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
Make It Feel Real
by Bailey Williams – playwright and Clubbed Thumb Literary Associate
A young dancer named Alexander won’t come down for dinner. He shows his exasperated mother, Mo, what he’s been working on. We watch Mo watch him, as he is made visible to us through Crystal Finn’s finely tuned expressions. She’s proud, she’s embarrassed, she’s confused. She’s all of the above, at once. “It’s… it’s very nice,” she says.
A woman named Ella is dying of cancer. She hires a local reporter, Joy Mead, to help her write her obituary. But first, Ella would like to hear more about the cult Joy Mead joined in her youth. It was wonderful, “to be connected to God all of the time.” It was weird, to have sex with Robert, the cult leader with a micropenis.
A group of Islanders meet in a community space, assembled by Mayor Annie, exercising her only power, the power of assembly. Nobody can do anything about anything really. Not the whales nor the hybrid wolf-dogs nor each other. Everybody is full of just the worst ideas imaginable and nobody knows the words to “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.” Everybody is infuriating!
John, who used to run an art gallery, hires “Homeless” Gary, who walks around the Island with a chainsaw, to chop wood. Does John pity Gary? Does John like Gary? Does John simply need wood? Gary refuses the offer to stay at his place. “There’s actually lots of ways to live,” Gary tells him.
Leslie-for-long writes a poem for her long distance lover. It’s called “Life.” Life is a bitter fruit with sweet seeds. It’s hard to find but it’s very tasty. This is a bad poem, but it’s also a good poem because simultaneously, across multiple dimensions, Joy Mead says that Robert once said that it is in the room. And if you’re very quiet, you might hear it.
“What is it?” Ella asks. Joy Mead does not answer because you can’t really answer this question. Not without sounding like Leslie.
But really, Ella doesn’t want to write her obituary. She wants her new friend Joy Mead to attend her assisted death. For a moment, you pulse in narrative anticipation. Here it is, at last. The story of friendship. The story of changing a person’s life. The story of holding someone’s hand as they die. But Joy Mead says no. She can’t do that. They actually just don’t know each other very well.
That’s life!
Everybody is lonely. Everybody tries to feel less alone by calling their exes. It doesn’t work. But they’re all right there, they could all just—
Ella gets sicker. Ella writes her own obituary. Some years, some places, some highlights. It’s short and it’s simple. It’s devastating. It’s her life and it isn’t. It’s the facts of her life. But what about everything else? What about a can of soup in the grocery aisle and the stranger you’re ignoring? What about the visit to the pharmacy for sunglasses? What about the car rides to the hospital and mac and cheese dinners and terrible days with your horses and..
A few years ago my best friend died. I went to his funeral. I sat there and told myself: this is your best friend’s funeral, so that I could feel the gravitational collapse of grief and change. Really feel it, you know? But I didn’t. I felt weird, like: is this my life? Was that his life? Is this real life?
You are waiting for a narrative to sweep you into meaning, for the set pieces to assemble around you to propel you into action, into change.
A whale shows up. Turns out the whales have gone missing because they are doing something different this year. The whales are just out there, living life. That’s it. Mystery solved.
But then… the whale leaps. Alexander dances. Something, un-described, un-performed, maybe even un-noticed happens to Ella. We see nothing but the expression on Mo’s face. She is incandescent. It’s right there! The house goes to black and for a moment, just before the applause, silence. It’s right there! Can you hear it?
Photo by Maria Baranova