The Key City Public Theatre is offering audiences a unique opportunity to be part of a filmed stage production, when Port Townsend filmmaker Gabe Van Lelyveld shoots award-winning playwright and actor Gin Hammond’s “Living IncogNegro” at 7 p.m. on July 30-31.

The development of the original “Living IncogNegro” play was supported by a Challenge America grant award from the National Endowment for the Arts, which only 36 organizations in the state of Washington received during fiscal year 2023-24, and Key City Public Theatre was one of only two granted that award on the Olympic Peninsula.

Likewise, Key City Public Theatre is working with Van Lelyveld, of Whaleheart Productions, and the Color of Sound to shoot Hammond’s July 30-31 performances with a live audience, without intermissions, with all seats available for audience members to pay what they wish.

Hammond, a Harvard University and Moscow Art Theatre graduate, received a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for “The Syringa Tree,” plus NEA grants for multiple plays, and has performed on stage both nationally and internationally.

And yet, she admitted that filming “Living IncogNegro” basically live-to-tape will be a first for her.

“I’ve never done something like this before,” said Hammond, who compared the process to a cross between taping a Netflix standup special and an episode of “The Daily Show,” given that she’s actively in motion when she performs her show on stage, but she’s nonetheless conscious of needing to hit her marks for the cameras.

Hammond also advised prospective audience members to expect her to engage in interactive performances with them, to include recruiting them for brief acting and/or line-reading roles.

“I want it to feel almost like a conversation,” Hammond said. “I hope we can capture the atmosphere in this jewel-box of a theater, and send it out into the world, as far as it can go.”

Hammond created “Living IncogNegro” to address the lived experiences of current and future generations of multiracial people such as herself, but she’s seen the show connect with audiences regardless of race, even if each audience member connects with it differently.

Hammond paraphrased a sentiment she credited to playwright and filmmaker David Mamet, about how the goal of such a stage production should not be to impress audiences with its acting, directing or production values, but rather, it should be to inspire those audiences to reflect on their own lives and experiences.

“I try to proceed with agility and inclusiveness, but at the same time, my stance is that not every story has to be universal,” Hammond said. “I want people to feel welcome and amused, so they have room to breathe when presented with topics that might make them clench up otherwise.”

While Hammond is still exploring distribution and potential platforms for the final filmed version of these two performances, she concluded her remarks to The Leader by asserting that, “If you’ve ever had any curiosity about your own origin story, even if it was just taking an ancestry DNA test, this show is absolutely for you.”

“Living IncogNegro” received a double-dose of plaudits in the Feb. 7 issue of The Leader, from reviewers Jason Victor Serinus and Zhaleh Almaee, the latter of whom credited Hammond with expressing “the considerable impacts on intimate levels that ripple through generations of family, touch all corners of the community, and affect everyone, regardless of racial or ethnic identity.”

For more information, call the box office at 360-385-KCPT (5278) or go online to kcpt.co/living.