Five World Premieres Set For Woolly Mammoth Theatre 2026–2027 Season

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company has announced its 2026-2027 season, the first curated by newly appointed Artistic Director Reggie D. White. This five-play lineup reaffirms Woolly's commitment to audacious, evocative theatricality and artists whose work pushes the boundaries of form, perspective, and imagination.

Spanning cosmic dark comedy, intimate ensemble work, workplace satire, technological ubiquity, and genre-defying adaptation, this season showcases five playwrights making their Woolly Mammoth debuts. It kicks off with Venus, a meet-cute gone spectacularly wrong by Steve Yockey which White will direct. It continues with Hanukkah Spectacular, a raucous holiday show in the making by Max Posner, directed by renowned director David Cromer. Next is Ten Grand by Kate Cortesi, also directed by White, a love letter to Goodwill stores and daytime soap operas until things take a dangerous turn. Woolly Mammoth Company Member Jared Mezzocchi returns to direct Bobby Robotowitz, a journey of AI proportions, co-produced with City Theatre of Pittsburgh, and written by Matt Schatz. Rounding out the season is a.k. payne's love i awethu further, a poetic reimagining of Julius Ceasar, produced in association with Jamila Ponton Bragg and directed by Tamilla Woodard.

“Woolly's work has existed on the bleeding edge of theatrical provocation for nearly 50 years.” says White, “As I poured over hundreds of plays deciding which stories would be part of my first season as Artistic Director, these five plays left indelible impressions on me. Steve, Max, Kate, Matt, and a.k. have crafted virtuosic offerings that are unmistakable in their voice, unapologetic in their point of view, and undeniable in their storytelling. These plays ask big, existential questions: questions that make us lean forward, arouse our curiosity, and feel less alone. It's such an honor to have the torch passed down to me from Howard and Maria, and I'm so excited to introduce the Woolly herd to five of the most incredible minds in the American Theatre.”

Says Woolly Mammoth's Managing Director Kimberly Douglas: “Woolly Mammoth's 47th season is a thrilling celebration of artistic vision and rigor exploring the complexities of our humanity, delighting in the distinctive and unique voices creating exciting art, and honoring a moment in our nation's capital where we need art to help us all be braver, freer, and unabashedly courageous in living our values.”

With both longtime collaborators and bold new voices, the 2026-2027 lineup reflects Woolly Mammoth's dedication to new work that is both fearless and radically welcoming. In addition to these five plays, Woolly's season will include Connectivity events and learning opportunities, the continuation of a new Playwrights Group, and additional programming to be announced later this year.

VENUS 

by Steve Yockey 
Directed by Reggie D. White 
September 9 – October 4, 2026 
A National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere

Sometimes the scariest part of dating is what you bring with you.Nicole likes things orderly: curated dating profiles, classic decor, clean breaks. Beth is all instinct: showing up to book club meetings uninvited, sending too many flowers, and spontaneous first kisses. What begins as an intoxicating collision of opposites turns bizarre as romance descends into obsession, fear takes on a life of its own, and both women find themselves haunted by their pasts, their patterns, and a strange woman in a red raincoat. 

A star-gazing dark comedy, Venus launches the 2026–2027 season with a bang (or a shovel?), as Woolly's new Artistic Director Reggie D. White helms this celestial fever dream by Steve Yockey (creator of HBO's Flight Attendant, Netflix's Dead Boy Detective). 

HANUKKAH SPECTACULAR 

by Max Posner 

Directed by David Cromer
November 14 – December 13, 2026 
World Premiere

Four artists, three days, one conference room, and a play that could combust before it's even finished.  

Set over a long weekend in a Midtown talent agency, Hanukkah Spectacular drops us into a glass-walled pressure cooker where a group of Jewish artists attempt the seemingly impossible: to make a commercially viable holiday hit about Hanukkah. What starts as a rehearsal comedy becomes a reckoning as lines between actor and character dissolve, a brother and sister's unresolved history cracks the room open, a writer's nervous system short-circuits, and a veteran director discovers his real job: to be the parent nobody cast him as.  

Written by Lucille Lortel Nominee Max Posner (The Treasurer) and directed by Tony-winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit), Hanukkah Spectacular is a comedy about collaborating with trauma. 

TEN GRAND 

by Kate Cortesi 
Directed by Reggie D. White 
February 1 – 28, 2027 
World Premiere

Welcome to Goodwill, where everything has a past and everyone has a story.  

In a Boston-area Goodwill store, it's business as usual. Employees and customers form quiet alliances, rituals, and rivalries amid piles of stuff that's been “gently used” and “twice loved.” One highly detail-oriented worker crushes on a coworker. A production assistant working on a nearby film set likes her too. Her manager just wants her to get to work on time. And All My Children plays in the breakroom every day like gospel.  

But when an unexpected item shows up in the donation bin, ordinary workplace drama takes on life-or-death stakes. 

Ten Grand, by Princess Grace Award winner Kate Cortesi is a play about discarded people, community care, and how the stories we tell become our destiny. 

BOBBY ROBOTOWITZ 

by Matt Schatz 
Directed by Jared Mezzocchi
March 29 – April 25, 2027 
A co-production with City Theatre

World Premiere

Dina is a novelist. Technically. 

Down on her luck and running out of words, Dina turns to a chatbot—Bobby Robotowitz—for a little help: punch up a sentence, polish a pitch, maybe some life coaching. Bobby delivers. And then some. As Bobby evolves from assistant to collaborator to something a little more…intimate(?), Dina's real life starts to glitch. Who's writing whom?  

Woolly Mammoth Company Member Jared Mezzocchi (The Arsonists, The Elaborate Entrance of Chad Deity) directs this sharp comedy about creativity, codependency, and the seductive pull of technology.  

LOVE I AWETHU FURTHER 

by a.k. payne 
Directed by Tamilla Woodard
June 1 – 27, 2027

Produced in Association with Jamila Ponton Bragg 
World Premiere

Time slips. Breath syncs. A revolution begins. 

Callie dreams up a plan—slow-grown in tobacco rows, memorized in the body, waiting for the right storm. On the plantation that Mistress Catherine insists is a utopia of women, a constellation gathers around Callie: twin, lover, reader, seer, ancestor. Together, they wrestle with an infinite question—what does it cost to be free?