The New York premiere of Red Death will kick off Obie-winner Clubbed Thumb's seventh annual Summerworks festival of new plays.

Lisa D'Amour's twenty-first century riff on Edgar Allen Poe's "The Masque of Red Death" is a comic thriller that concerns a kindergarten teacher and certified lifeguard who travels the globe in search of a powerful magnate, his wife and their daughter. Anne Kauffman directs this tale, which began May 3 at Off-Broadway's Ohio Theater will run through May 25.

The cast of Red Death includes Mel Jurdem, Meghan Love, John McAdams, Obie-winner Mary Schultz, Maria Striar and Joel Van Liew.

The 2002 Summerworks series will also include two "second stage" productions: Erin Courtney's Demon Baby, which plays May 6 through May 9, and The Typographer's Dream, running May 13 through May 16. Demon Baby, which features direction by Ken Rus Schmoll, tells the tale of an American writer living in England who finds her alienation taking on the "supernatural form of a cigar-chomping garden gnome." The Typographer's Dream is being directed by Drew Barr and chronicles the lives of a typographer, a stenographer and a geographer.

Clubbed Thumb's Summerworks Reading Series will feature several new works in development. Up-and-coming works include Cafe Society by Robert Simonson (May 18 at 1 PM), directed by Brendan Hughes, as well as new works by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (May 18 at 3 PM), Alison Tatlock (May 19 at 1 PM) and Ann Marie Healy (May 19 at 3 PM). Admission for this series is free. Founded in 1996, the Obie-winning Clubbed Thumb has become one of the city's leading theatre companies devoted to developing and producing new plays. The Ohio Theater is located at 66 Wooster Street, between Spring and Broome streets. Tickets for Red Death are priced at $15 and are available by phoning (212) 206-1515. For more information, visit www.ClubbedThumb.org.

—By Andrew Gans