What's Happening!
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OUR 2024 SEASON HAS COME TO AN END
The last six months were the busiest in our history. We started with Winterworks at Houghton Hall in January, followed by six weeks of Grief Hotel at the Public in the spring, and we rounded it all out with Summerworks at the Wild Project, where we managed to cram in 47 performances over seven weeks.
Some of you saw it all, some just a piece, and some met our work for the first time. We were thrilled to share it with all of you.
Here are some photos and essays from the season, to tide you over until we have work to share again in the fall (or when we see you at our gala honoring dots!)
Lastly: We had our most successful season at the box office ever. If you were there, you know it was full to overflowing. And you might remember that your ticket was pretty affordable—maybe even free. That’s important to us.
But what that means is, even when we sell out all the time, tickets only cover a fraction (about 1/7th) of what it all costs, especially considering we pay people better every year (That’s important to us too!)
Throughout the year, we support hundreds of artists, mostly early in their careers, whether in our writers or directors groups, readings, workshops, commissions, retreats, or in production. So, if you can, make a donation today and be a part of our effort to pay artists, to make beautiful, affordable work, and to do it even better next year!
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SAVE THE DATE FOR OUR ANNUAL GALA
As we prepare to tech our 10th collaboration with the design collective dots – and as they prepare for the Tony Awards this week – we are thrilled to announce we’ll be celebrating them at our gala on October 7th! The annual gala is a fundraising cornerstone, as well as a stylish, fun and deeply-felt event, which will be held once again at the industrial chic Etsy headquarters. Tickets at info HERE
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ANNOUNCING SUMMERWORKS 2024
We’ll be back at the Wild Project May 16th through June 29th with the 27th iteration of SUMMERWORKS, featuring: Usus by T. Adamson, directed by Emma Miller; Coach Coach by Bailey Williams, directed by Sarah Blush; and Find Me Here by Crystal Finn, directed by Caitlin Sullivan. Tickets on sale now! Learn more & get yours here
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MEET THESE WRITERS DURING SUMMERWORKS
Join us during Summerworks for free afternoon readings of plays by 10 exceptional playwrights. First, we’re teaming back up with Brown University’s MFA Playwriting Program in the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies to present readings of plays by two graduating playwrights. CLICK FOR MORE
Then we’ll present eight readings of work-in-progress by the 23/24 Early-Career Writers’ Group. CLICK HERE TO RSVP
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GRIEF HOTEL'S MAGNIFICENT ENCORE RUN AT THE PUBLIC THEATER
We were thrilled to bring Summerworks 2023’s Obie-winning hit production Grief Hotel back for a six-week run at The Public Theater, in partnership with our friends New Georges. It was very special to dig back into the play and production with the exceptional group of artists who made it, and such a joy to share it with so many more people. We had a tremendous run – sold out, extended and beloved by critics and audiences – thank you to all who attended and to all who made it possible. CLICK HERE TO READ ESSAYS AND MORE ABOUT THE SHOW
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CONGRATULATIONS - AND A SAVE THE DATE
This weekend, we were delighted by the news that Maryann Plunkett, dots, Liza Birkenmeier and Tara Ahmadinejad had all received Obie Awards for their work on Summerworks. Richly Deserved!
Maybe you are one of the many many people who heard how amazing Liza, Tara and dots’ work on Grief Hotel was, and were sorry to have missed it??
WELL GUESS WHAT! It’s coming baaaack…. this spring! Location to be announced when ticket sales open — but SAVE THE DATE!
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WINTERWORKS 2024 HAS COME TO A CLOSE
Thank you to the hundreds of people who joined as at Houghton Hall for the 9th annual Winterworks. We were so proud of the work these amazing artists made — and we managed to cram everyone in to share it.
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MEET THE INCOMING COHORTS OF OUR EARLY-CAREER WRITERS' GROUP AND NEW PLAY DIRECTING FELLOWSHIP
We’re back in action with two new groups to introduce you to! Meet the Early-Career Writers – with whom we’ll convene for play reading and dinner eating, often joined by one of their estimable mentor writers – by CLICKING HERE. During Summerworks we’ll present readings of their plays-in-progress, so join us then to get to know their work.
