As it works toward the completion of its new home, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, DC will present its 2001-2001 season — which includes two world premieres — at the Kennedy Center's AFI Theater and the Cecile Goldman Theater at the DC Jewish Community Center.
The DCJCC stagings are co-productions between Woolly Mammoth (under the artistic directorship of Howard Shalwitz) and Theater J (under artistic director Ari Roth). With Theater J, at the DCJCC, Woolly Mammoth stages the world premiere of Tommy J & Sally, by Mark Medoff, best known for Children of a Lesser God. Medoff's drama concerns a young black man named Tommy J, who breaks into the apartment of a famous white singer named Sally Hemmings. "What begins as the story of a celebrity held hostage by an unbalanced fan quickly becomes an intense and mysterious dialogue that reveals unexpected wounds from the past," according to the season announcement. Performances are in February-March 2002. Craig Wallace stars, Bob Devin Jones directs.
Woolly Mammoth will premiere Jim Knable's Spain, about a desperate woman's fantasies of a Spanish conquistador, in December, at the AFI Theater. Tom Prewitt directs.
Woolly Mammoth, committed to edgy, new voices, also has:
• Charles L. Mee's outrageous Big Love, an adaptation of the Greek classic, The Supplicants, in June-July 2002 at the AFI Theater. Shalwitz directs. • Sarah Jones' multi-character, multi-cultural solo show, Surface Transit, with poet-playwright-actor Jones plays eight urban characters, March-April 2002 at the AFT Theater. Gloria Feliciano directs.
• Clifford Odets' romance, Rocket to the Moon, a co-production with Theater J at the DCJCC, featuring Shalwitz, August-October.
For information, call (202) 393-3939 or visit the website at www.WoollyMammoth.net.
— By Kenneth Jones
