What's Happening!

  • SUMMERWORKS #26: MEET THE ARTISTS

    The days are getting longer and the cherries are blossoming…which means its almost time for SUMMERWORKS! We’re excited to bring you three new funny, sharp, inventive plays, running May 18 – July 1 at the Wild Project. CLICK HERE FOR INFO & TICKETS

  • SAVE THE DATE: HONORING ANNE KAUFFMAN OCTOBER 2ND 2023

    Our frequent collaborator, co-director of the New Play Directing Fellowship, board member and dear friend Anne Kauffman starts performances for her gorgeous production of Lorraine Hansberry’s The Sign In Sidney Brustein’s Window on Broadway – tonight! If you missed the show at BAM, we hope you’ll check it out during its quick run at the James Earl Jones Theatre.

     

    Anne has done so much for our company, and for so many others, including the countless artists she has mentored and uplifted. She’s having a big year so its high time we celebrate her!

     

    Join us at the Clubbed Thumb Gala on Monday, October 2nd at the Etsy Headquarters in DUMBO to honor Anne, her much deserved success and her impact on the American Theater.

     

    Tickets will go on sale shortly, but if you’re interested in joining the host committee or securing your spot now, contact Development Manager Rachel Mueller at rachel@clubbedthumb.org  

  • APPLICATIONS ARE NOW OPEN FOR THE 23/24 NEW PLAY DIRECTING FELLOWSHIP

    In this five-month new play directing intensive, fellows work on 30-minute commissioned pieces with writers from the Clubbed Thumb community. These plays are developed over the course of a semester with Playwrights Horizons Theater School student and alumni actors, in rehearsal rooms at Playwrights Downtown. In January, the same plays are rehearsed in the same rooms in quick processes with professional actors, and performed as part of Winterworks: a five-day industry showcase.

    New play directors who have worked at least three years outside of an educational setting and plan to be in NYC September 2023 through January 2024 are welcome to apply for the fellowship by completing the form HERE by May 1st, 2023. 

  • LUNCH BUNCH RETURNS!

    “DRAGON FRUIT! BLACK BELUGA LENTILS! PERFECTLY SOFT-BOILED EGGS!” Seven public defenders seek meaning, belonging, and some semblance of order via their frenzied quest for the perfect lunch – while battling ACS, inequality, burnout, and a big ole serving of existential dread.

    It is with great delight that we share the news that, at long last, a big hit of both Winterworks AND Summerworks 2019, NYT’s Critic’s Pick Lunch Bunch is returning for a limited run, with The Play Company. CLICK FOR TICKETS

  • Meet the soon-to-be graduates of Brown University's MFA Playwriting Program

    We’re excited to join forces once again with Brown University’s MFA Playwriting Program in the Department of Theatre Arts & Performance Studies
    to present readings of plays by two new graduates: Alexa Derman and Jesús I. Valles, on Mon April 2nd and Tue April 3rd at Playwrights Horizons.

  • APPLY FOR THE 2023 SUMMERWORKS INTERNSHIP

    Clubbed Thumb is seeking production interns for our 26th Summerworks festival. Interns have hands-on roles throughout May and June, plus opportunities to meet and work with both peers and professional artists. Learn more and apply how HERE

  • WINTERWORKS IS NOW CLOSED

    Thank you to all who attended, and congratulations to the many artists who spent their Januarys with us! Soon we will open the application for our next fellowship cohort – stay tuned!

  • WINTERWORKS 2023

    We’re back with the 8th iteration of Winterworks – a progressive performance of three short-ish plays, which culminates our New Play Directing Fellowship – featuring:

    Kedian Keohan directing BUTTON LAKE BAND CAMP
    by Elijah Guo; Nemuna Ceesay directing REPLY ALL
    by Jahna Ferron-Smith; and Dara Malina directing COACH COACH by Bailey Williams.

    There are only 7 showings, and capacity is extremely limited! Tickets are free, but an RSVP is required. CLICK HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT

  • Thank you to everyone who attended or donated to our 25th Anniversary Gala!

