WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY
ANNOUNCES LINE-UP FOR SEASON 34
WOOLLY INVITES AUDIENCES TO TEAR UP THE PLANKS TO DISCOVER
WHAT LURKS BENEATH WITH “AMERICA’S TELL-TALE HEART”
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is proud to announce Season 34, themed “America’s Tell-Tale Heart,” slated to be one of its most diverse, adventurous, and provocative seasons to date.
“Dissemble no more! Admit the deed. Tear up the planks! Here! Here! It is the beating of his hideous heart. “– Edgar Allan Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart and Other Writings
The truth is beating below our feet—a secret under the floorboards, bricked up in the walls of our houses, and cemented in the streets and sidewalks of our cities, inside the very enterprise of our democracy. Woolly Mammoth and some of America’s bravest playwrights tear up the planks, smash through the facade, and drill down into the core to expose the complex soul inside America’s sunny exterior.
Woolly Mammoth’s Season 34, America’s Tell-Tale Heart, includes Lisa D’Amour’s Detroit (September 9–October 6, 2013), Branden Jacobs-Jenkins’ Appropriate (November 4–December 1, 2013), Jackie Sibblies Drury’s We Are Proud To Present… (February 10–March 9, 2014), Elevator Repair Service’s Arguendo(March 31–April 20, 2014), and Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s The Totalitarians (June 2–29, 2014). Returning this holiday season are The Pajama Men, Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez, with their newest show, Just the Two of Each of Us (Dec 10, 2013–Jan 5, 2014).
“The rich, adventurous plays of Woolly’s 2013-2014 Season pulse with the beat of America’s Tell-Tale Heart,” says Woolly Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz. “They paint a picture of the many façades of American life: the manicured lawns of our next-door neighbors, the cultural sensitivity of our colleagues, and the somber robes of the Supreme Court. But every façade eventually cracks, revealing the human fears, flaws, and foibles beneath. Some of these plays topped the “Ten Best” lists in New York last season, and some arrive brand-new. Each will come to DC in a fresh and ambitious production anchored by our award-winning Company of artists and their passion for a provocative conversation with Washington’s open-minded audiences. Try as we may, there’s no hiding the twisted heart of America. And when the lawn is dug up and the floorboards are torn back, what’s revealed is bound to be complex, haunting, and deliciously fun.”
ABOUT SEASON 34 (2013/14)
DETROIT
By Lisa D’Amour
Directed by John Vreeke
September 9–October 6, 2013
A Pulitzer Prize Finalist and one of The New York Times top 10 plays of 2012, Lisa D’Amour’s Detroit is an explosive dark comedy that brilliantly captures our economic moment.
Recently laid off, Ben starts an e-business from his suburban home while his wife, Mary, keeps up with the Joneses. But when mysterious new neighbors Sharon and Kenny arrive, the façade of their upwardly mobile lives begins to crack. Soon they find themselves increasingly pulled towards their wild new friends—to incendiary effect.
APPROPRIATE
By Branden Jacobs-Jenkins
Directed by Liesl Tommy
November 4–December 1, 2013
In this searing and audacious comic drama, the estranged members of the Lafayette family return to Arkansas, and their crumbling old plantation home, to settle the accounts of their recently deceased patriarch. As they sort through a hoarded lifetime of mementos and junk, they discover a gruesome relic that sends the family spiraling into a dark history of repressed memories and family secrets.
African-American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins returns to his hometown of Washington, DC with a production that appropriates a classic trope—the great white family drama a la O’Neill or Tennessee Williams—to brilliantly subvert our assumptions, and challenge us to re-consider our own histories and souls.
WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT A PRESENTATION ABOUT THE HERERO OF NAMIBIA, FORMERLY KNOWN AS SOUTH WEST AFRICA, FROM THE GERMAN SUDWESTAFRIKA, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1884-1915
By Jackie Sibblies Drury
Directed by Michael John Garcés
February 10–March 9, 2014
A rehearsal room descends from collaborative to absurd as a group of idealistic actors—three black and three white—come together to tell the little-known story of a centuries-old conflict in South West Africa. As the troupe try to recreate the extinction of the Herero tribe at the hands of their German colonizers, their own stories, subjectivities, and ingrained prejudices rise to the surface. Tensions mount as the actors discover the limits of their good intentions.
One of The New York Times top 10 plays of 2012, We Are Proud to Present… is innovative, fast-paced, funny, and a wholly unique take on race, empathy, and the devastating consequences of our best intentions.
ARGUENDO
Created and Performed by Elevator Repair Service
Directed by John Collins
March 31–April 20, 2014
“How does one draw that line between Salome and the Kitty Kat Lounge?”– Chief Justice Antonin Scalia
Elevator Repair Service—the innovative company that created Gatz—comes to Woolly with their newest show, Arguendo. This time, they bring their unique theatrical style to the Supreme Court, tackling the 1991 First Amendment case Barnes v. Glen Theatre, brought to the court by a group of go-go dancers petitioning for their right to perform completely naked.
Using verbatim oral arguments and playful physicality, Arguendo introduces us to the Justices—who try to get to the bottom of this First Amendment puzzle—and the poor attorneys on both sides who gamely try to keep up. Each performance will be followed by a post-show conversation with noted First Amendment experts, providing even deeper insights into the workings of the venerable third pillar of our Democratic system.
Arguendo was co-commissioned by The Public Theater, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University. Arguendo was work shopped at The Public’s 2013 Under the Radar Festival and has been developed in part at ArtsEmerson: The World on Stage, Boston Mass.
THE TOTALITARIANS
By Peter Sinn Nachtrieb
Directed by Robert O’ Hara
June 2–29, 2014
“Freedom From Fear!” Francine, the ambitious speechwriter for a rich housewife’s vanity campaign for public office, has stumbled upon pure gold: a perfectly patriotic slogan. So what if it’s totally meaningless? And so what if her doctor husband disapproves? With it Francine can turn the campaign around and make her ditzy candidate electrifyingly powerful—and finally, just maybe, get herself out of Nebraska.
Written by Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, author of Boom, this high-energy farce exposes just how vacuous and absurd our political language has become. If you worship at the altar of Colbert, if you religiously watch The Daily Show, you won’t want to miss The Totalitarians.
RETURNING THIS HOLIDAY SEASON…
JUST THE TWO OF EACH OF US
Created and performed by The Pajama Men
AKA Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez
Music by Kevin Hume
December 10, 2013–January 5, 2014
Subscription Add-On
Comedy duo The Pajama Men took DC by storm this past Holiday season. In addition to performing to sold-out houses every night, the remarkable Mark and Shenoah spent their days in the Woolly rehearsal hall, creating and developing their newest piece, Just the Two of Each of Us. The show blends their trademark wit, characters, improv, and fast-paced physical comedy with plenty of new surprises. It is our great pleasure to welcome them back.
*All dates and titles subject to change.
Don’t miss a single beat of Season 34! Subscriptions are now on sale and may be purchased online at www.woollymammoth.net, through the Box Office at 202-393-3939, or in person at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D). Single tickets will go on sale on July 1, 2013.
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ABOUT WOOLLY
C
urrently in its 33rd Season, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to hold its place at the leading edge of American theatre. Acknowledged as “one of the most influential outposts for the best new American plays” (The Washington Post), and “known for its productions of innovative new plays” (The New York Times), Woolly Mammoth is a national leader in the development of new works, and one of the best known and most influential mid-sized theatres in America.
