What's Happening!
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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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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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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
The Cult of Nadja (SPOILER-FREE)
by Mona Pirnot
Nadja has all the makings of a charismatic leader. She’s full of perverse and convincing ideas about sex, gender, animal instincts, immaculate conceptions, and conspiracy theories. She has the power to change your mind or, at least, disturb it. Thankfully, she decided to write plays instead of starting a cult. But wait. Come to think of it…maybe playwriting has been part of her recruitment strategy all along. Watch Derangements at your own risk. It could convert you to The Cult of Nadja.
Derangements begins when two friends, Anne Marie and Roxanne, are catching up over dinner. Roxanne confesses to Anne Marie that she has a crush on a woman who might like her too. Anne Marie encourages her friend until it becomes clear that Roxanne has grossly misinterpreted a non-sexual situation as highly sexually charged. Then the waiter appears. He seems perfectly normal. He takes their order perfectly normally. As soon as he walks away, Roxanne remarks how scandalized she is by his blatantly predatory behavior. Anne Marie grasps the severity of her friend’s problem. Roxanne thinks everyone she ever meets is trying to sleep with her.
So Roxanne is the deluded one, right? Wrong. Nadja’s play will let you know that right when you think you’re right, you’re wrong and right when you think you’re wrong, you’re wrong again. She plays around with your assumptions like a cat plays with a mouse. Maybe it sounds like I’m mixing my metaphors, but I’m trying (much like Nadja’s play) to paint a picture of something more bizarre.
Picture this: Nadja as a cult-leading-kitty-cat pawing at your brain until you believe that up is down and down is sideways and everyone you ever meet is trying to sleep with you, save you, or cast a spell on you. Yes, this play has mystical hi-jinx but I’ll stop the spoilers there. I won’t say what happens after that first gangbusters scene. And you’ll never guess. The plotting is as dense as a Pixar cartoon and as unpredictable as your craziest friend.
That’s not to say that Nadja is my craziest friend. In fact, she’s among the most lucid. It takes a clear head to distill such dirty thoughts, which is just one of her many gifts. This woman is full of thrilling contradictions. She is my favorite dirty old man.