What's Happening!
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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
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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
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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!
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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.
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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!
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
MEET THE 25/26 EARLY-CAREER WRITERS’ GROUP
Each year we gather eight playwrights over the course of a season to develop work, commune with each other and meet various industry professionals. In May/June, we’ll present readings of their work-in-process during Summerworks 2026. This program is generously supported by The Barbara Bell Cumming Charitable Trust and the Cornelia T. Bailey Foundation. (Click their photos for more info!)
Alyssa Haddad-Chin (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based Lebanese American playwright, educator, and arts facilitator from Upstate, NY. Her play You Should Be So Lucky received the 2025 American Blues Theater Blue Ink Award for Playwriting. She has developed work with New York Theatre Workshop, The Playwrights Realm, The Mercury Store, Keen Company, Premiere Stages at Kean, B Street Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, Art House Productions, and others. She is the Company and Community Manager at Target Margin Theater, a Resident Artist at Breaking & Entering Theater Collective, a New Georges Affiliated Artist, and a member of the Dramatists Guild. A collection of her short plays And Now a Little Something for the Ladies (among others) is published with 1319 Press. MFA: NYU Tisch School of the Arts. alyssahaddad.com
Doug Robinson (he/him) is a playwright from Sterling, Virginia. Doug is a MacDowell Fellow, a Beinecke Research Fellow, and a company member of the Commedia troupe Faction of Fools. His play Capture the Flag was a recipient of the inaugural Reimagine Theatre for Young Audiences grant and a finalist for the 2024 O’Neil New Play Conference. Other writing credits include The Sea Beyond the Ocean (Upcoming 2026 Kennedy Center Production) The Figs (American Stage Theatre Company); Cactus Queen (Carlotta Festival) Pride of Doves (Yale Cabaret); Love Like Tuesday (Faction of Fools Theatre Company); Soft Apples (Yale Cabaret); Distance Frequencies (Rorschach Theatre Company); Welcome to Sis’s (Ally Theatre Company). Yale MFA 2024. Doug’s work invites people to tap into that softer part of themselves, that part that they may have left behind on the playground, that part where their imagination lives. He writes stories of people who look into the bleakest of swirling vortexes and shout, “Do your worst…and we will do our best.”
Dylan Guerra is a Brooklyn-based queer Latine writer/director originally from Miami. His short film Didn’t Think I’d See You Here was an official selection for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. He was on the twice Emmy-nominated writing team of Max’s The Other Two (Season 3) on which he also appeared as an actor. He is currently writing & directing a queer horror film for Shudder with Picturestart and Get Lifted. As a playwright, he has received commissions from Playwrights Horizons, MTC, and Roundabout. He is on the Longlist for the 2025 Bruntwood Prize and a Finalist for the 2025 L. Arnold Weissberger New Play Award. He has been a member of Ars Nova’s Playgroup, EST’s Youngblood and P73’s Interstate 73.
Jan Rosenberg is a playwright and screenwriter. Pluck was selected for the Eugene O’Neill National Playwrights Conference. Their short film guts recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. GUSHER! has been workshopped by Seattle Rep and IAMA Theatre. Other collaborations include LAByrinth Theater Company, Shotgun Players, Cosmic Cherry Festival, The Cherry Lane, The Lark, and Neurodivergent Play Series. They have been a finalist/semifinalist for the O’Neill, Princess Grace Award, Premiere Stages Play Festival, Terrence McNally Incubator Project, Irons in the Fire, and Playwrights Realm fellowship. Former playwright in residence at The Farm Theater and Stella Adler. IG: @emotionalsupportsnack
Jen Diamond is a writer from Massachusetts. She is a 2024/2025 Dramatists Guild Foundation Fellow and a Finalist for the 2025 Clubbed Thumb Commission. Her work has been presented or developed at Woolly Mammoth, the Kennedy Center, Baltimore Center Stage, and more. Jen has been a Finalist for the O’Neill National Playwrights Conference, Lanford Wilson New American Play Festival, Circle in the Square Emerging Writers Residency, and City Theatre Miami’s National Award. When she’s not writing for the theatre, she makes up one-half of the indie-comedy duo OLGA. In 2021, OLGA’s original comedy pilot, A Whole Production, was the winner of the Austin Film Festival’s Warner Bros. Entertainment Pilot Award. MFA in Playwriting: Hunter College. www.jen-diamond.com
Nadja Leonhard-Hooper is a writer and performer who makes plays, musicals, and movies. Her work has been seen / developed at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ensemble Studio Theater, The Red Eye, The Elysian, The Bell House, Ars Nova, The Drama League, 59E59, Two Headed Rep,One Year Lease Theater Company, and The Tank. Together, Nadja and Jake Brasch are American Sing-Song (A.S.S), a collective that writes and performs filthy hour-long comedic musicals.
Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, Sarah Grace Goldman is a playwright, screenwriter, and actor. She is a graduate of The Alabama School of Fine Arts class 2017, University of Minnesota/Guthrie BFA Actor Training Program Company of 2021, and Northwestern University’s Writing for the Screen + Stage Program. Sarah Grace’s writing explores societal and cultural phenomena through the lens of horror, dark comedy, and surrealism. Her plays have awarded her a semi-finalist status for the O’Neill Playwright’s Conference. Outside of theatre, Sarah Grace is a pilates instructor. She has high hopes of becoming a better cook.
Yuliya Tsukerman is a Brooklyn-based puppeteer and mask-maker working in theater and film. She writes, directs, and builds cross-disciplinary works, often in collaboration with other artists. Her current project, Transmissions from the Ancient Forest, is a series of video poems and accompanying books in which a community of lesser gods tries to make sense of human suffering.
Past Groups:
2024/25 (No Team Name): Bradley Cherna, Hillary Gao, Amanda Horowitz, Chad Kaydo, Anike Sonuga, Eliana Theologides Rodriguez, Arun Welandawe-Prematilleke, Seayoung Yim
2023/24 (No Team Name): jose sebastian alberdi, Kallan Dana, Alexa Derman, Daniel Holzman, Ashil Lee, Nikhil Mahapatra, Alle Mims, Marissa Joyce Stamps
2022/23 (No Team Name): Sam Bell, Daniela Gonzales y Perez, Emma Horwitz, Katelynn Kenney, Nina Ki, Kaia Lyons, kanishk pandey, Hayley Stahl.
2021/22 (No Team Name): Calley N. Anderson, Alisha Espinosa, Elijah Guo, Renae Jarrett, Jeana Scotti, TyLie Shider, Mallory Jane Weiss, Bailey Williams.
2020/21 (globe:warmed): Cristina Luzárraga, Allyson Dwyer, Nelson Diaz-Marcano, Hanna Novak, reid tang, Johnny Lloyd, Kathy Ng and Nazareth Hassan.
2019/20 (And Their Friends): Aaron Ricciardi, Deneen Reynolds-Knott, Kori Alston, Ry Szelong, Julia Izumi, Justice Hehir, May Treuhaft-Ali and Crystal Finn.
2018/19 (The Moniques): Emma Goidel, Alexander Paris, Lily Ackerman, Zhu Yi, April Ranger, Lizzie Stern, Sanaz Toossi and T. Adamson.
2017/18 (No Team Name): Ren Dara Santiago, Abby Rosebrock, William Glick, Charly Simpson, Daaimah Mubashshir, Chloé Hayat, Jordan Baum and Katie Hathaway.
2016/17 (No Team Name): Alexis Roblan, Angela Hanks, Dennis A. Allen II, Dominic Finocchiaro, Georgina Escobar, Jess Barbagallo, Nina Braddock and Paul Cameron Hardy.
2015/16 (Impartially Nude): Bryna Turner, Catia Cunha, Eboni Booth, Mara Nelson-Greenberg, Phillip Howze, Adrian Einspanier, Will Arbery and Zarina Shea.
2014/15 (Blood Piñata): Sarah DeLappe, Stephanie Del Rosso, Cory Finley, Xavier Galva, Jessica Goldschmidt, Amina Henry, Carmen Herlihy and Ryan King.
2013/14 (The Falcons): Jaclyn Backhaus, Adam Blodgett, LaShea Delaney, Tasha Gordon-Solmon, Ken Greller, MJ Kaufman, Dan Regelski and Ariel Stess.