Woolly Mammoth to Present Lisa D'Amour's CHEROKEE, 2/9-3/8

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company announces its next production in Season 35: Cherokee, by Obie Award-winning playwright Lisa D'Amour. Enlarging on the themes explored in D'Amour's 2013 Woolly hit Detroit, Cherokee follows a fresh cast of characters pushed to the brink as their escape from the trappings of civilization opens the path to a new life. Woolly Company Member John Vreeke, who also directed Detroit, will direct the new production. Cherokee will run from Monday, February 9 to Sunday, March 8, 2015.

Two couples-one black, one white-flee their suburban pressures and try to connect with nature by going camping in Cherokee, North Carolina. But their vacation is upended when one member of the group mysteriously vanishes and the others are visited by a Native American local...who unearths buried desires that might change their lives forever. Cherokee is about a disparate group of Americans grappling with vital questions: What does it mean to lead an authentic life? What are we willing to give up to have our lives transformed?

"Playwright Lisa D'Amour and director John Vreeke proved to be a potent combination in last season's Detroit," says Woolly Artistic Director Howard Shalwitz. "If that earlier play-in which two couples struggled to maintain a suburban foothold-was a diagnosis of the American problem, then Cherokee, where the characters leave 'civilization' and start over, is an exploration of a possible solution. But none of the answers comes easily in this mysterious work, where nature has the upper hand and even our identity as human individuals is questioned."

Cherokee's extraordinary cast includes Woolly Company Member Jennifer Mendenhall* and Woolly veterans Paul Morella* and Thomas W. Jones II*, as well as notable actors Erica Chamblee* and Jason Grasl*.

More information about Cherokee and Woolly's 35th Anniversary Season can be found at woollymammoth.net.