Danai Gurira's FAMILIAR, AN OCTOROON Encore and More Set for Woolly Mammoth Theatre's 2017-18 Season
By: BWW
News Desk Jul. 18, 2017
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has announced its 2017-2018 season, which features six provocative plays that will lean into the current moment, speak truth to power, and galvanize conversations about the social and political questions gripping our country.
Woolly's new season features the work of Max Frisch, The Second City, Danai Gurira, Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special, and Jordan Tannahill, as well as a previously-announced remount of Branden Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon.
MacArthur "Genius Grant"-winner Jacobs-Jenkins' An Octoroon returns this summer, reuniting the principal cast and production team from Woolly's 2016 production. The theater's incendiary season continues with Woolly's take on Max Frisch's The Arsonists, a classic political drama written in response to the rise of fascism and communism in late 1950s. The production, which will star Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz in his long-awaited return to the Woolly stage, should have uncanny new resonance in light of the resurgence of populist nationalism around the globe.
Woolly is excited to announce that The Arsonists is made possible by a generous grant from The Roy Cockrum Foundation. This special funding will allow Howard Shalwitz and company member Michael John Garcés to take on a very ambitious project to open the season at a critical time in our nation's history.
Next, The Second City returns with the world premiere of Nothing to Lose (But Our Chains), the real-life rags-to-riches story of last season's Helen Hayes-nominated Black Side of the Moon star Felonious Munk. For the Women's Voices Theater Festival, Woolly will be staging the regional premiere of Familiar by Tony-nominated playwright Danai Gurira, whose work has appeared at Woolly twice before (Eclipsed and The Convert).
Woolly's season will continue with the Ars Nova production of Underground Railroad Game by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special, a fourth wall-breaking experience about the lasting impact of America's history of slavery and the shadow it casts over our contemporary relationships. Both Kidwell and Sheppard will be reprising their roles from the original production. Season 38 will then close with Botticelli in the Fire by Jordan Tannahill, the American premiere of a story about the conflict between sensuality and conservative politics in Medici's Florence that will set the present moment ablaze.
"Our world is changing rapidly, both socially and politically, leaving many voices feeling curbed and stifled," said Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz. "We must respond to that struggle and face it. It's our job as artists to engender critical dialogue and do so with joy, humor, love, and honesty. These works will propel us to examine authority, our world, and each other a little closer and with fresh perspective."
ABOUT THE 2017-2018 SEASON:
AN OCTOROON
directed by Nataki Garrett
July 18-August 6, 2017
Last year's most talked-about, most unforgettable production is returning to Woolly for a limited three-week run: An Octoroon by new MacArthur "Genius Grant"-winner Branden Jacobs-Jenkins!
A plantation on the brink of foreclosure. A young gentleman falling for the part-black daughter of the estate's owner. An evil swindler plotting to buy her for himself. Meanwhile, the slaves are trying to keep things drama-free, because everybody else is acting crazy.
An Octoroon, Jacobs-Jenkins' Obie-winning riff on a 19th century melodrama that helped shape the debate of the abolition of slavery, is an incendiary adaptation. The New York Times called it "This decade's most eloquent theatrical statement on race." Part period satire, part meta-theatrical middle finger, it's a provocative challenge to the racial pigeonholing of 1859-and of today.
THE ARSONISTS
by Max Frisch
in a new translation by Alistair Beaton
directed by Michael John Garcés
September 5-October 8, 2017
The world may be starting to burn, but Biedermann has it all under control. He's a respected member of his community with a loving wife and a flourishing business, so surely the arsonists will spare him. As an upstanding citizen, he's even happy to do his civic duty by opening his home to two new guests... but when they start filling his attic with drums of gasoline, will he end up starting the fire himself?
Written as a reflection on the rise of both Nazism and Communism, The Arsonists has uncanny new relevance today in light of the rise of populist nationalism around the globe. For Woolly's incendiary take on Max Frisch's classic political drama, artistic director Howard Shalwitz will be making his long-awaited return to the Woolly stage as Biedermann. Directed by company member Michael John Garcés and starring company members Emily Townley, Kimberly Gilbert, and Tim Getman, The Arsonists will light the fuse on the theater's 38th season.
NOTHING TO LOSE (BUT OUR CHAINS)
created by The Second City
directed by Billy Bungeroth
November 11-December 31, 2017
The one-and-only Felonious Munk returns to Woolly Mammoth to headline a new show from the creators of last year's runaway hit, Black Side of the Moon... and this time, he's put his own life story on the line!
He's a thought-provoking standup comic, a TV personality, and an all-around good father and man... but he used to be a drug dealer, a convict, and a dangerous-ass mothafucka. Nothing to Lose (But Our Chains) tells the hilarious and harrowing story of how one Black man went from six years in a state prison to a six-figure job in corporate America to a new life as an activist and satirist. Performed by Felonious and a cast of Chicago's sharpest comedians, the latest installment in the long-running partnership between Woolly and The Second City will combine sketch, stand-up, and music to remind us that true freedom comes only from within.
FAMILIAR
by Danai Gurira
directed by Adam Immerwahr
February 5-March 4, 2018
It's winter in Minnesota, and an immigrant Zimbabwean family is preparing for the wedding of their eldest daughter, a first-generation American. But when the bride insists on observing roora, a traditional bride-price ceremony, it opens a deep rift in the household. Rowdy and affectionate, Familiar pitches tradition against assimilation among the members of one devoted family. Which will prove stronger: the customs they keep... or the secrets they've kept buried?
Familiar-the third Woolly production of Gurira's work, after successful runs of Eclipsed (2016 Tony nominee for Best Play) and The Convert-is Woolly's entry into the Women's Voices Theatre Festival.
The Ars Nova Production of
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GAME
by Jennifer Kidwell and Scott R. Sheppard with Lightning Rod Special
directed by Taibi Magar
April 4-29, 2018
At Hanover Middle School, two teachers get shockingly down and dirty with a lesson about race, sex, and power. The quick-witted duo goes round after round on the mat of our nation's history in an R-rated, far-reaching, and absolutely unflinching comedy.
Underground Railroad Game is a fourth-wall-breaking, audience-implicating, "in-all-ways sensational" (New York Times) theatrical experience. You will never forget which side of history you were on.
BOTTICELLI IN THE FIRE
by Jordan Tannahill
directed by Marti Lyons
May 28-June 24, 2018
Sandro Botticelli is devoted to beauty, sensuality, and pleasure. While painting The Birth of Venus, however, the limits of his dedication are put to the test by the arrival of a conservative priest leading a populist revolution in Lorenzo de Medici's Florence. When his full-throttle, decadent ways catch up to him, will the famed artist sacrifice his work... or the life of his young apprentice, Leonardo Da Vinci?
Botticelli in the Fire is an ambitious, modern story that sets the present political moment ablaze. The American premiere of this new work by Jordan Tannahill-"the hottest name in Canadian theatre" (Montreal Gazette)-will bring Woolly's 38th season to a searing close.
*All titles and dates subject to change.
Subscriptions to the 2017-2018 Season can be purchased online at woollymammoth.net, by phone at (202) 393-3939, via email at tickets@woollymammoth.net, or in person at the Box Office, located at 641 D Street NW. Single tickets will go on sale summer 2017, date to be announced.
Now entering its 38th 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" (Washington Post) and "known for its productions of innovative new plays" (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.
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