The Forty Hour Club

DEDICATED TO CREATING ORIGINAL ARTIST-DRIVEN INDEPENDENT THEATER.
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Founded by Playwright and Director Michael Gorman and a collective of independent artists, The Forty Hour Club is a theatrical production company and group of creatives based in Rockland, Maine dedicated to creating original productions that ask the question “To what consequence?”

With a mission of "A Commitment To Community Through Theater" our productions focus on the social, economic, environmental, and systemic challenges facing working communities, and the paramount issue of sustainability.
 
Formed by artists drawn predominantly from the trades, The Forty Hour Club embraces the collaborative spirit of the job-site to tackle major issues and bring an authentic working world perspective to the stage. A true reflection of the adage “No job too big or too small”, The Forty Hour Club’s productions have graced stages as lofty as The Ellen Stewart Theater at La MaMa in NYC, where Gorman is also a playwright in residence, to the gritty loading docks of The Commercial Fish Exchange in Portland, Maine, and every level in between.

The Forty Hour Club is also a long-standing Resident Company of La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club ​in New York City. 
 
Through its unique working class identity and direct physical approach, The Forty Hour Club seeks to frame a window into our nation’s deep economic and cultural divide and open a portal into the “Phantom World” of rural America. At its heart, the work explores the phenomenon of invisibility—that there is a whole class and culture of people among us, that feels, for all intents and purposes, invisible—the addicted, the imprisoned, the impoverished, and the abandoned members of our disenfranchised working communities.
 
Of timely importance is The Forty Hour Club’s epic ongoing project “Chasing the New White Whale—Harpooning Addiction”—an evolving series of performances environmental installations, readings, and community presentations that address the opiate crisis in commercial fishing communities in Maine and New England.  Working with community members in recovery and re-entry, the project serves as a creative tool for restorative justice, inclusion, connection, and healing. As an innovative “Arts and Advocacy” model, the project has the capacity to resonate on a much larger National and International level, and we are currently planning productions in the historic fishing port of New Bedford, Massachusetts and New York City in spring 2025.
 
In addition to the company’s theatrical and advocacy work, The Forty Hour Club is also currently developing a documentary film based on Mike’s decades long dedication to writing about and presenting work about addiction and the opiate epidemic, as well as other related projects.

WHO WE ARE:
MICHAEL GORMAN- Founder/Director/Creative/Producer
​DONNA DALY- Co-Director/Project Manager/Creative/Producer
THE FORTY HOUR CLUB- A collective of independent artists, actors, contractors, performers, builders, advocates, and supporters.

..Modern theatre does not write enough about blue-collar characters or drug addiction..”
                —NY Times

"Think The Perfect Storm meets Trainspotting"
Backstage.com

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Watch a video about The Forty Hour Club.
"A Commitment to Community Through Theater"

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Chasing The New White Whale / Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa, New York City. November-December 2018.

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Fedallah and the Phantoms / Staged reading series at LaMama Theatre and the Center for Maine Contemporary Art

Fedallah and the Phantoms is a mythical chorus of ghostly whale hunters and modern day commercial fishermen inspired by Ahab's stowaway crew— who represent those who are often “invisible” in our society—the addict; our abandoned and alienated working communities; the poor; the marginalized.  "To make visible the invisible, and in the process, restore dignity to a people who have been stripped of it by fatal forces often beyond their control—that is my current goal as an artist"  --Mike Gorman

For more videos about the work of The Forty Hour Club / Visit Our Vimeo Site

Art & Advocacy
Partner With Us
If you’re interested in partnering with the Forty Hour Club on an upcoming event or production, please contact us. We are always interested in creating new models that combine arts and advocacy to explore
​critical social, cultural and environmental issues.

contact US