Wolly Mammoth Theater Awarded A-Ha! 'Think it, Do it' Grant

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is thrilled to announce that it is one of four recipients of the MetLife Foundation/Theatre Communications Group's inaugural A-Ha! Program: Think It, Do It grants. The program supports risk-taking, reflection, experimentation and the development of creative strategies.

The A-ha! Program, has two components (theatres applied to one). Think It grants (up to $25,000) give theatre professionals the time and space for research and development; and Do It grants (up to $50,000) support the implementation and testing of new ideas.

With the support of this grant, Woolly Mammoth will send its 21 full-time staff members on individual 1-2 week sabbaticals to shadow professionals working in analogous jobs or fields to help provoke new thinking about their work at the theatre. The sabbaticals will take place over the course of calendar 2009.

"As an organization that has been dedicated to producing the most innovative new plays in America for the last three decades, it feels right that we have been selected to participate in the inaugural round of the Think It, Do It program with a project that will stimulate innovative new thinking throughout the entire organization," stated Woolly Mammoth's Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann. "In addition, Woolly Mammoth has also maintained a very flat organizational hierarchy and a sense of democracy throughout its history, and we are proud that our project-which will involve every single full-time staff member-reflects this tradition and these core values. We simply can't wait to get started."

Woolly Mammoth is one of the Think It recipients, along with Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego, CA. (Alternate status was awarded to Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD and Dell'Arte International in Blue Lake, CA). The Do It recipients are Theater Grottesco, in Santa Fe, NM and The Playwrights' Center, Inc in Minneapolis, MN (alternate status awarded to American Repertory Theatre Company in Cambridge, MA).

"As the field grapples with our country's changing demographics and seeks new ways to create work that not only informs but strengthens bonds among diverse communities, it seems important to support research and development as well as risk-taking in the field," said Teresa Eyring, TCG executive director. Along with MetLife Foundation, we have now created a program that will allow member theatres to dive into new ideas and experimentation with the understanding that even failure can be instructive."

"MetLife Foundation is proud to partner with TCG to support creative thinking and innovation in theatres," said Sibyl Jacobson, President and CEO MetLife Foundation. "We believe the A-Ha! Program will strengthen the field and promote new models and best practices."

MetLife Foundation was established by MetLife to continue the company's long tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. The Foundation supports programs that improve education, promote health, encourage parental involvement and family engagement, and help revitalize neighborhoods and stress accessibility and inclusion. In recent years, a focus on Alzheimer's and aging issues has been added. MetLife Foundation stresses education in all its programs. Recognizing the vital role the arts play in building communities and educating young people, the Foundation contributes to arts and cultural organizations across the United States, with an emphasis on increasing opportunities for young people, reaching broad audiences through inclusive programming, and making arts more accessible for all people.

Theatre Communications Group's (TCG) mission is to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional, not-for-profit American theatre. TCG initiatives include a variety of artistic, management, international and advocacy programs. Its many publications offer a national resource for reference, opinion and debate on theatre and the performing arts today.

Now in its 29th Season, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to hold its place at theatre's leading edge. Under the leadership of Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz and Managing Director Jeffrey Herrmann, Woolly Mammoth is acknowledged as "The hottest theatre company in town" (Washington Post), "known for its productions of innovative new plays" (The New York Times), as a regional and national leader in the development of new plays, and as one of the best known and most influential small theatres in America. Woolly Mammoth has gained this reputation by holding fast to its unique mission:

...to ignite an explosive engagement between theatre artists and the community by developing, producing and promoting new plays that explore the edges of theatrical style and human experience, and by implementing new ways to use the artistry of theatre to serve the people of Greater Washington, DC.

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is a member of the National New Play Network, Theatre Communications Group, The League of Washington Theatres, and The Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington, and a participant in the A-ha! Program: Think it, Do it, funded by MetLife and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for the American theatre. The Theatre's programs are supported in part by The National Endowment for the Arts, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the National Capital Arts and Cultural Affairs Program/United States Commission of Fine Arts.

To post a comment, you must register and login.