Theater’s New Voice: Abe Koogler

“Writing a play isn’t hard per se,” says the playwright Abe Koogler, “but it’s rare. Like, good plays don’t come along every day, every week or every year. You don’t get that many good plays in your life. I just try to stay ready.” This season, Clubbed Thumb stages Koogler’s Deep Blue Sound, which was produced Off-Broadway in 2023, at The Public Theater. It’s about a group of islanders trying to figure out what happened to a pod of orcas that disappeared from Puget Sound. Koogler, who grew up on a small island in the Pacific Northwest, says the region is “filled with unusual characters and a lot of natural beauty. That community and its people have stayed with me even after I moved to New York.” Like in most plays, these characters are “wondering what their lives mean or have meant,” something that Koogler, a writer and father of a 2-year-old son, is likely doing himself. “I’m taking notes and doodling and getting ready for the next play to come,” he says. “Any day now.”