Clubbed Thumb's annual Summerworks festival (which first brought audiences Heidi Schreck's Broadway-bound What the Constitution Means to Me in 2017) returns May 17. The season, which continues through June, features three new plays by Zhu Yi, Sarah Einspanier, and Daniel Glenn.

All three productions are at The Wild Project.

Kicking things off is Einspanier's Lunch Bunch (May 17–28). A play about our struggle for meaning and belonging, the story follows seven public defenders on a frenzied quest for the perfect lunch. Tara Ahmadinejad directs a cast made up of Eliza Bent, Ugo Chukwu, Irene Sofia Lucio, Keilly McQuail, Nana Mensah, Jon Norman Schneider, Mike Shapiro, and Julia Sirna-Frest.

Next up is Yi's You Never Touched the Dirt, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll (June 3–13). A play about economic transformation—the dreams it enables and those it crushes—the new work tells the story of the Lis, a family trying to enjoy their lakeside vacation but who find themselves surrounded by the gardeners, maids, and security guards who had once owned the land (not to mention the gods, ghosts, and unnamed spirits there for thousands of years before them).

The cast is made up of Holly Chou, John D. Haggerty, Daniel K. Isaac, Kenneth Lee, Jennifer Lim, and Julyana Soelistyo.

Rounding out the Summerworks season is Glenn's play King Philip's Head is Still on That Spike Just Down the Road, directed by Caitlin Ryan O'Connell (June 19–29). As the councilmen of Plymouth Plantation fight about what the good life is, the head of Wampanoag leader Metacom is displayed on a spike. A play about government, mercy, vengeance, and America’s original sin.

The cast is made up of Rachel Christopher, Crystal Finn, Jennifer Ikeda, Elizabeth Kenny, Layla Khosh, Mary Lou Rosato, Zuzanna Szadkowski, and Sam Breslin Wright.

Visit Clubbedthumb.org for tickets and more information.