Carolyn Gage of Southwest Harbor, Maine, has been awarded the 2023 Schoodic Arts for All Meetinghouse Theatre Lab playwright competition prize for her play, In McClintock’s Corn.
Ms. Gage will receive a $100 award and her play will be presented in a staged reading by the Theatre Lab on Saturday, January 20, 2024 at 7pm at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor.
About the Play The play features gender-non-conforming, neurodivergent geneticist Barbara McClintock and her companion/partner Harriet Creighton, and McClintock’s revolutionary quest to understand diversity in nature through her study of corn. Every scene is set in a cornfield as the play traces the friendship between the women from the Depression, to World War II, to the Civil Rights Movement, to McClintock’s long-overdue winning of the Nobel Prize in 1983. Last year, In McClintock’s Corn was named National Runner-Up for the Jane Chambers Playwriting Award, the top feminist play award in the US, given by the Women and Theatre Program of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
About the Author Carolyn Gage is an autistic playwright, performer, director, and activist. The author of nine anthologies of plays and eighty-eight musicals, dramas, and one-woman shows, she specializes in non-traditional roles for women, especially reclaiming famous lesbians whose stories have been distorted or erased from history. She has lived in Southwest Harbor since 2016. Gage will attend the MHTL reading of In McClintock’s Corn and participate in a Q and A at the end of the performance. Because of the small number of roles, this reading will be precast. There is no admission charge, although donations are always appreciated. If you have any questions, please email Cathy Johnson at cathyjohnson2012@hotmail.com for more information. www.carolyngage.com
About Meetinghouse Theatre Lab The Meetinghouse Theatre Lab is dedicated to creating an ensemble of performance artists who come together to excite the senses, push the limits, and transform the definition of create with the aim of growing as performers and enriching the humanity of all involved. Since 2003 the Theatre Lab has presented readings, staged readings, and full productions, both classic and contemporary, that challenge accepted social norms and values, question reality, break down the “fourth wall”, explore the notion of “truth”. Join us in the audience and spread the word to your friends, too! Admission is free, although donations are gratefully accepted. Our “Out of the Hat!” readings are on the 3rd Saturday of each month from October through April, so be sure to save the dates on your calendar.