    And thank you Etsy for hosting us, and the many people who volunteered to help make it a special night. It was such a pleasure to reconnect with old friends, and to meet some new ones as we celebrated Clubbed Thumb, and the many many artists and craftspeople who we’ve had the pleasure of working with these 25 years. Check out photos on Instagram!


    Want to support our 25th Anniversary? There’s still time! 
    Donate $25 or more to our gala campaign and we’ll send you a limited-edition Clubbed Thumb coloring book and matching pencil set!

  • SUMMERWORKS 2022 HAS COME TO AN END!

    Thank you to the over 100 artists, production staff, crew, interns and other folks who came together this year to make our 25th Summerworks. It was a giant feat – and we were so thrilled by the work we all created together.

    And thank you to the thousands of audience members who came to a show or a reading this year. We did not know what to expect, but you all really showed up for our work and we are humbled by that. We’ll have plenty of updates about the future coming soon – but for now: thank you!!

  • MEET THE CASTS AND DESIGN TEAMS FOR SUMMERWORKS 2022

    Tickets are on sale now for The 25th Summerworks – running May 20th through July 2nd at the Wild Project. We’re thrilled to announce initial casting and design teams for these three plays – READ MORE AND GET YOUR TICKETS 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

THE CLUBBED THUMB BIENNIAL COMMISSION

SUBMISSIONS FOR THE 2022 BIENNIAL COMMISSION ARE NOW CLOSED.
Proposals will be read throughout the spring and a winner or winners announced this summer.

*****

Every other year Clubbed Thumb invites playwrights to propose plays inspired by a particular prompt. The application is open to all, and read blind. The winning proposal(s) receive (or split) a $15,000 award and two years of development support. We are pleased to announce our next Biennial Commission.

In high school, we put on Noel Coward plays with our friend Mellie Anderson in Strauss Hall—an old library room in Milton, Massachusetts. Mellie eventually moved to Maine where she has been a longtime participant in her local theater scene. She is also an avid Clubbed Thumb fan, and helped us concoct the 2022 Biennial Commission: Your Community Theater.

For this commission, we invite you to write using the constraints common for community theaters – smaller, non-professional theaters operating under specific constraints, in which many or most of the “makers” are not full-time theater artists. But think: Community theater with a Clubbed Thumb aesthetic. Our hope is that these commissions inspire unusual stories, unusually told for small theaters outside of big cities, all across the United States.

THE FORM:

  • It should have short scenes – no one lasting longer than 15 minutes. (It could be a collection of very short plays, so long as they are cumulative.)
  • No one ever speaks more than three sentences in a row.
  • There should only be three stage directions.
  • Only employ language and situations that you would be comfortable asking a five-year-old or an eighty-year-old to hear, speak and/or enact.

THE CAST:

  • It’s helpful for much of the casting to be flexible, so the roles can be filled with whomever is in a given community.
  • That said, the majority of these parts should be for or be able to be played by Women+.
  • There should be parts for many people of many ages – with roles fairly evenly dispersed (think ensemble instead of star vehicles).

THE PRODUCTION:

  • It should take place in a slightly heightened, non-naturalistic world.
  • The design should not require a lot of money to accomplish, nor should it assume that the play will be performed in a neutral space. It should invite a creative, crafty display of virtuosity.

THE CONTENTS:

  • Your proposed play should involve the solving of a mystery – but not a murder or violent crime.
  • It should reckon with idealism in an honest or unexpected way.
  • It should feature a moment of mockery gone wrong.
  • It must also contain at least four of the following ingredients:
    • – A loud, delightful, robust cackle of laughter
    • – A thank-you note or a weekly call
    • – Unusual female (physical) strength
    • – Throwing heirlooms into the sea
    • – An island or a garden or both
    • – A squandered gift
    • – A brief reenactment of part of an episode of Columbo
    • – The phrase “good red herring” or “get the cake” or both

And please consider the general parameters of a Clubbed Thumb play.


DEADLINE: SUNDAY, MARCH 20th, 11:59PM EDT — SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED.

Many thanks to Mellie Anderson, Agnes Borinsky, Amy Rose Marsh, Erin Courtney and Lisa D’Amour for their help with this prompt.

CLICK HERE to read commission prompts from past years.