Summerworks Internships

Clubbed Thumb is seeking production interns for our 29th Summerworks. The festival features three fully-produced new plays, as well as a number of ancillary activities and events. Rehearsals begin as early as April 20th and performances run approximately May 14th – June 30th at the Wild Project in New York City’s East Village. 

Duties & Qualifications:
Our primary internship track is our Production Assistant Internship. We will assign three interns per production to assist stage management throughout rehearsals and serve as run crew throughout tech and performances. This is an approximately 6-week internship: interns are in the rehearsal room for the first 4 weeks, then in the theater for the final 2 weeks. In this track, interns are focused on one of the three Summerworks productions, though they will also be asked to support load-in and strike for all three shows, as well as occasional front of house shifts. No technical experience is required, but a basic understanding of theater and the type of work that Clubbed Thumb produces is preferred. If you are not familiar with our work, please take a moment to look through our website and track down a play or one of our anthologies.

We also offer festival-wide internship tracks, when interested candidates apply for these roles and have some experience and training in these areas. In these tracks, interns will work on all three shows in Summerworks. Some of these tracks include:

Producing/marketing: Interns will work in the Clubbed Thumb office, supporting day-to-day producing and general management tasks, including contracting, marketing and social media management, and ticketing and front-of-house tasks.

Production management: Interns will work with the Festival Production Manager to support festival-wide production needs, including load-in, tech, and strike for all three shows.

Scenic & props design: Interns will work with the Technical Director and Props Designer to support scenic and props design needs, including load-in, tech, and strike for all three shows.

If interested in a specific area, make note of that in your application.

Hourly Requirements:
Interns are expected to work roughly 30 hours per week during the 6-week process of the show to which they are assigned, and 10-15 hours per week during the festival otherwise. Festival-wide interns will coordinate their schedule directly with their supervisor, but it will be roughly the same hourly commitment.

Interns receive a weekly travel and meal stipend, but we understand that some will need more remunerative work in addition to the internship, which the schedule can typically accommodate. Clubbed Thumb makes every effort to provide a structured, respectful, and rich learning experience for every intern, and will support any requirements for students to receive school credit and/or school-funded internship compensation whenever possible. Interns are responsible for their own housing arrangements.

Internship Benefits:
The Summerworks internship is an extremely hands-on, holistic experience; the ideal candidate is eager and enthusiastic to make the most of the two months, and to learn about every aspect of making theater. Interns will come out of this program having gained practical theater-making skills and professional rehearsal room experience. Summerworks employs upwards of 70 theater artists, technicians and staff each year, and interns work directly with these professionals – so it can be a fruitful networking experience as well. Finally, in addition to complimentary tickets to all of the plays and other ancillary events, we create opportunities over the course of the festival for the full cohort of interns to gather, in order to build peer relationships, and we host various intern lunches with guest artists who speak about their careers.

Applications for Summerworks 2026 internships are now closed.