Bock is the author of the plays The Drunken City, Five Flights (at Rattlestick), Swimming in the Shallows and The Typographer's Dream. Swimming was produced for Second Stage Theatre Uptown in 2005 with Logan Marshall-Green in the cast.

The Thugs is described as being about "work, thunder and the mysterious things that are happening on the 9th floor of a big law firm."

Kauffman has directed work at the Humana Festival, the Culture Project (Sides: the Fear Is Real); Women's Project (Hang Ten) and the Civilians (The Ladies, in which Kauffman was one of the play's characters).

The cast will include Saidah Arrika Ekulona, Brad Heberless and Lynne McCollough.

Daniel Aukin, the artistic director of Soho Rep, announced in May that he will leave the theatre after eight years of service. Aukin plans to pursue a free-lance directing career. In recent seasons, he has directed at Second Stage, the La Jolla Playhouse and the Guthrie Theatre. A committee has been formed to find Aukin's successor.