Woolly Mammoth company members Jennifer Mendenhall and Michael Willis, with David Fendig and Paul Morella, are featured in the run at The Warehouse Theater. (As Woolly Mammoth works toward the completion of its new facility at 7th and D Streets NW in Washington, D.C., it is presenting its 2004-05 season at various spaces in the D.C. area. Warehouse Theater is at 1021 7th Street, NW, at L.

Woolly Mammoth artistic director Howard Shalwitz said in production notes, "After the stunning success of Recent Tragic Events, we were eager to work with Craig Wright again, along with his collaborator on that production, director Michael John Garcés, and fortunate to be able to commission his next major work for the stage. Craig is a big thinker and remarkably entertaining writer who gives audiences plenty to chew on, and Grace is no exception. The play marks Woolly's fourth world premiere in a row, following Marga Gomez's Los Big Names, Angus MacLachlan's The Radiant Abyss, and Ian Cohen's Lenny & Lou – a challenging and vibrant suite of plays that together make a substantive addition to the theatrical canon."

The play is billed as a "modern tragicomedy about a very unpleasant chain of events." In it, "perceptions keep changing as we deconstruct the marriage of born-again Christian couple Sara and Steve, transplanted to Florida for a lucrative motel development deal. Following the appearance of a quirky exterminator, events begin careening downhill. As their faith is tested, Sara finds herself developing a friendship with a seriously scarred neighbor who is questioning the meaning of his life in the wake of a tragic car accident. The way religious ideas make sense — and, sometimes, nonsense — of our lives is the stuff of Grace, a darkly funny and provocative new play in which things are never what they seem – and never were."

Wright said in production notes, "Like so many of my plays, I think Grace is about time. It's about how religious ideas give people ways to make sense of time. This happens, then that happens and we try to figure out what the connections are between things. Ideas like God, God's grace, God's providence, karma…these are just ways to mentally connect events and see a form and, sometimes, a benevolent intentionality at work in them. Are they true? No one knows. But do they affect the way we treat each other? Completely."

Press night is Oct. 31. Wright's other plays include Molly's Delicious, Orange Flower Water, The Pavilion, Melissa Arctic and an adaptation of Sinclair Lewis' Main Street. He has also written for the series "Six Feet Under."

For more information, call (202) 393-3939 or (800) 494 8497 or visit www.WoollyMammoth.net.

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Grace is the final play commissioned through a partnership with A.S.K. Theatre Projects. As part of A.S.K. Theatre Projects New Plays/New Ways program, Woolly Mammoth received $100,000 to initiate a rare new play development process involving commissions and financial support to develop three scripts through meetings, workshops and readings, all culminating in full productions.

The other projects included Jump/Cut by Neena Beber, developed and co-produced with Theater J in 2003, and the commission of The Radiant Abyss by Angus MacLachlan which received its world premiere in June 2004.