'HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA' Post-Show Dialogue 1/9,12 & 16

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announced that during the run of Mike Daisey's HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA, there will be free industry roundtables following three performances to discuss the many issues raised in the piece. The roundtable discussions following performances on January 9, 12, and 16 will include local theatre administrators, artists, and funders.

A recent Off-Broadway hit created and performed by Mike Daisey, and directed by Jean-Michele Gregory, HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA is a comic monologue that examines the current state of the American regional theater movement interwoven with his personal theater experiences and provocative cultural commentary.

All roundtables are FREE and open to the public. To attend any performance, a ticket is required. Panelists may be added, based on availability.
Fri., January 9: "For-Profit, Non-Profit, No-Profit"Julianne Brienza, Executive Director - Capital Fringe Festival
Martha Knight, stage manager
Jackie Lawton, playwright
Bill O'Brien, Director of Theater and Musical Theater - National Endowment for the Arts
Eric Schaeffer, Artistic Director - Signature Theatre
Harry Teter, Jr., General Manager - National Theatre

Mon., January 12: "The State of Our Union" (NOTE: This performance is sold out, but anyone may attend the roundtable afterward. Approximate start time of roundtable: 9:20pm).
Jessica Dukes, actress & Woolly Mammoth Company Member
Rick Foucheux, actor & Woolly Mammoth Company Member
Michael Kahn, Artistic Director - Shakespeare Theatre Company
Vincent Lancisi, Artistic Director - Everyman Theatre (Baltimore)
Blake Robeson, Producing Artistic Director - Round House Theatre
Howard Shalwitz, Artistic Director - Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company
Maggie Boland, Managing Director - Signature Theatre

Fri., Jan. 16: "American Theatre in 2034"
Peter Marks, Theatre Critic - Washington Post
Jenny McConnell Frederick, Co-Artistic Director - Rorschach Theatre
David Muse, Associate Artistic Director - Shakespeare Theatre Company
Shirley Serotsky, Director of Literary & Public Programs - Theater J; director
Jeremy Skidmore, Artistic Director - Source festival; director

"When Mike premiered this show Off-Broadway, he lead a series of roundtables about the state of the theatre in New York and nationally," said Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz. "The community-from administrators to actors to critics to patrons-gathered in droves to air their concerns about the current climate and propose a healthier vision for the future. Woolly Mammoth jumped at the chance to be the first (and thus far only) regional theatre to host this show and the dialogue surrounding it. We are looking forward to gathering with our colleagues to tackle tough questions about the role theatre can and should play in the Nation's Capitol."

HOW THEATER FAILED AMERICA runs January 7-18, 2009. All tickets are $25. PRESS PERFORMANCES are Wed., January 7, Thurs., January 8, and Fri., January 9 at 8pm.

SYNOPSIS

Mike Daisey sinks his razor-sharp wit into a subject he knows well: the American theater, from the sublimely crass to the genuinely ugly. From gorgeous new theaters standing empty as cathedrals, to "successful" working actors traveling like migrant farmhands, to an arts culture unwilling to speak or listen to its own nation, Daisey takes stock of the dystopian state of theater in America: a shrinking world with smaller audiences every year. Fearlessly implicating himself and the system he works within, Daisey seeks answers to essential and dangerous questions about the art we're making, the legacy we leave the future, and who it is we believe we're speaking to.

"A sardonic rebuke to the corporate types who hold American theater hostage...a powerful sense of the wonder of theater. A REMARKABLE PERFORMER." - The New York Times

"Blending politicAl Anger with striking personal stories, this piece should reach anyone who believes in live performance." - Variety

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 "The hottest theatre company in town" (Washington Post), "known for its productions of innovative new plays" (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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