FEVER/DREAM Closes Out Wolly Mammoth Theater Compay's 2009-09 Season 6/1-28

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company closes its 29th Season, 2008-09, with the World Premiere of Fever/Dream by Sheila Callaghan, author of Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake) and the recent Off-Broadway hit That Pretty Pretty; or The Rape Play. Directed by Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz, the cast features Woolly Mammoth Company Member Jessica Frances Dukes, Kimberly Gilbert, Kate Eastwood Norris, and Michael Willis, with Daniel Eichner, Drew Eshelman, and KenYatta Rogers.

Fever/Dream runs June 1 - 28, 2009, with Pay-What-You-Can performances on June 1 and 2 at 8pm. PRESS OPENING IS SUNDAY, JUNE 7 AT 7PM. Woolly Mammoth is located at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

"Sheila Callaghan is emerging as one of the most original voices in the American theatre, so it's enormous fun to launch her most ambitious play yet at Woolly Mammoth," states Shalwitz. "Life Is a Dream has long been a favorite of mine, and Sheila's natural zaniness completely transforms the tone and intent of this great classic for our own times. But Fever/Dream remains a big undertaking - with Woolly Company Members alongside a lively chorus of college students as accountants and office drones. There will be a very physical language to the production as well. I've been inspired and energized by my collaboration with one of our region's most original choreographers, Meisha Bosma - and the result will be a vigorously physical, hip corporate comedy that caps off the season."

In a dank basement of an American mega-corporation, a forgotten employee, Segis (Eichner) is literally chained to his desk, droning mindless answers to innocuous phone queries when he is discovered by feisty courier Rose (Gilbert) and her sidekick, Claire (Dukes). Instantly, Segis is told that Bill Basil (Eshelman) is stepping aside from leadership at Basil Enterprises and he's the new CEO - or is it just a dream? A sudden elevator ride to the executive suite takes our hero on a kaleidoscopic power trip that reorders the corporate bureaucracy and unsettles the hearts of its employees (Norris, Rogers, Willis). This raucous and highly physical comic reinvention of Pedro Calderon de la Barca's classic Life is a Dream gleefully skewers corporate America with razor-sharp wit and the biggest cast ever assembled on Woolly's stage.
(In Calderon's allegorical play about the conflict between fate and free will, the king has had his son Segismundo imprisoned all of his life because it has been prophesized that he will be the downfall of the country. All are told that his son died after childbirth. After his son has grown to be a man, the king reveals all, allowing the son to become heir, but things take a violent turn. Segismundo is drugged, returned to his prison, and told it was all merely a dream).

Sheila Callaghan's plays have been produced and developed with Soho Rep, Playwright's Horizons, South Coast Repertory, Clubbed Thumb, The LARK, Actor's Theatre of Louisville, New Georges, and Rattlestick Playwright's Theatre, and produced internationally in New Zealand, Norway, Germany, and the Czech Republic. She is the recipient of the Princess Grace Award for emerging artists, a Jerome Fellowship from the Playwright's Center in Minneapolis, a MacDowell Residency, a 2005 Cherry Lane Mentorship Fellowship, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award, and the prestigious Whiting Award. Her full-length plays include Scab, Crawl Fade to White, Crumble (Lay Me Down, Justin Timberlake), We Are Not These Hands, Dead City, Lascivious Something, Kate Crackernuts, and That Pretty Pretty; or, The Rape Play, which recently premiered Off-Broadway. Sheila has taught playwriting at a number of universities and she is currently on the faculty at Spalding University's MFA program in creative writing. She is a resident artist at HERE Arts Center, a member of the Obie-winning playwright's organization 13P, and a resident of New Dramatists. Sheila is currently a writer on Showtime series United States of Tara, created by Diablo Cody (Juno) and starring Toni Collette.

Howard Shalwitz was co-founder of Woolly Mammoth, and for 29 years has led the company as Artistic Director on a unique path, focused on new plays that ask hard questions, introduce fresh voices, and challenge theatrical convention. As a result of his unique vision, Woolly Mammoth is recognized as a major force in the creation of new plays for the American stage. Both a director and an actor, Howard is one of the few artists to receive multiple Helen Hayes Award nominations in both categories. He has directed for major New York and regional companies including Playwrights Horizons, New York Theatre Workshop, Arena Stage, and Milwaukee Rep. At Woolly he has directed nearly thirty plays including Measure for Pleasure, She Stoops to Comedy, and The Faculty Room, Big Death & Little Death, Patience, and Heaven, among others. A native of Buffalo, Howard studied philosophy at Wesleyan University and received a Masters in Teaching from Brown University before launching his theatre career in New York in 1975.

