What's Happening!
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THANK YOU FOR COMING TO SUMMERWORKS 2026
Whether it was your first Summerworks or your 29th, we are so pleased you could join us. CLICK HERE for photos, essays and press 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!
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SUMMERWORKS 2026 IS ALMOST HERE!
Our annual line-up of three brand-new plays is approaching, featuring: TITANS by Jesse Jae Hoon, directed by Tara Elliott; DERANGEMENTS by Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, directed by Annie Tippe; and THE FAMILY DOG by Bailey Williams, directed by Tara Ahmadinejad.
Running May 14 – Jun 30 at the Wild Project. TICKETS ON SALE NOW!
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SUMMERWORKS 2025'S SOLD-OUT CRITIC'S PICK COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE RETURNS
Tickets for Ro Reddick’s COLD WAR CHOIR PRACTICE are on sale now! The Summerworks 2025 Critic’s Pick, directed by Knud Adams, will return for an extended run co-produced by MCC Theater, Clubbed Thumb and Page 73. CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS & INFO
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MEET OUR NEW GROUP COHORTS!
A very warm welcome to the incoming writers and directors taking part in Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers’ Group and New Play Fellowship!
Directors Terrence I Mosley, Liz Peterson and Hanna Yurfest will work on newly commissioned plays by Max Mooney, jose sebastian alberdi and Emma Horwitz respectively – stay tuned for a Winterworks announcement.
And we’re looking forward to getting to know Alyssa Haddad-Chin, Doug Robinson, Dylan Guerra, Jan Rosenberg, Jen Diamond, Nadja Leonard-Hooper, Sarah Grace Goldman and Yulia Tsukerman in this year’s writers’ group!
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THANK YOU FOR MAKING OUR GALA A GREAT SUCCESS
Thanks to everyone who joined us to honor Crystal, Susannah, and Miriam, and to everyone who contributed to make it a truly special night.
We were moved by the warmth and generosity in the room on Monday October 6th — lots of hugs, laughter and a even few happy tears. These three are the real deal and we are lucky to know them; we’re excited to keep celebrating them and working with them for many years to come.
Actors are at the heart of what we do, and it’s not too late to support them with a gift to our 2025 gala! DONATE HERE
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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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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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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
Critical praise for Summerworks 2026
“No matter what, odds are high that you will see some of the best actors New York City has to offer in an 89-seat room tucked away in the East Village. . . Audience members spill out onto East Third Street, chatting outside before and after shows. This only underlines what feels like Clubbed Thumb’s continued interest in how small groups of people function, what binds us together and what divides us, and what forms an identity.”
NY Magazine/Vulture: June’s Off Broadway Productions to See by Sara Holdren
“Nadja Leonhard-Hooper’s wild ride of a play, directed with flawless screwball flair by Annie Tippe, is some of the funniest, sharpest theater I’ve seen all year… The play’s heroines are ultimately navigating the question faced every day by pretty much everyone, and certainly anyone with a womb: What do you do when reality seems to prove itself violent and terrifying again and again? When both the strain of constant defense and the risk of trust are enough to break your brain? Well, if you’re lucky enough, you go see something like this.”
Feature: How Clubbed Thumb “Moves Fast and Builds Things” for Summer’s Strangest Party by David Cote
“Everyone knows: year after year Clubbed Thumb catches lightning in a bottle with slippery, impossible plays.”
From the New York Times Theater Update, June 10 2026 by Helen Shaw:
plus: Helen’s Bluesky recommendation of The Family Dog…
Interview: Bailey Williams with Mark Dundas Wood for the Village Star-Revue
“I’m very different from my family. Sometimes I feel very much like the black sheep. So I went home for Christmas that year, and I was watching my family. And it felt like I was in a Durang play. I thought, I have to try to capture something of this feeling and this rhythm of being in this mass of people [Williams has five siblings], all of whom are in their thirties, with my parents, who are in their sixties. And we’re all doing the same thing we’ve always done, thirty years on – and with this new edition of our dog, in whom we put all of our hopes and dreams and meaning…. So, I was looking at this dynamic, and I just started to hear the play.”
“Reddick’s play premiered at the Clubbed Thumb Summerworks festival in 2025, and I had always believed that Clubbed Thumb productions needed a tiny Off Off Broadway incubator space to work. This deliriously comic moment in Adams’s luxe MCC transfer changed my mind. We should give these shows — and powerhouses like Mitchell and Finn — the biggest stages we’ve got.”
Watch: an Interview with Maria Striar with Kristin Marting for TORCHES.