The Playwrights Database
LUCY THURBER
Nationality:
USA
email:
n/a
Website:
n/a
Literary Agent:
Creative Artists Agency NY represented by
George Lane
Lucy Thurber is the author of eleven plays: Where We're Born, Ashville, Scarcity, Killers and Other Family, Stay, Bottom of The World, Monstrosity, Dillingham City, The Locus, Perry Street and The Insurgents. The Insurgents has been produced at Labyrinth Theater Company and Contemporary American Theater Festival. Her five play cycle The Hill Town Plays was produced Off Broadway by Rattlestick Playwright's Theater in-conjunction with The cherry Lane Theater, The Axis Theater and The New Ohio Theatre. Produced at The Atlantic Theater Company Bottom of The World and Scarcity. Rattlestick Playwrights Theater has produced three of her plays, Where We're Born, Killers and Other Family and Stay. Lucy wrote the text for QUIXOTE, conceived and directed by Lear deBessonet, a site-specific performance with the Psalters made for and with The Broad Street Community, also with Lear deBessonet and produced by 13P, Monstrosity. Scarcity was published in the December 2007 issue of American Theatre. She is published by Dramatists Play Service. Thurber is an alumni of New Dramatists, A member of 13P, Labyrinth Theater Company and Rising Phoenix Rep. She has been commissioned by Playwrights Horizons, The Contemporary American Theatre Festival, House on The Moon, WET and Yale Rep. She is the recipient of Manhattan Theatre Club Playwriting fellowship, The 1st Gary Bonasorte Memorial Prize for Playwriting, a proud recipient of a LILLY AWARD and A 2014 OBIE Award for The Hill Town Plays.
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Ashville
Synopsis:
A run down town that used to be thriving industrial centre. All the factories have closed own. Sixteen year old Celia has a live-in boyfriend Jake. Jake is anxious to get married. Celia's alcoholic mother sees Jake as a meal ticket
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1st Produced:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015)
Music:
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Genre:
full length drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Bottom of the World
Synopsis:
Heartbroken over the sudden death of her sister Kate, Abby delves into the world of Kate's final novel to deal with her grief and somehow move on. As the lines blur between the fictional world and her own reality, Abby attempts to make sense of life and death in this funny and poignant play.
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1st Produced:
Atlantic Theater Company, Stage 2, New York City
2010
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Genre:
Play.Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Connect Five
Synopsis:
the Common Tongue's Connect Five unites new writers with established playwrights in an evening of one-act plays by award winning writers Wendy MacLeod and Lucy Thurber and emerging playwrights Danny Mitarotondo and Bronwen Prosser. An exploration of what it means to connect with one another in this modern world, Connect Five features stories about people striving for love and acceptance.
- nytheatre.com
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1st Produced:
Ars Nova511 West 54th Street, New York, NY 10019
07 Jan 2011
Organisations:
the Common Tongue
1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
One Act
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 5 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dillingham City
Synopsis:
In a land of independent city states, Dillingham City is a place of heat and spice with the richest of the rich and the poorest of the poor. It is a place rich with resources and ripe for revolution. Dillingham City is a story about love, revolution and corporate greed.
Notes:
music by Matt Gould
1st Produced:
[Reading] Dorset Theatre Festival, Dorset, Vermont
09 Aug 2014
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Genre:
musical
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Dinner
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Genre:
Ten minute play
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Hill Town Plays, The
Synopsis:
Where we come from will always be a part of us, even (or perhaps especially) when that past is something we need to escape. We all come with these stories we have created, narratives we construct as a means of survival. Often they keep us from allowing others to know us, or to touch the parts of ourselves we kept secret in order to remain whole. The Hill Town Plays examine how, if we want our future to be determined by who we choose to be, we have to have the courage to change those stories.
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1st Produced:
Rattlestick Theatre, NYC
14 Aug 2013
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Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
Further Reference:
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Innocence is a Sin
Synopsis:
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Insurgents, The
Synopsis:
When Sally Wright returns to her dead end rural northeast town after losing her athletic scholarship, she's forced to face her beer guzzling father, wayward brother, and the dearth of hope in her impoverished town. She starts carrying her shotgun wherever she goes, and buries herself in books about Harriet Tubman, Nat Turner, John Brown, and Timothy McVeigh. She begins escaping into an interior world where their spirits talk to her, telling stories of their resistance to injustice. Yet even as she immerses herself in the lives of insurgents and clutches her shotgun to her chest, the bleak oppression of a life without opportunity threatens to poison her spirit.
Notes:
Nominated for The Kilroys 2015. The Kilroys is a group of playwrights and producers in LA who publish an annual industry survey of excellent new plays by female and trans playwrights. It is a tool for producers committed to ending the systemic underrepresentation of female and trans playwrights in the American theater.
