Artistic Director Emeritus Howard Shalwitz returns to Woolly Mammoth to direct the world premiere of The World to Come by Ali Viterbi, co-produced in partnership with Theater J and being performed at Woolly’s home at 641 D St NW. The World to Come was workshopped at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles in 2022 and presented as a staged reading by the National New Play Network in New York City in 2024.
The residents of the SeaBreeze Hebrew Home for the Aging carry on as usual: knitting, playing Scrabble, fighting, and falling in love. As the apocalyptic outside world threatens their way of life, Fanny, Barbara, Ruth, and Hal fight to protect the community they’ve built together. Even while battling armored nurses, flesh-eating ostriches, strange prophecies, and their ailing bodies, they find joy in each other’s company.
The World to Come is a surprising new epic that reveals the power of friendship as a form of resistance and shines a light on the later phase of life often made invisible. With humor, depth, and a keen understanding of the human condition, The World to Come brings into relief the undying spirit that lives within each of us, even as everything else changes. Bringing together dozens of beloved DC artists on and off stage, The World to Come runs February 3 – March 1, 2026.
The cast showcases some of DC’s finest actors including Woolly Company Members Naomi Jacobson and Michael Russotto, as well as Claudia J. Arenas, Ro Boddie, and Brigid Cleary.
This production brings together many veteran DC artists with a combined hundreds of local productions on their resumes, including scenic design by Woolly Company Member Misha Kachman (Gisela Estrada is Associate Scenic Designer), lighting design by Woolly Company Member Colin K. Bills, costume design by Woolly Company Member Ivania Stack. Sound design is by Sarah O’Halloran, dialect and vocal coaching by Katie McDonald, projection design by Kelly Colburn (Mark Costello is Associate Video and Projection Designer), intimacy and violence choreography by Lorraine Ressegger-Slone, puppet design by Ksenya Litvak, and stage managed by Lauren Pekel (Fe Miranda is the Assistant Stage Manager). Nat Huitz Corvoisier is Assistant Director, Sonia Fernandez is Dramaturg (Aysha Zackria is Associate Dramaturg), and Gabriella Varga Sipos is Dialect Consultant. Casting is by Danica Rodriguez.
Howard Shalwitz co-founded Woolly Mammoth in 1980, and over 38 seasons, built it from a tiny alternative theater into one of the nation’s most influential producers of provocative new plays. He has directed and performed at Woolly and at theaters in New York and across the country, earning multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations and wins as both an actor and a director. In 2014, Howard won the prestigious Margo Jones Award for his lifetime commitment to new American plays. Since 2018, he has served as Associate Director of the Center for International Theatre Development (CITD), where he leads LINKAGES:Poland, a multi-year project to build new connections between theater leaders in the US and Poland. He also teaches at Theater J and is working on a book about the language of theater.
“Returning to direct at Woolly at a time as fraught as this fills me with pride and anticipation, joy and terror. It could only be with a play I love with every fiber of my being,” says Shalwitz. “Ali Viterbi is a remarkable young writer, and her new play, The World to Come, brilliantly captures both the anxieties and possibilities of our bizarre age — from the surprising perspective of older Americans in a retirement home. For me, the pot is sweetened by working with Hayley Finn and many other friends at Theater J, plus so many of my favorite artists from both theaters — Naomi, Michael, Misha, Colin, Ivania, and many more…a dream come true!”
Ali Viterbi is a playwright, television writer, and educator. Her play In Every Generation received its world premiere at Victory Gardens Theater in 2022 and its West Coast premiere at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley in 2023. Her work has been developed and/or commissioned by Geffen Playhouse, The Kennedy Center, La Jolla Playhouse, Round House Theatre, National New Play Network, San Diego REP, Carthage College, HERE Arts Center, and The Barrow Group, among others. Ali won the 2019 National Jewish Playwriting Contest and has developed projects on TV with AMC, Anonymous Content, and Viacom/CBS. She is a recipient of a Macdowell Residency and was a member of the Geffen Playhouse Writers’ Room. Ali received her B.A. from Yale University and her M.F.A. in Playwriting from UC San Diego.
