Congratulations to our 2024 Clive Awards winners!

BIG PEARLS AND SMALL HIPS by Mike Solomonson

In Big Pearls and Small Hips, the brash and brilliant Clare Boothe Luce, scion of the Time-Life family, is in spiritual turmoil. This leads her to an encounter with the celebrated radio preacher, Monsignor Fulton Sheen (who later became a renowned Bishop), initiating a journey that confronts both of their personal deception and pain. Based on Claire Booth Luce’s biography and full of iconic personalities from the early 20th century, the play weaves a sharp and witty narrative that delves into eternal questions about suffering, sin, and redemption.

MIKE SOLOMONSON is a Dramatists Guild member whose full-length play THE GOODBYE LEVEE debuted in Memphis at the Playhouse on the Square in 2022, after being one of the winners of their NewWorks@TheWorks competition. It also was a 2019 finalist for the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference. NORTH POLE JUSTICE was published in The Best 10-Minute Plays 2022, and THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE appeared in The Best 10-Minute Plays 2021. His works explore characters who struggle against repressive societal forces or personal circumstances that compel them to grapple with their own moral codes. Mike lives in Arizona.

TIGER TAKEOUT by Joe Borini

A young delivery man, trapped in an elevator, has a life-changing theological encounter with a 400 lb. Bengal tiger. The tiger evokes a modern day Aslan, as he engages the young man in a remarkable journey of self-discovery, on the path to both physical and spiritual rescue. This fresh and innovative play is at times hilarious and ultimately, deeply moving.

A former journalist, JOE BORINI earned a Masters in Fine Arts in playwriting from the Actors Studio School of Drama at The New School, where he studied under Romulus Linney. Joe has had plays produced in Virginia, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, Rome, and Melbourne. His one-act comedy, Homecoming, was published in Francis Ford Coppola’s Zoetrope All-Story in the Winter of 2001 and was produced in Los Angeles as part of Worldly Acts. Joe was a finalist for the O’Neill Theatre Center’s 2006 Playwrights Conference. Joe is a member of the Actors Studio and the Dramatists Guild of America.

Overview

What are the Clive Awards?

The Clive Awards is a new playwriting competition presented by Fellowship for Performing Arts to encourage the writing of new works that advance FPA’s mission to produce theater from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience. FPA is excited to connect with literary artists who are inspired by our history of producing smart, imaginative, multilayered stories and adaptations.

The inaugural Clive Awards winners were announced on February 1, 2024. The submission window for scripts is now closed.

A sincere “Thank You!” to all who contributed to an outstanding array of submissions.

What is Fellowship for Performing Arts?

Founded by award-winning actor, Max McLean, FPA is a not-for-profit New York City-based production company producing theatre and film from a Christian worldview to engage a diverse audience. FPA has a special interest in the works of C.S. Lewis and his contemporaries and has produced new theatrical adaptations of The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce as well as a play and film about Lewis’ spiritual journey called The Most Reluctant Convert.

FPA told the story of Martin Luther and Katie von Bora on stage in Martin Luther on Trial by Chris Cragin-Day and Max McLean. The company also premiered a contemporary theatrical retelling of Paradise Lost by Tom Dulack and has produced revivals of great plays like Robert Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons and William Nicholson’s Shadowlands, which delve into such issues as pain and suffering, freedom and conscience.

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