What's Happening!
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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 2024 SEASON HAS COME TO AN END
The last six months were the busiest in our history. We started with Winterworks at Houghton Hall in January, followed by six weeks of Grief Hotel at the Public in the spring, and we rounded it all out with Summerworks at the Wild Project, where we managed to cram in 47 performances over seven weeks.
Some of you saw it all, some just a piece, and some met our work for the first time. We were thrilled to share it with all of you.
Here are some photos and essays from the season, to tide you over until we have work to share again in the fall (or when we see you at our gala honoring dots!)
Lastly: We had our most successful season at the box office ever. If you were there, you know it was full to overflowing. And you might remember that your ticket was pretty affordable—maybe even free. That’s important to us.
But what that means is, even when we sell out all the time, tickets only cover a fraction (about 1/7th) of what it all costs, especially considering we pay people better every year (That’s important to us too!)
Throughout the year, we support hundreds of artists, mostly early in their careers, whether in our writers or directors groups, readings, workshops, commissions, retreats, or in production. So, if you can, make a donation today and be a part of our effort to pay artists, to make beautiful, affordable work, and to do it even better next year!
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GRIEF HOTEL'S MAGNIFICENT ENCORE RUN AT THE PUBLIC THEATER
We were thrilled to bring Summerworks 2023’s Obie-winning hit production Grief Hotel back for a six-week run at The Public Theater, in partnership with our friends New Georges. It was very special to dig back into the play and production with the exceptional group of artists who made it, and such a joy to share it with so many more people. We had a tremendous run – sold out, extended and beloved by critics and audiences – thank you to all who attended and to all who made it possible. CLICK HERE TO READ ESSAYS AND MORE ABOUT THE SHOW
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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
What would we do without Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks? For almost 30 years Maria Striar’s badass downtown company and its annual festival has been a springboard for some of the most exciting new plays and playwrights in the country.
-Sara Holdren, New York Magazine
A head-spinning production from Clubbed Thumb’s invaluable Summerworks series of new plays…As is usually true of Clubbed Thumb, the production has been expertly and attractively mounted…one of this season’s tastier diversions. Critic’s Pick!
-Ben Brantley, New York Times, Review of King Philip’s Head Is Still On That Pike Just Down The Road, 2019
To your cherished list of warm-weather city pleasures, you should think about adding Summerworks. Now 23 years old, this staple of the East Village culturescape…allows you to say you knew certain rising playwrights before your friends did.
-Ben Brantley, New York Times, Review of Tin Cat Shoes, 2018
A perfect summer show, a trick Clubbed Thumb seems to have mastered. The Summerworks home at the Wild Project in the East Village, with its garage-door entry open to the street, makes seeing the plays seem like a friendly invitation instead of a cultural duty.
-Jesse Green, New York Times, Review of Wilder Gone, 2018
If you know Clubbed Thumb — and you should, because the company has more than 20 years of gutsy new play development under its belt — you’ll recognize this as a very Clubbed Thumb show: idiosyncratic, nonrealistic, gently experimental with a Downtown’s greatest hits compilation of a cast.
-Alexis Soloski, NYT, Review of Lunch Bunch, 2019
A smart, funny, poignant meditation on gender and historical memory, speaking as convincingly to our own time as any drama set in the present.
-Miriam Felton-Dansky, Village Voice, Review of Men on Boats, 2016
A rollicking history pageant…brought to infectiously vidid life…CRITICS’ PICK!
-Ben Brantley, Review of Men on Boats, 2015
As has become customary at Clubbed Thumb’s Summerworks Festival, the cast, direction and design are top-notch, though it only costs a pittance to get in. In terms of dollars per laugh, the value here is extremely high.
-Helen Shaw, Time Out New York, Review of Tin Cat Shoes, 2018

Gentleman Caller by Ann Marie Healy; directed by Brooke O’Harra. Pictured: Meg MacCary, Hubert Pont-Du Jour, Hannah Cabell. Photo by Carl Skutsch

I’m Pretty Fucked Up, written by Ariel Stess, directed by Kip Fagan. Danny Wolohan & Ana Nogueira
SELECTED PRESS
The Interval profile of Maria Striar, May 2019
New York Times feature on Clubbed Thumb, July 2016
Theatre Forum interview with Maria Striar, Issue 47
CULTUREBOT article on Clubbed Thumb’s 20th Summerworks, June 2015
TDF Stages article on Clubbed Thumb’s 20th Summerworks, June 2015
American Theatre Magazine article on Clubbed Thumb’s 20th Summerworks, June 2015
American Theatre Magazine article on Clubbed Thumb’s Social Captain Program, August 2014