by Wm. Steven Humphrey Newsflash: Election years are not fun. Now more than ever, big election cycles—like the one we’re currently enduring—are stressful, anxiety-inducing, and for some, soul crushing. Worse still, we as a nation don’t seem to have a constructive way of processing our feelings or even productively discussing it. However, one way of coming to terms with fear and anxiety is through the shared experience of art. And that’s the idea behind Risk/Reward’s latest theatrical production, the Election Anti-Party, which you’ll find at Portland Center Stage, September 26-28, just over a month before the dreaded election day. Risk/Reward has been around since 2008, serving up morsels of new, often experimental, art from every possible discipline—including theater, dance, music, film, and stuff that’s largely undefinable, but always thought-provoking and adventurous. Every year Risk/Reward produces a festival of new works where each performance is 20 minutes or less. The organization also stages new, full-length performances around the city, and programs community dialogues between artists and audiences with the goal of encouraging appreciation for more adventurous performance.  But as for the Election Anti-Party? That’s new. While this “micro-festival,” created by interim festival director James Mapes, is similar to the annual Risk/Reward fest in its adventurous nature and packed weekend format, the programming feels like an assortment of what Risk/Reward delivers in total, but with an overarching theme: the 2024 election and how we’re going to stay mentally healthy and engaged as the clusterfuck continues to unfold.