Western Stage's 2x4BASH launches into the summer with fresh, young theater works.

This weekend, the Western Stage Theater Company at Hartnell College launches its fourth season of 2x4BASH, the offshoot company of actors, writers, directors and technicians who zero in on fresh stories that appeal to younger audiences. 

Some of the innovations in the past that have defined the company include recruiting select audience members to Tweet about certain shows—during the show.

Using digital and social media to propel their message and reach: this year they've got Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, email and tumblr going at once.

But most importantly, they do edgier work in repertory for a fast and furious burst of theater in the summer.

The tickets are cheaper than other local theater companies ($5 for students with ID, $10 for all else). And the whole enterprise is sort of a young people's farm team for the Western Stage main show.

But it's also really it's own entity.

Their season begins with Diana Son's Off-Broadway 1998 play Stop Kissing, about two young women who are violently attacked in a New York park for kissing each other. The incident draws those close to them into a swirl of emotion and examination. It's directed by Nina Capriola and it opens the 2x4BASH season this weekend, 7:30pm July 11 and 12, and continues July 18 and 19, and Aug. 2 and 8.

On July 20, they host a screening of A Tree in the Valley, the work of Salinas art collective Artists Ink that was previewed at the Steinbeck Center's Comic Con.

"[It's] a movie written, performed, produced, and made by young artists here in Salinas," says 2x4BASH coordinator Dani Maupin. "Their intent was to try and show a side of the city that was more inspirational and creative."

The next item up is the play No Es Un Play, a "collection of original works and actos," a collaboration with Teatro Campesino, using Luis Valdez's actos methods to create a full-length play. Directed by Carlos Cortez, it promises a "rollercoaster" of comedy and issues, two of Valdez's favorite playthings. It runs July 26 and 26, and Aug. 1, 9, 15 and 16.

"Three Actos scripts were given to a group of actors and they were allowed to change them as they needed to express themselves and their opinions," Maupin says. "The scripts are called Dos Vatos , Los Venditos and Lucia."

The season concludes with the Starving Artists' Playwright Festival/Contest on Aug. 17. This will be comprised of five 10-minute works, submitted by Aug. 6 by Western Stage writers 18-29 years of age, preferably concerning "issues of young adult life." Email submissions to 2x4BASH@gmail.com.

"The Starving Artists is all from scratch," Maupin says. "They write the plays, cast them, direct them, produce them, and act in them."

Those leaps in the performance dates are also a signature 2x4BASH move, which can make keeping up tricky, but the rewards—their aim to put on fresh, edgy, bold, dark, funny and ironic theater—makes it worth keeping up with.