster that none of us could imagine being, she describes the obsession with control, power, and life that goes hand in hand with being a gun owner. She exposes the human instincts behind turning in to a shooter. We realize soon realize that given the right set of circumstances, we are subject to becoming the thing we most fear. BroadwayWorld Detroit had a chance to speak with Slipstream's Artistic Director, Bailey Boudreau, about being director of this significant piece of art and why it is an important for audiences to explore it even though the content may be uncomfortable to them. Take a moment to read our insightful interview with Bailey to understand his passion about On The Exhale and the social issues the it revolves around.

Slipstream Presents ON THE EXHALE

We need to have a conversation about gun violence. It may be uncomfortable. It may be upsetting. It may make you cringe. But it's long past time. So let's talk. And then let's act.