Wednesday, November 17, 2010

A mammoth undertaking

Madeleine George
In this report from Playbill.com, we see some of the wisest minds in the theatre collaborating, and a recognition of the life cycle of a play in the real world.

The New York City theatre companies Clubbed Thumb and Playwrights Horizons have teamed up for a new play development program called SuperLab. The first of a series of "collaboratively curated play laboratories" was held Nov. 12, focusing on Madeleine George's Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England. [...]
 

SuperLab is supported by funds granted to Clubbed Thumb by Metlife/Theatre Communications Group's A-ha! Program ... Clubbed Thumb and Playwrights Horizons, who share a commitment to advancing distinctive new voices, will bridge a gap between downtown and uptown theatre sensibilities, methodologies and artist rosters, expanding the range of experience and opportunity for all."

Clubbed Thumb's producing artistic director Maria Striar says, "I proposed this program to TCG out of a desire to do more to get our artists and their work to broader audiences, and to weave some collaborative tissue between Clubbed Thumb and larger organizations for our mutual benefit. I like to think that Clubbed Thumb has been an incubator for some of the most interesting theater careers out there, and Playwrights Horizons has given many of them their next home. Adam Greenfield [Playwrights Horizons' director of new play development] and I have been talking about plays for years, so this is an organic partnership."