What's Happening!

  • YOU'RE INVITED TO THE CLUBBED THUMB GALA

    On Monday, October 6th 2025 at the Etsy Headquarters in DUMBO, Clubbed Thumb will be honoring Crystal Finn, Susannah Flood and Miriam Silverman.

     

    These three actresses are at the very heart of what we do — as individual artists and as exemplars of their craft. Where would Clubbed Thumb be without actresses like them — and without these actresses specifically?

     

    Crystal, Susannah and Miriam have been integral to our work for the last 15 years, and we are thrilled to announce we’ll be celebrating them at our gala this fall. CLICK FOR MORE

  • THANK YOU FOR COMING TO SUMMERWORKS 2025

    Whether it was your first Summerworks or your 28th, we are so pleased you could join us. CLICK HERE for some photos and essays from this season.

    We’ll be spending the summer incubating and planning for the fall, but we have lot of news to share, so watch this space!

    In the meantime, we’re pleased to announce that our outgoing board chair will match donations up to a total of $25,000 to support future remounts of Summerworks shows (like this season’s Deep Blue Sound). He wants us to keep it up – and so do we! CLICK HERE TO JOIN THAT EFFORT

  • ANNOUNCING SUMMERWORKS 2025

    Due to overwhelming demand, we’re adding performances this year – but Summerworks shows always sell out, so lock in your seats with a pass!

    CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO & TO BUY YOUR PASS NOW

  • THANK YOU FOR A GREAT RUN!

    Spending the last two months with Deep Blue Sound has been a joy and a balm. We are deeply proud of the work, and humbled by the talent and dedication of this company of artists.

    The show played for six sold-out weeks and we added as many shows as we could – but sadly, we closed this weekend. Thank you to the over 4,000 people who came to visit our island. And thank you to all the artists, staff, funders and friends who made it possible. This was a special one. 

    Click here for photos, essays and a link to buy the play!

  • APPLY TO CLUBBED THUMB'S 25/26 NEW PLAY DIRECTING FELLOWSHIP

    New play directors who have worked at least three years outside of an educational setting, and who plan to be in NYC September 2025 through January 2026, are welcome to apply for the fellowship by completing the form HERE – applications due April 1st!

  • NOW PLAYING: DEEP BLUE SOUND

    Our “devastatingly beautiful” production from Summerworks 2023 returns for a limited engagement, in residence at the Public Theater. Now playing! CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

  • WINTERWORKS 2025 HAS COME TO A CLOSE

    Thank you to the hundreds of people who joined as at Playwrights Downtown for the 10th annual Winterworks. We were so proud of the work these amazing artists made — and we managed to cram everyone in to share it. Congratulations especially to Directing Fellows Iris McCloughan, NJ Agwuna and Laura Dupper – read more HERE

  • NOW ACCEPTING SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 10TH BIENNIAL COMMISSION

    This year we lost one of our great comic dramatists: Christopher Durang. We’ve been reflecting on how powerful and much-needed savage humor like his is in a world like ours today. So, for the 10th Biennial Commission, please consider his work, especially from the 1980’s. Applications are due March 20th, 2025. Read more and submit yours HERE

  • ANNOUNCING A RETURN ENGAGEMENT OF SUMMERWORKS 2023'S DEEP BLUE SOUND

    We are thrilled to announce that Deep Blue Sound – which ran to sold-out houses at Summerworks 2023 – will return for five weeks this winter. After a wildly successful run of Grief Hotel earlier this season, we are excited to return to The Public Theater with another Summerworks hit. CLICK FOR TICKETS & INFO

  • THANK YOU FOR MAKING OUR GALA SUCH A SUCCESS!

    Monday night’s Gala, celebrating our dear friends and collaborators dots, was beautiful, moving and very fun. Thank you to everyone who attended, performed, volunteered, donated and otherwise supported this very special night.

    See photos from the event on our Instagram (and tag @clubbedthumb if you’re posting your own)!

