Clubbed Thumb[1][2] is a downtown theater company in New York City that commissions, develops, and produces "funny, strange, and provocative new plays by living American writers.[1]" Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned five OBIES (including the 2013 Ross Wetzsteon Award[3] for Sustained Artistic Excellence) and presented plays in every form of development, including over 100 full productions. The company is well known for its annual Summerworks festival each May/June. Throughout its history, the company has produced work by Gregory Moss,[2] Madeleine George, Kristin Newbom, Wallace Shawn, Mac Wellman, Charles Mee, Sarah Ruhl, Adam Bock, Gina Gionfriddo, Rinne Groff, Sheila Callaghan, Lisa D'Amour, Anne Washburn, Sigrid Gilmer, Erin Courtney, Karl Gajdusek, Clare Barron, Jaclyn Backhaus, Tanya Saracho, Will Arbery, Heidi Schreck and others. In many cases these productions were the writers first professional and/or first New York production.
The company also produces outside of Summerworks, commissions and develops a number of plays each season, and runs various programs for early-career theater artists.
The New York Times's Ben Brantley has praised the company, saying "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."[4] The New York Times critic Jesse Green has added "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."[5] And critic Helen Shaw has called Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks "one of the best ways to see which local playwrights have their fingers on the pulse."[6]