Winners Announced for Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission

Five-time Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb has announced the winners of the seventh Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission. Playwrights Angela Hanks and Gabrielle Reisman will split the $15,000 award, each also receiving two years of development support. Three finalists were also named: Gracie Gardner, Daniel Glenn, and Paul Cameron Hardy, each of whom will receive a $1,000 award and an opportunity to workshop their plays.

In addition to Clubbed Thumb’s artistic staff, this year’s panel included theater artists Clare Barron, Phillip Howze, Mia Katigbak, and the winner of the 2015 Biennial Commission Alex Borinsky. Clubbed Thumb received 245 proposals, which were read blind by the panel. The prompt for this year’s commission was to consider the work of Caryl Churchill.

Since its founding in 2005, the Biennial Commission has been awarded to seven playwrights, most recently Borinsky for his play Of Government, which Clubbed Thumb produced at Summerworks 2017. Clare Barron’s Dance Nation was a finalist for the 2013 commission, which will premiere at Playwrights Horizons this April.

Later this month, Clubbed Thumb will present Winterworks, an evening of newly commissioned short plays directed by the 2017-18 directing fellows from January 17-21 at Playwrights Downtown. The company is also currently associate producing the world premiere of Cute Activist with the Bushwick Starr and New Saloon. Written by Milo Cramer and directed by Morgan Green, performances begin on Wednesday, January 10 and run through January 24 at the Bushwick Starr. The cast includes David Greenspan, Deepali Gupta, Annie Henk, Elizabeth Kenny, Ronald Peet, and Madeline Wise.

For tickets to Cute Activist, click here.