Commissions
Development of women-driven narratives. Collaborative Workshops. Rehearsal. Blank page to stage in 12 months!
"Impeccably produced theatre...Beautifully acted...Lovingly directed...This is good storytelling done right!"
2022-23
New Play Commissioned From Collaborative Team
Mêlisa Annis, Christianne Greiert, and Vanessa Morosco Selected to Lead Development of ME
Clutch is pleased to announce their third new play commission that engages a collaborative, interdisciplinary framework for development. Helmed by Mêlisa Annis (playwright/director/producer), Christianne Greiert (actor/dramaturg/producer), and Vanessa Morosco (director/dramaturg/ethicist), the generated play – working title ME – will explore a spectrum of women and their narratives through the lens of Time. Thematically the play will examine and imagine:
When women are powerful and in power…
When dreams are realized…
When the generational impact of societal structures accumulate…
And how women experience Time and paradigm realignment.
When asked why the collaborators chose to generate a new play about women and their experience of Time right now, Ms. Greiert said, “As individuals, communities, and the world at large are moving through and understanding what the arts mean to us in a pandemic – potentially endemic – existence, it is vital to create supportive spaces and the opportunity to examine society through multiple lenses.” Ms. Morosco adds, “The theater industry in the United States can (and should) be an active contributor to closing the gender gap by creating content that activates conversation and represents a multiplicity of women-identifying voices that reflects the diversity of our audiences. With this commission, Clutch is creating a model that provides a workplace where women-identifying theater professionals have support and opportunities for omni-directional mentorship.”
The team has been collaborating on the project since December 2021 and is in the process of bringing other women-identifying artists into the creative mix ahead of a workshop next month. The world premiere of ME is slated for Spring 2023.
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Elle is a struggling singer-songwriter in California. Rebecca is an unhappy homemaker in Wisconsin. And Ethel is bringing her daughters together for her 70th birthday to be momentary mermaids in the springs of Weeki Wachee. But as the fantasy dissipates, will they be able to swim back to shore?
2015
Every Good Girl Deserves Fun (and other misremembered things)
a new play by Heidi Armbruster
directed by Michelle Bossy
On an unseasonably warm October weekend, two sisters return to their small hometown in Wisconsin to problem solve their mother's early onset Alzheimer's. Their struggles to be caregivers set off a chain reaction that tears through the entire community and leaves Liz, the recently promoted director of the memory care wing, to pick up the pieces.
What happens when prolonged adolescence runs headlong into early onset Alzheimer's?
A dark comedy about growing up too late and aging too soon.