Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company Announces Changes to Literary Department

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company is pleased to announce that John M. Baker has joined Woolly as the theatre's Literary Manager, and Miriam Weisfeld has been appointed as the theatre's Director of Artistic Development in an organizational change that reflects Woolly Mammoth's holistic approach to new play production. This evolution of Woolly's literary department will harness the full force of the company's artistic resources in the service of theatrical innovation, from the research and development of a play to its explosive engagement with audiences and the DC community.

John M. Baker is the former Artistic Associate at Brooklyn-based Page 73 Productions and Literary Associate at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. He has dramaturged new plays with 24Seven Lab, Clubbed Thumb, Guthrie Theater, Juggernaut, Juilliard, The Kennedy Center, Lark, Ma-Yi, NNPN, O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, Page 73, Partial Comfort, PlayPenn, Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, SPF, Williamstown Theatre Festival, Yaller Skunk, among others. He has recently worked with directors Hal Brooks, Sean Daniels, Kip Fagan, Jackson Gay, Sam Gold, Wendy Goldberg, Davis McCallum and playwrights Neena Beber, Julia Cho, Jason Grote, Samuel D. Hunter, A. Rey Pamatmat, Heidi Schreck, Jen Silverman, Suzan Zeder, among others. A graduate of Boston Latin, John holds a BA from Boston University and an MFA from the University of Iowa.

Miriam Weisfeld, Woolly's Director of Artistic Development, joined Woolly as a full-time dramaturg in January 2008, and was named the Director of New Play Development in 2009. During her tenure at Woolly, Miriam has dramaturged several World Premieres including David Adjmi's Stunning, Robert O'Hara's Antebellum, and Danai Gurira's Eclipsed (all of which were nominated for the Charles MacArthur Award for Outstanding New Play). Her other credits include work for New York Theatre Workshop (projects with JoAnne Akalaitis, Ivo van Hove, and Universes), American Repertory Theatre (with RoBert Woodruff, Anne Bogart, and Paula Vogel), Steppenwolf Theatre Company; Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Lookingglass Theatre Company. She has lectured on theatre at Harvard University, MIT, Suffolk University, Northwestern University, the Kennedy Center, and the Moscow Art Theatre School. Miriam holds an MFA in Dramaturgy from the American Repertory Theater/Moscow Art Theatre School Institute at Harvard University.

Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz says, "I'm thrilled to welcome John to Woolly Mammoth following his tenure at the O'Neill National Playwrights Conference. John brings tremendous dramaturgical skills and a depth of knowledge about American Playwrights today. His arrival is concurrent with an expansion of Miriam's role to Director of Artistic Development, a title which reflects an important evolution in our approach. With each new play, we intend to foster the deepest possible engagement among the playwright, director, dramaturg, designers, actors, staff, and the DC community. Miriam will be working closely with our Production Manager (Taryn Colberg-Staples) to strategically assemble the team around each play, and with our Connectivity Director (Rachel Grossman) to leverage the expertise and energy of stakeholders in the community. The ambitious goal of this team is to knit together the strands of script development, play production, and community engagement into a unified body of work, and to connect the work on our stage to the broader cultural, political, and ethical discourse that takes place every day in the nation's capital."

ABOUT WOOLLY
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.

www.woollymammoth.net