1st Produced:
Frank Center Stage, 260 University Drive, Shepherdstown, Wv 25443
08 Jul 2011
Organisations:
Contemporary American Theatre Festival
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc. NY (2015)
Music:
-
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Killers and Other Family
Synopsis:
Elizabeth is about to finish her dissertation. She is very much in love with her girlfriend and their life together. But then her brother and his best friend show up. They are on the run. Their arrival forces Elizabeth to confront her past and finally make a choice about the kind of person she wants to be. This play functions as a waking nightmare. The fears and memories become actual and the psychological real.
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1st Produced:
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYC
2001
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc, NY (2008)
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama. - - Lesbian, full length
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Liberal Arts College
Elizabeth shows up at the dorms and wakes Tessa and Jamie up after a rough night out. Heidi joins them when she realizes that her boyfriend took her car. Together, they discuss their emotional availability, loneliness, and pancakes. A glimpse into the sweet, overly-Dramatic, and true relationship between four friends -- you know, liberal Arts girls.
Notes:
In 1995, A group of writers, directors And Actors gathered on Manhattan's Lower East Side for what was supposed to be A one-time-only event: write, direct, produce And perform new plays with the span of 24 hours. More than A decade And just over 300 plays later, the 24 Hour Plays have been produced on Broadway, in London, Los Angeles, Chicago And Across the globe.
1st Produced:
The 24 Hour Company (New York, NY, United States)
2008
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Playscripts, Inc - New York
Music:
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Genre:
10-20 min Comedy/Drama
Parts:
Male: - Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Locus, The
Synopsis:
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Genre:
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Parts:
Male: - Female: - Other: -
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Marriage
Synopsis:
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Notes:
part of 10x25. This is An All-commissioned one-act festival of ten-minute plays by 25 of the playwrights who have been produced At Atlantic theater Company since 1985. 10x25 will unite And reunite Atlantic ensemble members, playwrights, And frequent guest Actors And directors in three separate offerings of ten minute plays, which will run the gamut of theatrical styles And content. 10x25 will feature new works by David Auburn, Leslie Ayvazian, Annie Baker, Stephen Belber, Bekah Brunstetter, Moira Buffini, Jez Butterworth, Ethan Coen, Kia Corthron, Tom Donaghy, John Guare, Kevin Heelan, Tina Howe, Craig Lucas, David Mamet, Peter Parnell, David Pittu, Keith Reddin, Kate Robin, Kate Moira Ryan, Edwin Sanchez, Sam Shepard, Lucy Thurber, Jeff Whitty, And Bill Wrubel.
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Genre:
10 min
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Monstrosity
Synopsis:
a dark, epic tale of singing teenage fascists, magic, war, and love-a disturbing retelling of the hero's tale with a girl as the hero and an unheroic ending
Notes:
Fresh Ink Reading Series at 45th Street Theatre, NY (2006
1st Produced:
13P, NYC
2009
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1st Published:
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Music:
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Genre:
-
Parts:
Male: 8 Female: 3 Other: flexible
Further Reference:
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Named
Synopsis:
A play about first love, being a girl who likes girls, and shame
Notes:
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1st Produced:
Seventh Street Small Stage At Jimmy's No. 43, New York City
27 Feb 2011
Organisations:
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1st Published:
http://www.indietheaternow.com/Plays
Music:
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Genre:
Lesbian drama one act
Parts:
Male: - Female: 4 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Scarcity
Synopsis:
Set in rural western Massachusetts, Scarcity tells the tale of two siblings whose aspirations to escape the confines of poverty and small town life come into direct conflict with their sense of family responsibility. When 16-year-old Billy is afforded an opportunity to change schools and move out of town by an unusually attentive young teacher, his family starts to unravel around him. Thurber explores the stark reality of how class in America shapes our very image of ourselves
press release
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1st Produced:
Organisations:
Atlantic Theater Company
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc, NY (2008)
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: 1 boy, 1 girl
Further Reference:
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Stay
Synopsis:
a young writer, in the darkest moments of her youth, discovered an angel. Having achieved great success, she must now learn to let go of this beautiful gift, all the while struggling to define and accept herself in the absence of this muse and savior.
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1st Produced:
Rattlestick Theatre, NYC
2007
Organisations:
Rattlestick Playwrights Theater
1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc, NY (2008)
Music:
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 2 Female: 3 Other: -
Further Reference:
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Where We're Born
Synopsis:
Small town rural America, class distinctions, sexual politics and love. This play explores the fact that sometimes in order to leave your home you have to destroy it. Lilly comes home for vacation from her first year at college. She is a scholarship student from a very rural town. She comes home to her cousin Tony. He is like a combination father, brother and best friend. Lilly, in an attempt to bring her new world and her old world together, breaks apart everything around her.
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1st Produced:
Playwrights' Collective, NYC. Off-Broadway Production: Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, NYC
Organisations:
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1st Published:
Dramatists Play Service, Inc, NY (2008)
Music:
-
To Buy This Play:
If Publisher (above) is underlined then the play may be purchased by direct click from the Publisher, otherwise (below) are AbeBooks for secondhand, signed & 1st eds and other Booksellers for new copies
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Genre:
Play/Drama
Parts:
Male: 3 Female: 2 Other: -
Further Reference:
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