Clubbed Thumb Sets Starry 2016 Summerworks Series; Cast Announced!

Five-time Obie Award-winning theater company Clubbed Thumb has announced initial casting for SUMMERWORKS, its annual series of new plays.

Now in its 21st season, SUMMERWORKS will run May 27 through July 9 at The Wild Project (195 E 3rd Street) in Manhattan, and will feature productions of three new plays: EVERY ANGEL IS BRUTAL by Julia Jarcho (Grimly Handsome - Obie Award, Nomads) and directed by Knud Adams (Tom & Eliza, An Intimate Evening with Typhoid Mary); THE TOMB OF KING TOT by Eric Dufault (Year of the Rooster) and directed by Portia Krieger (Friend Art, Baby Screams Miracle); and TUMACHO by Ethan Lipton (Luther) and directed by Leigh Silverman (Violet).

Tickets are now on sale at www.artful.ly/clubbedthumb.

EVERY ANGEL IS BRUTAL will star Jiehae Park (Wondrous Strange, Sleep), Hubert Point-Du Jour (Sojourners, Map of Virtue, "Happyish"), Susannah Perkins (Upcoming: The Rose Tattoo at Williamstown, The Wolves), Pete Simpson (Luther, Straight White Men), Jenny Seastone (Grimly Handsome, The Gin Baby), and Amelia Workman (Lear, Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812 - Ars Nova).

In this pitch-black comic thriller written by Julia Jarcho and directed by Knud Adams, three American coeds are recruited to serve their country undercover in Berlin, and have the time of their lives. Years later, they are forced to contend with what they really did, who they became and where to go from here. Cupcake Wars meets Marathon Man.

EVERY ANGEL IS BRUTAL will feature set design by Marsha Ginsberg, costumes by Sydney Maresca, lighting design by Bradley King, sound design by Peter Mills Weiss, and will run from May 27 through June 6 (no performance June 1).

THE TOMB OF KING TOT will star Brad Bellamy (Alphabetical Order), Nick Choksi, (D Deb Debbie Deborah, Natasha Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812), Bianca Crudo (Nina), Carmen M. Herlihy ("Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close") and Annie McNamara (Iowa, "Blue Jasmine")

An ambitious regionally-syndicated cartoonist gets good news (she's a finalist for an award!) and bad news (her daughter did something very, very terrible). Life and comic strip, hilarity and pain converge, then rupture. Inspired by the funnies, Richie Rich, and the Egyptian Book of the Dead, THE TOMB OF KING TOT is written by Eric Dufault, directed by Portia Krieger, and will run from June 11 through June 21 (no performance June 15).

THE TOMB OF KING TOT will feature set design by Carolyn Mraz, costumes by Tilly Grimes, lighting design by Barbara Samuels, and sound design by Lee Kinney.

TUMACHO will star Quincy Tyler Bernstine (Ruined, Far From Heaven), Mike Brun (Old Hats), Bill Buell ("Elementary"), John Ellison Conlee (Murder Ballad, The Full Monty, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt"), Gibson Frazier (Mr. Burns, 10 out of 12, "The Knick"), Celia Keenan-Bolger (Tony Award Nominee for both Peter and the Starcatcher and The Glass Menagerie), Omar Metwally ("The Affair"), Jeremy Shamos (Noises Off, Tony Nominee Clybourne Park, "Nurse Jackie"), and Danny Wolohan (The Flick, Verite).

Once again, the citizens of a frontier outpost are looking for someone to rescue them from the terrors of the local villain. Have they met their salvation--or an even bigger tyrant--when a fiend from the past comes to town? Jonathan Richman meets Jon Stewart meets John Ford in this Western comedy with music.

Written by Ethan Lipton and directed by Leigh Silverman, TUMACHO will feature Music direction by Mike Brun,set design by David Zinn,costumes by Anita Yavich,lighting design by Jennifer Schriever, and will run from June 27 through July 9 (no performance July 3 or July 4). TUMACHO was commissioned and made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

With its track record for discovering and supporting new playwriting talent - in many cases providing writers with their very first production in New York or anywhere - SUMMERWORKS is one of the most eagerly-anticipated theatrical offerings of the year.

The 20th Annual SUMMERWORKS was the birthplace of the critically acclaimed comedy MEN ON BOATS, which returns to the New York stage this summer in a co-production by Playwrights Horizons and Clubbed Thumb. Written by Jaclyn Backhaus and directed by American Theater Company's newly appointed Artistic Director Will Davis, MEN ON BOATS will move uptown toPlaywrights Horizons' Peter Jay Sharp Theater (416 West 42nd Street) for a four-week limited engagement beginning Tuesday, July 19.

Highlights from the previous 20 festivals include the NYC premieres of Gina Gionfriddo, Jordan Harrison, Lisa D'Amour, Jason Grote and Sarah Ruhl; professional debuts of Rinne Groff, Sylvan Oswald, Clare Barron, Susan Stanton and Ariel Stess; and new work by Anne Washburn, Adam Bock, Gregory Moss, Jenny Schwartz, Ethan Lipton, Erin Courtney and Sheila Callaghan, who all continue to make Clubbed Thumb an artistic home.

Past SUMMERWORKS directors include Pam MacKinnon, who also serves as Clubbed Thumb's Board Chair, Lear deBessonet, Anne Kauffman, Davis McCallum and Ken Rus Schmoll.

SUMMERWORKS 2016 is running May 27 through July 9 at The Wild Project, located at 195 E. 3rd Street, New York 10009 - between Avenues A and B in Manhattan's East Village. Individual tickets are now on sale for $18, festival passes are $45. Summerworks Plus Passes, including pre-show events with Clubbed Thumb artists, are $200. Tickets and passes can be purchased at www.artful.ly/clubbedthumb.

Clubbed Thumb commissions, develops and produces funny, strange and provocative new plays by living American writers. Since its founding in 1996, the company has earned five Obies including the Ross Wetzsteon Award for sustained artistic excellence. We have presented plays in every form of development, including over 90 full productions. For more, visit www.clubbedthumb.org.

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