Theatre & Engagement Conference Held As Part Of Woolly Mammoth Season 30 Focus

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is spending SEASON 30, its 30th season of producing provocative new plays in the nation's capital, looking forward to the future of 30 more years. Programs and events during the course of SEASON 30 include exploring new ways to engage with audiences and the DC community at large in keeping with Woolly's mission to "ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community."

One of these initiatives - an all-day conference entitled "WHO'S IN YOUR CIRCLE? THEATRE, DEMOCRACY & ENGAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY" - takes place on Saturday, November 14, around a matinee performance of Full Circle. A day of meals, manifestoes, performance, and problem-solving, "WHO'S IN YOUR CIRCLE?" will include special guests Allison Carey (Co-Founder, Cornerstone Theater Company), Erik Ehn (playwright; Artistic Assoc., San Francisco's Theatre of Yugen), Michael John Garcés (director/playwright), Michael Rohd (director, Full Circle; Artistic Director, Sojourn Theatre), Mark Russell (Artistic Director, Under the Radar Festival), Andy Shallal (founder, Busboys & Poets; activist/artist/social entrepreneur), Charles L. Mee (playwright, Full Circle), Nilaja Sun (writer/performer, No Child...; teaching artist), and Anu Yadav (writer/performer/theatre-based educator). The conference is supported by a generous grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

"It may be that a work of art contributes to The Common discourse of a culture. And so, in some modest way, supports or undermines the status quo." - Full Circle, Charles L. Mee

The goal of "WHO'S IN YOUR CIRCLE?" is to help Woolly envision what engagement can mean to a theater in Washington, DC as it moves ahead into the next 30 seasons. During this day-long "think-tank," we hope to learn from our colleagues and friends to imagine new strategies for a more innovative way to engage with youth and adults in DC and to place the Theatre at the center of our civic life. With their ideas and help, Woolly Mammoth hopes to play a small part in re-positioning the role of theatre in our city - and in our young American democracy.

Full details on "WHO'S IN YOUR CIRCLE?" on attachment.

"We've become obsessed at Woolly with the idea of theatre as part of civic engagement," stated Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz. "Our 30th season, which reunites us with many of our favorite artists, not only includes many new plays that raise provocative questions about our politics and culture, but we are surrounding these plays with a range of activities meant to promote an explosion of conversation in the theatre and out in the community. We hope these will lay a foundation for a new level of engagement as we move ahead into our next 30 years."

BACKGROUND

A year ago, as we looked ahead to our 30th season, we started to frame a new set of goals for Woolly Mammoth's next three decades. Having put our traditional education programming (theatre classes and outreach initiatives) on hiatus, we pondered the irony that Woolly Mammoth, one of the more provocative theatres in America, is located in the heart of the nation's capital. Could our work connect more directly with the civic discourse that happens within blocks of our theatre every day? Would this lead to a deeper kind of engagement with our community? If playwrights knew that their work would actually be discussed by policy makers, scholars, students, and citizens from diverse backgrounds - would it affect the kinds of plays they write? Could we make a case for the value of theatre as an essential tool of democracy, rather than allowing ourselves to be marginalized as another form of entertainment?

Now in Season 30, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to hold its place at theatre's leading edge. Acknowledged as "The hottest theatre company in town" (Washington Post), "known for its productions of innovative new plays" (The New York Times), Woolly Mammoth is a regional and national leader in the development of new plays, and one of the best known and most influentiAl Small theatres in America. The Company garnered 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.

Currently under the leadership of Artistic Director/Co-Founder Howard Shalwitz and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann, Woolly Mammoth 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, the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program/United States Commission of Fine Arts, and The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

To post a comment, you must register and login.