Clubbed Thumb's 2006 Summerworks at the Ohio Theatre

Clubbed Thumb Theatre Company present their 11th annual summer festival of new plays, 'Summerworks 2006'. The entire festival takes place at The Ohio Theatre from the 4 - 24 Jun 2006.

Take 5: a half-decade check-in: To open the Summerworks 2006 festival, Clubbed Thumb has invited a group of playwrights to write funny strange, and provocative 5-minute playlets mined from the tumult of the last 5 years. This is a free event being held on Wed 31 May at 8pm.

This year�s three mainstage productions are:

• I Have Loved Strangers
  Written by: Anne Washburn
  Directed by: Johanna McKeon
  Cast: Jeff Biehl, Elliotte Crowell, Laura Flanagan, Jennifer R. Morris, James Stanley, Jay Smith and T. Ryder Smith
  Synopsis: Inspired by the Book of Jeremiah, and the exploits of the Weather Underground. It is a play about true prophets, false prophets, non prophets, cockatrices, and lions all battling for the salvation of Ancient New York.
  Dates: 4 - 10 Jun 2006
• Alice the Magnet
  Written by: Erin Courtney
  Directed by: Pam MacKinnon
  Cast: David Wilson Barnes, Cohlie Broncato, Maria Dizzia and Sheri Graubert
  Synopsis: In which an influential self-improvement guru suddenly finds herself lost. Will a wayward student and his even more wayward teacher be the solution, or part of the problem? Their lives become intertwined in this story about power, charisma, fear, and mentors gone awry.
  Dates: 11 - 17 Jun 2006
• Quail
  Written by:Rachel Hoeffel
  Directed by: Kip Fagan
  Cast: Gerry Bamman, Elizabeth Meriwether and Benjamin Pelteson
  Synopsis: Hapless legal secretary Arlene Quail must deal with her boss's incessant smoking, alluring and seductive clients, and her own search for purpose, all while trying to maintain the collapsing two-man firm. If only she could get the window open.
  Dates: 18 - 24 Jun 2006

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHTS:

Anne Washburn's plays have been produced and/or developed by 13P, Actors Theater of Louisville, Cherry Lane Theater, The Civilians, Dixon Place, New York Theater Workshop, The Public Theater, Soho Rep, Williamstown Theater Festival. She is an associate artist with the Obie award winning theater groups 13P and the Civilians, and a member of New Dramatists.

Erin Courtney�s plays have been produced or developed by Clubbed Thumb (Demon Baby, Pricked, Summer Play, Downwinders), The Public Theater and Birmingham Repertory, BRIC, The Vineyard (Alice The Magnet), The Flea (Mother's Couch), and The Actors Theater of Louisville (Owls). Most recently, her play Quiver And Twitch was developed in the Soho Rep writers/directors lab and was presented as a reading in the Prelude 2005 festival at the Martin E. Segal Theater. She currently teaches playwriting at Brooklyn College and is an affiliated artist with Clubbed Thumb. She is also a member of 13P, as well as the co-founder of the Brooklyn Writer�s Space.

Rachel Hoeffel has had plays workshopped and developed in New York with The Ensemble Studio Theater, Soho Rep, The Flea, HERE, Little Theater at Tonic, Williamstown Director's Lab and Clubbed Thumb. She is currently working on her first novel.