Foundation for Contemporary Arts

Thomas Bradshaw

Lives in Evanston, IL

Born 1980, Summit, NJ

Playwright

I write to challenge social norms and provoke audiences to question their deep-seated beliefs about the world. I believe it is the duty of artists to inspire audiences to question the world around them, to provoke them to interrogate what is true and what is illusion. Too many plays fail to inspire any response in audiences. Many plays simply regurgitate whatever it is that a particular audience wants to hear. These plays fail to move any societal debate beyond where it already is.

Theater is not and should not be viewed as a simple, self-congratulatory form of entertainment. It should slap the audience awake with its audacity and rivet them with its electricity. A play should explode in one's mind so that all else is wiped clean, and what is left is the experience. When my audiences leave the theater, the debates on the sidewalk outside are not about coffee or tea; questions are raised, taboo discussions are had. This happens because people are presented with art that shakes their foundations. Some people are frightened by the radical and forceful way I present my subjects: race, class, sex, religion and society. My plays drag them from the comfortable shadows of their caves, kicking and screaming, into the blinding light of the sun.

2004 M.F.A., Mac Wellman's playwriting program, Brooklyn College

2002 B.A., Bard College

Assistant Professor, Department of Radio/Television/Film, Northwestern University

SELECTED WORKS

2012 Burning, premiered at The New Group, New York, NY

2011 Mary, premiered at Goodman Theatre, Chicago, IL; also performed for workshop at Theater Smash, Tornoto, Canada; The Public Theater, New York, NY

2010 Job, performed at Roehampton U., London, U.K; performed in workshop at Soho Rep., New York, NY; stage read at Berkeley Rep., Berkeley, CA

2010 The Ashes, performed at Soho Theatre, London, U.K.; also performed at Stanford University, Stanford, CA; New York Theater Workshop, New York, NY

2009 The Bereaved, premiered at Partial Comfort Productions, New York, NY; also performed at Theater Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

2008 Dawn, premiered at Flea Theater, New York, NY; performed in German at Undergroundzero Festival, Theater Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany; National Theater Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany

2008 Southern Promises, premiered at Performance Space 122, New York, NY

2008 Strom Thurmond Is Not A Racist, performed at Blank The Dog Theater, Los Angeles, CA

2007 Strom Thurmond/Cleansed, premiered at The Brick Theater, Brooklyn, NY

SELECTED GRANTS, HONORS AND AWARDS

2011 New Voices/New York Fellowship, Lark Play Development Center

2010 Prince Prize, Prince Charitable Trust

2009 Guggenheim Fellowship