Woolly Announces Event Programming and Schedule for BOOTYCANDY

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its schedule of extensive programming surrounding the World Premiere of Bootycandy, written and directed by 2010 Helen Hayes Award winner Robert O'Hara (Antebellum). Join Woolly staff, audiences, and artists as we reflect and discuss race, sexuality, and the labels that create our identities.

Robert O'Hara took home a 2010 Helen Hayes Award for Antebellum, and he's cooking up an even saucier dish for us now. This kaleidoscope of sassy lessons in sex education speaks the truth about growing up gay and African American. With outrageous humor and real heart, it tests how we talk about our bodies at home, in church, and on the corner.

EVENTS SCHEDULE:

Lobby Design

Live (and Leave) Your Label
When you arrive at Woolly to pick up your tickets for Bootycandy, you'll come to a table with an assortment of labels for you to choose from, each bearing a single signifier (e.g. Gay, Straight, Old, Young, etc.). Pick a label and put it on, and as you watch the play, we invite you to reflect on how your choice of self-definition affects your response.
As you exit the theatre following the performance, take off your label and stick it on the display near Woolly's main doors. This display will serve as a living record, for the run of the show, of everyone who's been exposed to Bootycandy and how they've chosen to identify themselves.

"What do you call it?" - Sexual Euphemism Alphabet
Throughout the run of Bootycandy, audience members in the Upper Lobby will be invited to contribute to our Sexual Euphemism Alphabet: an audience-generated urban dictionary of sorts, designed to ignite individual reflection and collective conversation about the language we use to neuter or infantilize words describing or depicting sex, sexual organs, or sexual acts, or anything else we think of as "dirty."

Post Performance Dialogues and Forums

Over the course of the run of Bootycandy (May 30 - June 26), we will be hosting a number of post-show discussions in a variety of formats. Want to deepen your engagement with this provocative new play? Stick around after the show and join the conversation.

· Wednesday, June 8th following the 8pm performance

o The "Anti-Talkback:" Do you have questions for the cast of Bootycandy? Well they have some questions for you...and they get to go first.

· Sunday, June 12th following the 3pm performance

o A special panel discussion about hate crimes and retaliations, featuring experts working on these issues at the local, national, and international level. Guests: Ty Cobb, Legislative Counsel at the Human Rights Campaign, and others TBA.

· Thursday, June 16th following the 8pm performance

o Production Dramaturg (and Woolly's Director of Artistic Development) Miriam Weisfeld facilitates a conversation about the play and its themes.

· Sunday, June 19th and Sunday, June 26th following the 3pm performance

o Small-group breakout discussions, led by members of the Claque - Woolly's community of highly engaged audience members - and focused on race and comedy, political correctness, and the politics of comfort and discomfort.

Special Performances/Events

Don't Ask, Do Tell: Stories of Coming Out, Coming Clean, and Just Plain Coming
Monday, June 6th at 8pm
Tuesday, June 7th at 8pm
Two hours with one intermission
Tickets: $25

A unique co-presentation of Woolly Mammoth and SpeakeasyDC, Don't Ask, Do Tell features fresh and honest autobiographical performances from an eclectic collection of local storytellers, poets, and spoken-word artists. Through personal stories mixing the comic, the tragic, and the everyday, they wrestle with many of the same themes found in Robert O'Hara's Bootycandy: sexuality, language and labels, taboos, transgressions, inclusivity, exclusivity, and community. The roster of performers will include local master-poets Regie Cabico, Sonya Renee Taylor and Chris Love.

Performances of Don't Ask, Do Tell are Monday, June 6th and Tuesday, June 7th at 8pm. Tickets are $25 and seating is general admission. Purchase the exclusive DADT/BC package over the phone (202-393-3939) or at the Woolly Box Office. Mention you want to purchase for both shows or refer to promotion code number 1199.

Take Yourself Out: LGBT Singles' Night at Bootycandy
June 10, 17, and 24 starting at 6:30pm
Want to see some awesome theatre, and maybe get a date out of it as well? Take Yourself Out to Woolly's LGBTQI-inclusive alternative to boring Singles nights, and you can get your theatre fix (and a couple of phone numbers while you're at it) without breaking the bank. Use special discount code 1224 to buy a single ticket to Bootycandy for just $35, then come early and stay late for a pre- and post-show Happy Hour, featuring drink specials, party games, and a photo booth (with costumes!). Give our Box Office a call at 202-393-3939 or stop the Theatre at 641 D Street, NW, and don't forget to mention code 1224.

Young, Sexy & Safe with Bootycandy: an afternoon adventure at Woolly Mammoth
Saturday, June 18th at 3pm
Are you taking care of your bootycandy? Join us (and bring your friends and family members) for a special Saturday matinee performance of Bootycandy geared towards young adults, peer educators, and members of the sexual health community. Following the 3pm show on June 18, audience members can choose to participate in one of three 45-minute workshops, led by local professionals, using Robert O'Hara's explosive new play as a catalyst for explorations of sexual identity, sexual health, relationships, and creative self-expression.

$15 tickets available for patrons 30 and under - just use promotion code 1239 and remember to bring your ID on the day of the show. (Cannot be redeemed online.)

Young, Sexy & Safe is sponsored by Sasha Bruce Youthwork.

ONLINE ENGAGEMENT

Blogs and Podcasts

During the run of Bootycandy, Woolly will produce an engaging series of blogs and podcasts that will highlight the themes of language, sexuality, and identity found in the play. Woolly blog posts will appear twice a week with podcasts every other week, detailing the life of theatre and the show within and beyond the Woolly community. The Woolly Blog can be found at woollymammothblog.com, and all Radio Woolly podcasts are available for download on iTunes.

Both before and after all performances during Preview Week (May 30th - June 2nd), Woolly staff members and volunteers will be circulating in the lobby with audio and video recorders to talk to audience members about their pre-show expectations and post-show impressions of the unique experience that is Robert O'Hara's Bootycandy. Audience testimonials will subsequently be featured on the Woolly Blog and our Radio Woolly podcast series, in addition to Woolly staff and artist produced content. For those patrons who would rather express themselves in writing, response cards will be available in the Bootycandy program at those same four performances.

Bootycandy runs May 30, 2011 - June 26, 2011; Wednesdays - Saturdays at 8pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 3pm. Monday, May 30th & Tuesday, May 31st will be Pay-What-You-Can performances and will begin at 8pm.
*Sunday, June 5th performance will be at 7pm.

Tickets for Bootycandy start at $35, and can be purchased through the Woolly Mammoth Box Office at 202-393-3939, online at www.woollymammoth.net, or in person at 641 D Street, NW (7th & D).

Now in its 31st Season, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company continues to hold its place at the leading edge of American theatre. Acknowledged as "the hottest theatre company in town" (The Washington Post), "known for its productions of innovative new plays" (The New York Times), Woolly Mammoth is a national leader in the development of new plays, and one of the best known and most influential mid-sized theatres in America.

Woolly Mammoth is a selected participant in EmcArts' Innovation Lab for the Performing Arts, a program generously funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Photo credit: Michael Bailey