Clubbed Thumb Receives $50,000 MetLife/TCG 'A-ha! Program Do It' Grant

New York's acclaimed theater group, Clubbed Thumb, is the recipient of the $50,000 MetLife/Theatre Communications Group (TCG) A-ha! Program Do It grant. 

MetLife Foundation and TCG partnered last year to create the A-ha! Program, designed to foster creative thinking and action among TCG member theatres. As part of the program, the Do It grant supports the implementation and testing of new ideas, supporting risk-taking, reflection, experimentation and the development of creative strategies.

Clubbed Thumb's proposal was chosen by a panel of noteworthy judges from a highly competitive group of applicants. The company seeks to partner with a larger theater for co-curation and co-production. The two theaters will mutually choose, staff and cast a play to be developed, rehearsed and presented in a one week run in Clubbed Thumb's June 2010 Summerworks festival, followed by a longer run at the larger theater. Theaters interested in discussing a potential collaboration should contact Clubbed Thumb at 212-802-8007. The process and progress of Clubbed Thumb will be chronicled on the TCG website, www.tcg.org and the A-ha! blog, http://aha.tcg.org.

Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the national not-for-profit organization for the American theatre, exists to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional not-for-profit American theatre. Its programs serve nearly 700 member theatres and affiliate organizations and more than 12,000 individuals nationwide.

Recognizing the vital role the arts play in building communities and educating young people, the MetLife Foundation contributes to arts and cultural organizations across the United States, with an emphasis on increasing opportunities for young people, reaching broad audiences through inclusive programming and making arts more accessible for all people.

Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops and produces funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers. Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned 4 OBIES and presented plays in every form of development, including over 75 full productions. Clubbed Thumb is an incubator for artists and their work, staging plays to critical acclaim while supporting an ever-growing creative community. In 2001, Clubbed Thumb was awarded an OBIE grant, Off-Broadway’s highest honor, in recognition of their body of work. In 2007, Playscripts published Funny, Strange, Provocative, an anthology of plays produced by Clubbed Thumb. For more information on Clubbed Thumb, visit www.ClubbedThumb.org.