Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces the first production of its 40th birthday season, FAIRVIEW by Jackie Sibblies Drury. Woolly Mammoth is the first theatre to produce Fairview following its premiere production at Soho Rep in New York. Directed by Stevie Walker-Webb and featuring design work by Woolly Mammoth Company Members Misha Kachman, Colin K. Bills, and Ivania Stack, FAIRVIEW will run from September 9, 2019 to October 6, 2019.
“FAIRVIEW is a game-changing original work about race, challenging us as much as it entertains, and ultimately shattering the lenses with which we see each other. There is no better way to announce my ambitions than to produce a play as exciting and thorny as FAIRVIEW,” says Woolly Mammoth Artistic Director María Manuela Goyanes. Plus Stevie Walker-Webb is an astounding director who I am excited to not only dig into this material with but also to introduce him to DC audiences.”
Beverly insists the celebration for Grandma’s birthday be perfect. But her husband is useless, her sister is into the wine, and her daughter’s secrets are threatening to derail the day. Meanwhile a group of spectators has put them all under surveillance. Soon the voyeurs launch an invasion on the festivities, forcing the family to battle for their very identities. Jackie Sibblies Drury (We Are Proud to Present…) returns to Woolly to boldly confront our perceptions of racism in the United States by ripping the conventional family drama to shreds and asking the question “who is watching whom?”
The genesis of the play came out of Sibblies Drury’s personal experience with police surveillance while living in North Africa. In an interview with NPR, she shares that the framing for the work came from the realization that the feeling of being watched “didn’t feel completely unfamiliar.” She elaborates by saying, “There is a lot about being a person of color in America that — that experience of someone watching me with suspicion, sort of expecting me to do something … bad or illegal — that felt familiar.”
Fairview was originally commissioned and produced by SoHo Rep and Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2018. The play has received many accolades in addition to the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Drama such as, the 2019 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a feature of the Best of Theatre 2018 Lists from The New York Times, New York Magazine, TIME, The New Yorker, American Theatre, Buzzfeed, Los Angeles Times, and Time Out New York.
Cast members in Woolly’s production of Fairview include Nikki Crawford (Beverly), Christopher Dinolfo (Mack), Shannon Dorsey* (Jasmine), Samuel Ray Gates (Dayton), Kimberly Gilbert* (Suze), Laura C. Harris (Bets), Cody Nickell* (Jimbo), and Chinna Palmer (Keisha).
The scenic design for Fairview is by Misha Kachman*. Additional members of the production team include Ivania Stack* (costume design), Colin K. Bills* (lighting design), Roc Lee (sound design), Ashleigh King (choreographer), Joanna Lugo (associate director, dramaturg), Andrew L. Cutler (assistant costume design), Liz Hayes (dialect coach), Rachael Danielle Albert (stage manager), Cody Whitfield (resident assistant stage manager), and Rebecca Silva (assistant stage manager).
*Denotes Woolly Mammoth Company Member
SCHEDULE
Fairview runs September 9, 2019 to October 6, 2019, with performances: Wednesday-Friday at 8 pm; Saturday at 3 pm and 8 pm (except October 14, which features an 8 pm performance only); and Sunday at 2 pm and 7 pm (except October 15, which features a 7 pm performance only); with two Pay What You Will performances on Monday, September 9 and Tuesday, September 10 at 8 pm.
PERFORMANCE CALENDAR
September 9, 2019: Pay What You Will performance at 8 pm
September 10, 2019: Pay What You Will performance at 8 pm
September 11, 2019: Preview performance at 8 pm
September 12, 2019: Preview performance at 8 pm
September 13, 2019: Opening Night Performance at 8 pm
September 14, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 15, 2019: Performance at 7 pm
September 18, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 19, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 20, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 21, 2019: Performances at 3 pm and 8 pm
September 22, 2019: Performances at 2 pm and 7 pm
September 25, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 26, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 27, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
September 28, 2019: Performances at 3 pm and 8 pm
September 29, 2019: Performances at 2 pm and 7 pm
October 2, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
October 3, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
October 4, 2019: Performance at 8 pm
October 5, 2019: Performances at 3 pm and 8 pm
October 6, 2019: Performances at 2 pm and 7 pm
TICKETS
Tickets to FAIRVIEW start at $34. Visit online at woollymammoth.net, by phone at (202) 393-3939, via email at [email protected], or in person at the Box Office, located at 641 D Street NW.
Patrons who are 30-years-old and younger may, at any time, purchase Section C tickets for $20 to any performance. There are also discounts available for educators, first responder men and women and active US military personnel, spouses, and veterans. More information is available at woollymammoth.net.
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