    At the event, we raised funds in honor of dots to help us better support the designers in our community – and we happily exceeded our goal. But there’s no such thing as a late donation! If you’d like to contribute to the fund, click HERE

  • OUR NEW ANTHOLOGY - ON SALE NOW

    We’ve been eager to put out a second anthology since Funny, Strange, Provocative was published in 2007, and the last year finally provided us with the time to take on this long-awaited project. We are thrilled to announce that Unusual Stories, Unusually Told, published by Bloomsbury/Methuen, is now available!

    In it you’ll find seven Clubbed Thumb plays that span 18 years of our history, as well as essays and interviews about the work, and the often atypical processes that led to their productions.

    Read more about the book and get your discounted copy (and our first anthology) HERE

CLUBBED THUMB’S 25/26 NEW PLAY DIRECTING FELLOWSHIP

We’re excited to introduce you to the incoming cohort of artists for the New Play Directing Fellowship. These directors and playwrights will soon begin developing their new plays with with a company of emerging actors assembled for the program. In January, they’ll present these pieces during Winterworks.

This year’s fellowship features: Terrence I Mosley directing Jonathan Journals Spontaneously Combusted at Midnight in Bed by Max Mooney; Liz Peterson directing Maestra by jose sebastian alberdi; and Hanna Yurfest directing the last wish or, buffie vanquishes the giant squid by Emma Horwitz.

Directors Anne Kauffman and Tara Ahmadinejad will mentor all three directing fellows.

Terrence I Mosley is a narrative-based director and educator who sometimes performs and writes. His directing credits include Everything You Love, Smart People, Sender, Everybody, Unentitled (2024 AUDELCO Best Revival), and Milo Imagines the World (Associate Director). He has performed at Chicago Shakespeare Theater, Northlight Theatre, Court Theatre, and Nancy Manocherian’s the cell. He has supported the work of directors and writers at Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Goodman Theatre, Mabou Mines, Primary Stages, Irish Repertory Theatre, and the BBC. He has been a guest artist at Syracuse University, Rutgers University, SUNY Purchase, and Fordham College at Lincoln Center, where he also served as Interim Head of Directing. He was recently a Kenny Leon Fellow at the Alliance Theatre. He is the writer of the plays One and Gilbert, or Frank, and the co-writer of Deep Killer Brown with Helen Hayes Award winner Melody A. Betts. His work encourages people to take ownership of their thoughts and actions. MFA: John Wells Fellowship @ Carnegie Mellon University

Max Mooney is a Queer writer, director, producer, theater educator and dramaturg based in Brooklyn. Max develops new work in joyfully collaborative settings that find the intersections between poetry and visual/maximalist theater. Max’s directing and writing work has been seen and workshopped at The Wild Project, The Tank, Dixon Place, Concrete Temple Theatre, Rooted Theater Company, Fresh Fruit Festival, the Brick Aux, Paradise Factory & many Brooklyn rooftops and friends’ living rooms. She was a 2023 semifinalist for the Terrence McNally New Works Incubator, a 2025 semifinalist for The O’Neill’s National Playwrights Conference and a 2025 semifinalist for Clubbed Thumb’s Biennial Commission. Max serves as the Assistant Producer at En Garde Arts, Associate Producer at Concrete Temple Theater and is an affiliate artist of Trove Theatre/Live Arts Collective. She was the curator of The Tank’s 2025 Pridefest. Remixed Classics, a theater education handbook co-authored by Max, won a 2023 Vattemare Award. Max has a BFA from NYU Tisch’s Playwrights Horizons Theatre School, specializing in directing and playwriting.

