The biennial commission, begun in 2005, awards new dramatists a $15,000 grant to pen an original work for Clubbed Thumb. The commission was created to foster new works that "consider the relationships between truth, power, history, and personal responsibility," according to press notes.

Playwright Andy Bragen has been named the 2007 recipient of the grant. Bragen's work must follow Clubbed Thumb guidelines, which factor in cast size, running time, representation of women and follow the assigned theme: "the tragedy of the commons." His work will ultimately be presented as part of a future Clubbed Thumb season.

A panel blindly selected Bragen's proposal for his commission, entitled Ranch Home. Set in the Arizona desert and a pool outside a house in the Phoenix exurbs, Ranch Home "lives in a landscape of enormous contrast between the unbearably hot outdoors, and the climate controlled indoors, between the rugged desert terrain, and the manicured lawns and golf courses," according to press materials. "There isn't enough water to go around, and what is viewed by many as a just entitlement, the right to have a lawn and swimming pool, to have green golf courses and air conditioned homes, is ecologically unsustainable. In the wake of her brother's suicide, Laurie, a college dropout, her grief-stricken father, and her step-brother, plump, pimply and pampered Petey, are stuck in their huge, white house when the pool starts mysteriously draining…"

Bragen is a graduate of Brown University's MFA Program in Literary Arts. He recently completed a Jerome Fellowship at the Playwrights Center in Minneapolis, having received previous honors of the New Voices Fellowship from Ensemble Studio Theatre and a Dramatists Guild Fellowship. His works have been presented at the Guthrie Theatre, Ars Nova, Rattlestick, LAByrinth, EST, Repertorio Español, Soho Think Tank, NYU's hotINK Festival, The Illusion Theatre and the Lark Theatre.

For further information visit www.clubbedthumb.org.