And get to know the directors and writers in this season’s New Play Directing Fellowship by CLICKING HERE. Program mentors Anne Kauffman and Daniel Aukin, along with Clubbed Thumb staff, will support these new play processes in two phases: first with Playwrights Horizons Theater School students this fall, then in quick and scrappy workshop productions at Winterworks in January. Stay tuned for more info on that and more!
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OUR NEW ANTHOLOGY - ON SALE NOW
We’ve been eager to put out a second anthology since Funny, Strange, Provocative was published in 2007, and the last year finally provided us with the time to take on this long-awaited project. We are thrilled to announce that Unusual Stories, Unusually Told, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen, is now available!
In it you’ll find seven Clubbed Thumb plays that span 18 years of our history, as well as essays and interviews about the work, and the often atypical processes that led to their productions.
Read more about the book and get your discounted copy (and our first anthology) HERE
THE CLUBBED THUMB BIENNIAL COMMISSION
SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2022 BIENNIAL COMMISSION ARE NOW CLOSED.
Proposals will be read throughout the spring and a winner or winners announced this summer.
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Every other year Clubbed Thumb invites playwrights to propose plays inspired by a particular prompt. The application is open to all, and read blind. The winning proposal(s) receive (or split) a $15,000 award and two years of development support. We are pleased to announce our next Biennial Commission.
In high school, we put on Noel Coward plays with our friend Mellie Anderson in Strauss Hall—an old library room in Milton, Massachusetts. Mellie eventually moved to Maine where she has been a longtime participant in her local theater scene. She is also an avid Clubbed Thumb fan, and helped us concoct the 2022 Biennial Commission: Your Community Theater.
For this commission, we invite you to write using the constraints common for community theaters – smaller, non-professional theaters operating under specific constraints, in which many or most of the “makers” are not full-time theater artists. But think: Community theater with a Clubbed Thumb aesthetic. Our hope is that these commissions inspire unusual stories, unusually told for small theaters outside of big cities, all across the United States.
THE FORM:
- It should have short scenes – no one lasting longer than 15 minutes. (It could be a collection of very short plays, so long as they are cumulative.)
- No one ever speaks more than three sentences in a row.
- There should only be three stage directions.
- Only employ language and situations that you would be comfortable asking a five-year-old or an eighty-year-old to hear, speak and/or enact.
THE CAST:
- It’s helpful for much of the casting to be flexible, so the roles can be filled with whomever is in a given community.
- That said, the majority of these parts should be for or be able to be played by Women+.
- There should be parts for many people of many ages – with roles fairly evenly dispersed (think ensemble instead of star vehicles).
THE PRODUCTION:
- It should take place in a slightly heightened, non-naturalistic world.
- The design should not require a lot of money to accomplish, nor should it assume that the play will be performed in a neutral space. It should invite a creative, crafty display of virtuosity.
THE CONTENTS:
- Your proposed play should involve the solving of a mystery – but not a murder or violent crime.
- It should reckon with idealism in an honest or unexpected way.
- It should feature a moment of mockery gone wrong.
- It must also contain at least four of the following ingredients:
- – A loud, delightful, robust cackle of laughter
- – A thank-you note or a weekly call
- – Unusual female (physical) strength
- – Throwing heirlooms into the sea
- – An island or a garden or both
- – A squandered gift
- – A brief reenactment of part of an episode of Columbo
- – The phrase “good red herring” or “get the cake” or both
And please consider the general parameters of a Clubbed Thumb play.
DEADLINE: SUNDAY, MARCH 20th, 11:59PM EDT — SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.
Many thanks to Mellie Anderson, Agnes Borinsky, Amy Rose Marsh, Erin Courtney and Lisa D’Amour for their help with this prompt.
CLICK HERE to read commission prompts from past years.