Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company to Continue Season with WE ARE PROUD TO PRESENT...

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has announced the run of We Are Proud to Present..., a wholly unique commentary on the unexpected consequences of good intentions. Woolly Company Member Michael John Garcés (The Convert, Oedipus el Rey) will direct Jackie Sibblies Drury's innovative, fast-paced, and funny examination of race and empathy.

We Are Proud to Present... follows a group of idealistic actors-three black and three white-who come together to tell the little-known story of a centuries-old conflict in South West Africa. The rehearsal room descends from collaborative to absurd as the troupe tries to recreate the extinction of the Herero tribe at the hands of their German colonizers. Tensions mount as the actors' own stories, subjectivities, and ingrained prejudices rise to the surface.

"The real story embedded in Jackie Sibblies Drury's ingeniously original new play," says Woolly Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz, "is how these theatre artists are affected by their own process and how their sincere attempt to inhabit the minds of people a century ago and halfway around the world comes home to roost in their own feelings about race. Some will view this as satire, some as an excavation of our cultural souls. In either case, We Are Proud To Present... is a mesmerizing new work about the limits of empathy."

Woolly Company Member Michael John Garcés (The Convert, Oedipus el Rey) will lead a cast which includes Woolly Company Member Dawn Ursula* and noted Washington actors Andreu Honeycutt*, Joe Isenberg*, Holly Twyford*, and Michael Anthony Williams*. The cast will also include Peter Howard*, who is a Company Member at Cornerstone Theater Company, a Los Angeles based company under the artistic direction of Michael John Garcés.

To continue the season long conversation on and exposure of our nation's deepest secrets, Woolly's Connectivity Department has curated a series of readings, post-performance discussions and events-which feature high profile members of the community who will offer varying insight-to accompany the run of We Are Proud to Present... The event details are outlined in the HOUSE LIGHTS UP profile below.