Unusual Stories, Unusually Told: 7 Contemporary American Plays from Clubbed Thumb

U.S. Drag; Slavey; Dot; Baby Screams Miracle; Men on Boats; Of Government; Plano

Sigrid Gilmer, Gina Gionfriddo, Clare Barron, Jaclyn Backhaus, Agnes Borinsky, Will Arbery, Kate E. Ryan, Michael Bulger, Maria Striar, Michael Bulger, Maria Striar

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781350194212
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatura
• Subtopic: Arte dramático americano

Unusual Stories, Unusually Told celebrates some of the boldest contemporary American voices with seven plays from Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks. Spanning 2001 to 2019 and accompanied by artist interviews and reflections on the work, this anthology presents a vital survey of formally inventive 21st century playwriting, and is a perfect collection for study and performance.
U.S. Drag
by Gina Gionfriddo
A serial killer named Ed stalks the city, luring his victims by asking for help. To protect themselves, a group of New Yorkers form SAFE, "Stay Away From Ed." The first rule: don't help anyone. It's a matter of urban survival. Slavey
by Sigrid Gilmer
In which Robert and Nora, a couple on the rise, get a big promotion, a bigger house, and a brand new slave. Dot
by Kate E. Ryan
In which old Dot and the weird kid from the neighborhood become friends. Set in that kind of Florida town that makes you wonder: is this TV, a book, or maybe even a cabaret? Baby Screams Miracle
by Clare Barron
In which a freak storm knocks down all the trees in town and a prodigal daughter is taught a new way to pray. But the weird weather's not over yet. Men on Boats
by Jaclyn Backhaus
Ten explorers. Four boats. One Grand Canyon. Men On Boats is the true(ish) history of an 1869 expedition, when a one-armed captain and a crew of insane yet loyal volunteers set out to chart the course of the Colorado River. Of Government
by Agnes Borinsky
The adventures of Barb the Teacher, Deb the Seeker, Heidi the Helper, Tawny the Addict and a host of others. With songs! Presented by Miss Marjorie Blain, her students, and members of the community. Light refreshments will be provided. Plano
by Will Arbery
Tonight, and later, and earlier, three sisters (no, not those ones) are stricken with a series of strange plagues. Let's talk about family nightmares. I mean, uh, memories.

Men on Boats by Jaclyn Backhaus (2015)

Introduction

In 2013, we started an Early-Career Writers’ Group, recognizing that, as a now somewhat established organization, we had something to offer these playwrights—a room, a printer, some imprimatur, and a little mentorship from someone on our roster of now rather successful alumni playwrights.

What hadn’t really occurred to us was how (or how quickly, anyway) this group would become a pipeline into our organization, a way of building organic relationships that would result in production. When Jaclyn brought the first ten pages of Men on Boats into one of our earliest meetings, we knew immediately we wanted to work on it and began realizing the greater potential of this program—which, in turn, led to us launching similar programs for directors and producers.

Men on Boats started in this group, then went through nearly every Clubbed Thumb program. We asked the production’s director Will Davis to recount the process.

***

I met Jaclyn Backhaus because Maria Striar set us up on an artist blind date that has turned into one of the most important collaborations and friendships of my life. Jaclyn had the most delightful sense of humor and the biggest heart. It was clear to me from moment one that we were compelled to make theater for similar reasons, that as artists we both spilled outside of the boundaries of our assigned roles as director and playwright, and that sitting in front of me was an adventurous maker of things.

One of the first things that struck me about Jaclyn’s play was how she was using text and rhythm to conjure the experience of water. For the longest time I wasn’t sure we should have a literal representation of boats at all—so cautious was I about overwhelming her feat of language with production design. So, as we worked, I kept returning to what I understood the dramaturgical imperative of the text to be: that we needed to build a container for the play lifting up both the sacred and profane characteristics of our explorers and this particular moment in American history. I started thinking about the visual world in terms of manifest destiny and the American obsession with ownership. I took a detour into reading books about polar exploration and then books about Ansel Adams, John Muir, Lewis and Clark, and others who exemplified this American urge for discovery and naming rights.

The big takeaway for me was the friction between the myth of the American explorer hero and the consequences of conquest. On the one hand we see a hero brave enough to venture into the unknown, someone who labors and suffers in order to see a mountaintop for the first time and takes a risk with their life for the greater good of the nation. On the other hand, we know that “seeing an unknown” mountain was unknown only to that particular explorer. Those rocks may very well have a name already, and you can be certain it is not the name of your wife back in Boston. The vision of one is the erasure of another.

In the case of Men on Boats’s explorer-hero, Powell, even the enterprise of map making has a violent side. It lifts up the supremacy of the written word over social contracts made and passed down through generations and, as a result, communities are displaced and resources drained a...