Plays From Woolly Mammoth

this collection contains six full-length plays: THE ART ROOM by Billy Aronson,
THE CHINESE ART OF PLACEMENT by Stanley Rutherford, THE GENE POOL by Christi Stewart-Brown, THE LAST ORBIT OF BILLY MARS by Robert Alexander, MAN, WOMAN, DINOSAUR by Regina Porter, &
THE PSYCHIC LIFE OF SAVAGES by Amy Freed.... The Woolly Mammoth Theater Company of Washington DC is one of America's most fearless producers of new plays, with an impressive record of premieres that have gone on to be produced across the country and around the world. "The plays it has always championed and done best are dark, scratchy, outspoken and eager to buck both the status quo and theatrical convention," says critic David Richards in his Foreword to this collection of six recent Woolly premieres. Amy Freed's THE PSYCHIC LIFE OF SAVAGES, winner of both the Kesselring Prize and Charles MacArthur Award, is a witty and dazzling dissection of the lives of four famously obsessive mid-century poets. Robert Alexander's THE LAST ORBIT OF BILLY MARS is an intimate, ultimately shocking glimpse at a secretive black family living on the edge of a Saint Louis highway. By contrast, Christi Stewart-Brown's lighter-than-air comedy, THE GENE POOL, introduces an unusually open family with two moms, while simultaneously spoofing the traditional family sitcom. tour de force for one actor, Stanley Rutherford's award-winning THE CHINESE ARE OF PLACEMENT virtually defines Woolly's fascination with neurotically funny characters who don't seem to fit in. Billy Aronson's endearing romance, THE ART ROOM, re-imagines a classic Feydeau farce in a topsy-turvy mental ward setting. And Regina Porter's powerful black Southern drama, MAN, WOMAN, DINOSAUR, unites two unlikely lovers in a desperate effort to free themselves from the mysterious pull of the past.hat emerges from these remarkable new plays is Woolly Mammoth's obsession with original voices, its readiness to deal with controversy, and most suprisingly, its focus on big old-fashioned issues love, longing, family ties, self-expression, madness from unexpected new angles.