It must have occurred to the Obie Award-winning downtown outfit called Clubbed Thumb that overworked artists working on a new theatre production may sometimes feel like they're in boot camp, because that's just what they've called the company's September series of Off-Broadway workshops.

"New Play Boot Camp" will feature three titles: Erin Courtney's Demon Baby, Ann Marie Healy's Didn't Someone Somewhere Say "It's Better Somewhere Else" and Adam Bock's Thursday.

For each play, the playwright, director, and actors will be "locked" in a room with a computer for four days at the Ohio Theatre in Soho. Whatever emerges will be presented on stage for a one-night-only reading.

The schedule runs as follows:

Sept. 6 at 8 PM: Demon Baby by Erin Courtney, directed by Ken Rus Schmoll
Sept. 10 at 8 PM: Didn't Someone Somewhere Say "It's Better Somewhere Else" by Ann Marie Healy, directed by Pam MacKinnon
Sept. 14 at 8 PM: Thursday by Adam Bock, directed by Drew Barr All readings are at The Ohio Theatre, 66 Wooster St. between Spring and Broome. For more information, contact www.clubbedthumb.org

—By Robert Simonson