Liz Peterson is a multidisciplinary performance-maker whose work spans theatrical, site-specific and iterative projects that explore the chaotic intimacies between gesture and words. Liz was born in Manchester, UK to a Mancunian mother & Anglo-Indian/Burmese father, and grew up tethered to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Melipilla, Chile. She has worked internationally with leading artists including Oliver Husain, Peter Hinton, Jordan Tannahill, Anne Bogart, and Rugilé Bardziukaité. Her work has been presented at IAP (St. Mark’s Church), the Art Gallery of Ontario, SummerWorks Festival, OFFTA, Tiger Dublin Fringe, Dancemakers and the Harbourfront Center. She is a former Associate Artist with Public Recordings and a 2021 Roundabout Theatre Archive Fellow. Select directing credits: ਆਦਤ / the Ādat (United Solo Festival – Best Musical Award), Sheltered (the cell theatre), Urinetown, the Musical (Fisher Center Bard College), The Beautiful Lady (LaMama, Assistant Director), Sun and Sea (Santiago-A-Mil, Assistant Director). Directing MFA – Columbia University. lizpeterson.org

jose sebastian alberdi is a Brooklyn-based playwright originally from sunny San Diego. Writing developed with: the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center (National Playwrights Conference), MacDowell (Fellowship), Page 73 (Fellowship, Writers’ Group), Clubbed Thumb (Early Career Writers’ Group), Ensemble Studio Theatre (Youngblood), Colt Coeur (Company Member, Residency), The Orchard Project (Greenhouse Lab, Episodic Lab, Homegrown x Sony TV Lab), Fresh Ground Pepper (BRB Eco-Week), South Coast Repertory (Pacific Playwrights Festival, Elizabeth George Commission, NewSCRipts), Denver Center for the Performing Arts (New Play Summit), the Huntington Theatre Company (Dream Boston), Exquisite Corpse Company (Writer’s Lab), Lambda Literary (Writer’s Retreat) and more. MFA: NYU. @milk_jello on (most) social media.

Hanna Yurfest is a director and producer of performances and events from Richmond, MA. She has worked with/at The Tank, The Exponential Festival, and New Georges, amongst others. She co-founded and leads The Tank’s artist group, TAG, and creates work with her company, Needy Lover. needylover.com, @yurfest0 on instagram.

Emma Horwitz is a writer of plays, fiction, and zines from New York City. Recent productions include Two Sisters Find a Box of Lesbian Erotica in the Woods (written & performed w/ Bailey Williams, dir. Tara Elliott, with Rattlestick Theater and New Georges, Spring 2025; with The Exponential Festival in collaboration with New Georges, Winter 2024) and Mary Gets Hers (dir. Josiah Davis, with The Playwrights Realm, Fall 2023.) Emma was the 2024/2023 Page One Resident and a 2022/2021 Writing Fellow with The Playwrights Realm, and has further developed work in theater with the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference (Bogdonoff, 2024), the William Inge Center for the Arts, Stillwright, Mercury Store, The Brick, The Hearth, and the Williamstown Theater Festival, among others. Audrey Resident and Affiliated Artist with New Georges. Alum of Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers’ Group (2023/2022). MFA: Brown University. For more: emmahorwitz.com.


PREVIOUS FELLOWS:

2024/25: IRIS MCCLOUGHAN, NJ AGWUNA and LAURA DUPPER
2023/24:
MIRANDA CORNELL, LAUREN ZEFTEL and CARSEN JOENK
2022/23: KEDIAN KEOHAN, NEMUNA CEESAY and DARA MALINA
2021/22:
BLAYZE TEICHER, TARA ELLIOTT and JOSIAH DAVIS
2020/21:
 MICHAELA ESCARCEGA, LEONIE BELL, NANA DAKIN, ARPITA MUKHERJEE, RACHEL GITA KARP, ESTEFANÍA FADUL, KEENAN TYLER OLIPHANT and JOAN SERGAY 
2019/20: CAITLIN SULLIVAN, ANDRÉS LÓPEZ-ALICEA and EMMA MILLER
2018/19: KATE EMINGER, TARA AHMADINEJAD and SARAH BLUSH
2017/18: SARAH HUGHES, TAYLOR REYNOLDS and LILY RIOPELLE
2016/17: CAITLIN RYAN O’CONNELL, CHRISTINA ROUSSOS and LA WILLIAMS
2015/16: SANAZ GHAJARRAHIMI, LILLIAN MEREDITH, JAY STULL and KATE HOPKINS