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MICHAEL GORMAN / FOUNDER, FORTY HOUR CLUB
Playwright, Writer, Director, Experimental Theater Producer, Installation Artist, Performer. 
Michael Gorman is a playwright, director, installation and experimental theater artist, and founder of “The Forty Hour Club”—his theatrical production company based in Rockland, Maine.
With a mission of “A Commitment To Community Through Theater”, The Forty Hour Club is dedicated to creating original theatrical productions and installations that ask the question “To what consequence?”. Specifically, Mike’s work focuses on the economic, environmental and systemic challenges facing working communities, and the paramount issue of sustainability. Mike is also a Playwright in Residence at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club in New York City, where he has a long-standing history and has produced many of his plays over the past 25 years. He made his debut at La MaMa in 1994 as a member of the performance duo “The Fabulous Giggin’ Bros.” with their evening of short plays “Biffing Mussels”. He has since had more than a dozen productions staged at La MaMa (see Mike's work here). For the past two decades, Mike has been focused on writing and producing original work/plays about the on-going opiate epidemic. At the forefront of his work is a trilogy of plays—"The Honor and Glory of Whaling" that deals with the issue of opiate addiction in the commercial fishing community of New England. New and evolving works further explore the current National opioid crisis through the unique lens of the fishing industry, and draw inspiration from Moby Dick and Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the Great White Whale. Mike is currently working on an epic project "Chasing The New White Whale—Harpooning Addiction" — an Art & Advocacy theater/performance model aimed at addressing the opioid crisis head-on, and one that Gorman is taking on the road to working communities hardest hit by the epidemic. Through direct engagement with the community, the project combines theater, performance, music, installation, collaborative community participation, and advocacy, that together address the opioid crisis that is taking place in those communities. As an artist with lived experience (Gorman lost a sibling to opiate addiction), his artistic journey isn't simply about personal sadness and loss. "It's about a regional and National health crisis and an artistic call to action. It is not intended to be my plaintive voice but the echo of the over 100,000 lives lost to opiate addiction each year" says Gorman. At its heart, Michael’s artistic 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 incarcerated, and the abandoned members of our disenfranchised working communities. His work on the project CTNWW features a mythical chorus of ghostly whale hunters and modern day commercial fishermen inspired by Ahab's stowaway crew—"Fedallah and the Phantoms"— who represent those who are often “invisible” in our society. "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 With this project, and through his work, Gorman hopes to engender a greater awareness of the epidemic and the underlying disease of addiction; create connection and engage the audience and community in a creative dialogue that propels constructive change; help reduce the stigma associated with addiction; and ultimately, help initiate healing.
Michael Gorman lives and works in Maine, where he makes his living as a builder and renovator while continuing to write and develop new theatrical works, and where he performed environmental theater for many years before making his way to New York City to pursue his playwriting career. |
Mike Gorman as "The Chaplain" in his production of
"Chasing The New White Whale" at La MaMa (2018). 
Mike with Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa Theater
where he is a Playwright in Residence. 
Mike & "The Fabulous Giggin' Brothers" in NYC for their
debut of "Biffing Mussels" at La MaMa (1994). |
“Mike’s been writing in his own singular, idiosyncratic style for more than two decades now; journey with us through his oeuvre to discover a truly original talent with a world view as wide and humanist and compassionate as the ocean he so often writes about.” — Martin Denton, Indie theater Now
Read an article about Mike and his journey as a playwright.
Chasing Moby Dick Into the 21st Century
OCT 14, 2018- BOB KEYES, PORTLAND PRESS HERALD (PORTLAND, ME)
Chasing Moby Dick Into the 21st Century
OCT 14, 2018- BOB KEYES, PORTLAND PRESS HERALD (PORTLAND, ME)
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Watch a short video about Michael's Playwright In Residency at La MaMa E.T.C in New York City
"It's clear that Gorman has an epic vision...and can create vivid characters and write snappy dialog that walks the fine line between magic realism and real realism"
—Blogcritics Magazine
Mike giving tribute to Sam Shepard at Shepard's Memorial— La MaMa Theater, October 2017.
Read Mike's tribute here.
Read Mike's tribute here.