Says Woolly’s Interim Artistic Collective (comprised of Sonia Fernandez, Kristen Jackson, Ben Levine, and Mina Morita): “From the first moment Howard sent us this play, we were hooked — the Scrabble fights, a prophecy, late-in-life love, and a friendship born from a shared eyeroll at a terrible high school Fiddler. Having Howard back in the building with so many beloved artists who have built both Woolly and Theater J feels like proof of what this play is about: the relationships we make are what outlast everything.”
Theater J Artistic Director Hayley Finn adds, “The World To Come by Ali Viterbi poses urgent questions that are deeply rooted in compassion. Epic in scope and bold in artistic vision, this production helmed by the brilliant Howard Shalwitz and featuring some of the best DC actors, promises to be a dynamic theatrical experience. Theater J is thrilled to be partnering with Woolly Mammoth to bring this world premiere to Washington.”
The World to Come runs from February 3 to March 1, 2026, at Woolly Mammoth, 641 D St NW, Washington, DC, with performances Wednesdays-Sundays at 8 PM, Wednesdays at noon, Saturdays and Sundays at 3 PM (Sunday, February 8 at 2 PM).
Single tickets start at $31. Woolly Mammoth also offers Pay-What-You-Will tickets, where patrons pick the price they want to pay (recommended price is $25). All tickets to the preview performances on February 3 & 4 at 8 PM are Pay-What-You-Will. Twenty (20) Pay-What-You-Will tickets are also available to every single performance online or in-person.
All Single Tickets (including Pay-What-You-Will tickets) are available online, by phone at (202) 393-3939, and via email at tickets@woollymammoth.net.
Patrons who are 30 years old and younger may, at any time, purchase Section C tickets for $25 for any performance. There are also discounts available for educators and active US military personnel, spouses, and veterans.
ACCESSIBLE PERFORMANCES
Woolly Mammoth is committed to making its performances accessible to all audiences. Open Captioned, ASL Interpreted, and Audio Described performances are available for select performances throughout the run of The World to Come.
- Open Captioned: Sunday, March 1st at 8 PM
- ASL Interpreted: Saturday, February 14th at 8 PM
- Audio Described: Sunday, February 22nd at 3 PM
- Mask Required Performance: Wednesday, February 18th at 8 PM
Assistive Listening Devices are available for all performances. Transmitters and accompanying headsets or ear speakers are available at the Box Office.
ABOUT WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY
The Tony Award-winning Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company creates badass theater that highlights the stunning, challenging, and tremendous complexity of our world. For over 40 years, Woolly has maintained a high standard of artistic rigor while simultaneously daring to take risks, innovate, and push beyond perceived boundaries. One of the few remaining theaters in the country to maintain a company of artists, Woolly serves an essential research and development role within the American theater. Plays premiered at Woolly have gone on to productions at hundreds of theaters all over the world and have had lasting impacts on the field.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is led by Managing Director Kimberly E. Douglas and Incoming Artistic Director Reggie D. White. As Reggie will join Woolly full-time in April 2026, the Interim Artistic Collective — composed of Sonia Fernandez, Kristen Jackson, Ben Levine, and Mina Morita — support the organization’s artistic mission during the transition. Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is located in Washington, DC, equidistant from the Capitol and the White House.
This unique location influences Woolly’s investment in actively working towards an equitable, participatory, and creative democracy. Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied, unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples. Furthermore, the foundation of this city, and most of the original buildings in Washington, DC, were funded by the sale of enslaved people of African descent and built by their hands.
ABOUT THEATER J
Theater J is a nationally renowned professional theater that celebrates, explores, and struggles with the complexities and nuances of both the Jewish experience and the universal human condition. As the nation’s largest and most prominent Jewish theater, Theater J aims to preserve and expand a rich Jewish theatrical tradition and to create community and commonality through theatergoing experiences.