Woolly Mammoth Company Members Jessica Frances Dukes, Kimberly Gilbert, Kate Eastwood Norris, and Michael Willis with Daniel Eichner, Drew Eshelman, and KenYatta Rogers. The Associates & Accountants of Basil Enterprises: University of Maryland students Andrew Blau, Lauren Ciandella, Michael Davis, Alice Gibson, Mark Halpern, Shannon Listol, Amanda Miller, Katie Rooney, Mark Sparacino, Anastasia Stewart, and Scott Whalen.

Jessica Frances Dukes (Claire) is one of Woolly Mammoth's newest Company Members. She was recently in Woolly's world premiere of Antebellum, and also appeared in Starving. She has performed with Theater Alliance (Insurrection: Holding History), The Kennedy Center (Unleashed: The Secret Lives of White House Pets), as well as other companies locally and regionally. Kimberly Gilbert (Rose) returns to Woolly where she has performed in Boom, Measure for Pleasure, The K of D, and Martha, Josie and the Chinese Elvis (Helen Hayes Award nomination), among others. A Company Member since 2006, her other DC credits include The Faithkiller and other productions (Taffety Punk; company member), as well as productions with Round House, Folger Theatre, The Kennedy Center, Source Theatre, and Washington Shakespeare Company. Kate Eastwood Norris, (Stella Strong) also a new Company Member, returns to Woolly after appearances in She Stoops to Comedy (Helen Hayes Award), Big Love, and Bug. She has performed in productions at Folger Theatre (including Teller's Macbeth) and regionally with Wilma Theatre, Two River Theatre Co., Arden Theatre, and Shakespeare Santa Cruz, among others. Michael Willis (Fred Clotaldo) most recently appeared with Woolly in Current Nobody. A longtime Company Member, his appearances include After Ashley and Patience (Helen Hayes Award nominations), The Faculty Room, Grace, Half-Off, and NY Mets, among others. He has performed locally with Folger Theatre, Round House, and Theater of the First Amendment, and in film and television, including a recurring role on HBO's The Wire. Daniel Eichner (Ariel) makes his first appearance with Woolly. He has appeared with GALA Hispanic (The True History of Coca-Cola in Mexico), Washington Shakespeare Company (Macbeth), African Continuum Theatre (Intimate Apparel), and others. Drew Eshelman (Bill Basil) also makes his first Woolly appearance, after numeroUs Productions with The Shakespeare Theatre Company (the all-male Romeo & Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew). He has appeared extensively around the country, and also on Broadway and in national tours, including Les Miserables and The Sound of Music. KenYatta Rogers (Aston Martin) returns to Woolly after appearing in Rocket to the Moon and Playmaking readings by young playwrights. He has numerous local acting and directing credits and is also an educator at Montgomery College.

The production & design team for Fever/Dream includes Misha Kachman (Set Design), Franklin Labovitz (Costume Design), Colin K. Bills (Lighting Design), Veronika Vorel (Sound Design), Jennifer Sheetz (Properties), and Founder/Artistic Director of BosmaDance, Meisha Bosma (Choreographer).

Now in its 29th Season, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to hold its place at theatre's leading edge. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann, Woolly Mammoth is acknowledged as "Washington's most daring theatre company" (The New York Times), as a regional and national leader in the development of new plays, and as one of the best known and most influentiAl Small theatres in America. Woolly Mammoth has gained this reputation by holding fast to its unique mission:

...to ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community by developing, producing and promoting new plays that explore The Edges of theatrical style and human experience, and by implementing new ways to use the artistry of theatre to serve the people of Greater Washington, DC.
Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a member of the National New Play Network, Theatre Communications Group, The League of Washington Theatres, and The Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, and a participant in the A-ha! Program: Think it, Do it, funded by MetLife and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the American theatre. The Theatre's programs are supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program/United States Commission of Fine Arts.

 

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