OUR VALUES

Clubbed Thumb aims to be a charismatic beacon for adventurous art and artists; to forge a strategy that equitably and thoughtfully supports artists and their collaborators; to help level the playing field for women, BIPOC artists, and others who fall outside of the corridors of power – both in traditional narratives and in lived experience.

The company emerged as a deliberate alternative to traditional institutional theater structures and is imbued with human values at its core. We have grown the company through a process of constant review, aiming to identify and most effectively leverage our resources, whether they are of space, time, imagination or, more rarely, capital.

We are also a product of the oppressive systems from which this country and industry were born and have benefited from — racism, white supremacy, and colonialism. We must contend with how these systems are manifest in our company, and work to uproot them.

Clubbed Thumb is committed to being an anti-racist organization, which demands an active process and continuous learning, for both individuals and as a staff. As we deepen our work around antiracism, we will continue to interrogate and reevaluate our programs and practices so that we may identify, undo, and eliminate any oppressive policies, which we hope will make way for more equitable, diverse, and inclusive programming. 

In the spirit of accountability, we’ve added this page to our website to be transparent about our process of self-examination, and our progress toward meeting our overall goals.

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BUDGET TRANSPARENCY & COMPENSATION VALUES

Having a core staff of three or four means that we are all involved in a very granular annual budgeting process. Clubbed Thumb aims for a fair distribution of its resources; we aspire to just compensation, but with a small budget we must maintain both short and long-term goals. We are in constant review of how to more equitably remunerate. 

— We will apply consistent rates of pay, as possible, across programs and across discipline. It is not always easy or even possible to measure all work equally. We look at numerous factors–time, skill, experience and expertise, rates and conditions set by the market or unions–as we try to extend our resources broadly and fairly, and consider what will be the most impactful way to support our community.

— We will continue a practice expanded within the last few years to revisit project-based pay after a production has concluded, to ensure contractors are properly compensated for the actual time they put into a job.

— We will try to cover more areas in which we—and our field—have not traditionally offered proper compensation, if any at all, including offering stipends to Summerworks interns, visiting guests and script readers.

WORKING PRACTICES

At Clubbed Thumb, we strive to be flexible and humane in how we structure and run our work.

— We created and regularly revisit our employee handbook, which we believe communicates clear expectations and workplace policies for full-time staff, producing fellows, office interns, collaborators, and artists.

— We will advocate with our union in the hope that we can continue making flexible rehearsal schedules that fit the lives of the artists in the rooms–including 5-day work weeks, sporadic processes, longer breaks or adjusted days for artists with children, etc.

— We are thoughtful about lengths of rehearsals, tech days and breaks between rehearsals and performances. In Summerworks specifically, we keep tech and preview periods extremely minimal, so it is a commitment that is easy to accommodate.

— We will continue to conduct evaluations of our work after each production and season to assess what adjustments can be made to make people’s jobs more sustainable.

ONGOING TRAINING

We are committed to, and budgeting for, ongoing anti-racism training for everyone on our staff – as new employees join our staff, and/or as we realize new areas for enrichment. Understanding that staff members are and will be at different stages of this learning, we will strive to meet and support them wherever they are in this work. Our current full time employees have completed a two-day training with ArtEquity entitled Everyday Justice: Antiracism as Daily Practice. Various staff members have taken part in other training and seminars outside of our auspices. 

BOARD DEVELOPMENT

Our board has transformed as our company has grown over the past decade. While we now have more members from the corporate sector, artists have always been on the board. 

Our last strategic plan set a goal to increase BIPOC representation on the board. In 2020, we added three new BIPOC members, all with rich histories with our organization. Currently, BIPOC make up 22% of our board, and women 50%. In the coming years, we aim to increase the number of BIPOC board members. Our Board Directors and their affiliations are listed on our website HERE. 

COMMUNITY CARE 

Hospitality and attentive support are a crucial part of our mission, and we consider this caretaking the very essence of our jobs. How we specifically care for the emotional, spiritual and physical needs of the BIPOC artists in our programming and in our community has been a focus of our questioning in recent years.

We created a “Statement of Guiding Community Principles” which can be found HERE. It will be revisited and distributed before the beginning of new processes or programs, and, for longer processes is often read aloud at the first rehearsal or meeting.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Clubbed Thumb’s primary places of work–our donated office and rehearsal spaces, as well as rented theater spaces–are on the unceded homeland of the Lenape. We are deepening our understanding of our relationship to this history, but believe it implies a responsibility of ethical stewardship of the land and environment. We are committed to waste reduction, to the reuse and recycling of scenic materials and other production design elements, and to an ongoing investigation of how to reduce our overall environmental impact.