By Rebecca Friedman
Washington, D.C.- Howard Shalwitz seems to be in his natural habitat. To anyone that can see him, Shalwitz belongs in the granite lobby, sitting on a hard brown chair. It would make sense, as he is one of the founders of the theatre he sits in. He created the world that surrounds him. No one would ever guess that Woolly Mammoth Theatre, located in downtown D.C. and where Shalwitz serves as the Artistic Director, came out of a need to take a year off.
“I was exhausted it was a really hard year, so I took a year off. Basically I still am taking a year. It’s been 35 years, “ says Shalwitz, 58, who is busy eating his lunch of macaroni and cheese from the Au Bon Pain down the street. His brown hair is a bit windblown from the walk to the restaurant.
Shalwitz is one who is never satisfied; he is always looking toward what Woolly Mammoth can do next. Shalwitz had enjoyed the theatre since childhood, as his family would always take summer trips to Stratford, Ontario to see shows. It was never in Shalwitz’s plans to go into the theatre, it just sort of happened. Getting Woolly Mammoth to where it is today was a journey that Shalwitz declares is a continually ongoing process. Shalwitz will be putting on his director’s hat this summer with a cast he has worked with before.
Shalwitz has gotten good at multitasking. All at once, he eats his lunch consisting of a small container of macaroni and cheese and a green apple, greets whoever comes through the front door and asks them questions about what they’re working on (How do the costumes look? I’m sure they’re great! How are the lighting cues coming?) and answers interview questions.
“It’s pretty chaotic,” admits Shalwitz crunching into his green Macintosh apple, “easily half of the job is meeting with people and talking.”
Talking has to come with the job, as everyone wants Shalwitz’s opinion. It does not matter where Shalwitz is, people have questions. In the lobby, stagehands come up to him and ask about cues, when Shalwitz is in the green room; actors want to know how they look in their costumes. Backstage where the scene shop is, those who make the sets want to show Shalwitz what they are working on. For every question and comment, Shalwitz has a smile and an answer.
It is clear that Shalwitz cares about the company he helped found. When giving a backstage tour he walks into the green room and is met with a hail of enthusiasm. On seeing cast members in costume Shalwitz tells them they look great, but quickly covers his eyes saying he wants to wait to see the full effect when he comes to watch rehearsal.
“The way I see my job is as a guardian of the institution. I share that struggle with people in the theatre,” explains Shalwitz.
Part of Shalwitz’s job as guardian and artistic director is moving the theatre in a certain direction. The direction that the theatre is moving toward now is finding plays that are intellectually big. Shows that will make the audience ask questions. Shalwitz feels that Woolly Mammoth is an alternative theatre, not a theatre that puts on shows for their entertainment value.
“We’re not trying to be Arena Stage and please everybody,” not that there is anything wrong with that, Shalwitz quickly amends. “We don’t believe in work that doesn’t challenge the audience.”
Shalwitz has seen many innovative shows happen in his theatre over the years. Full Circle, performed in the fall of 2009, had the audience trekking through the theatre. While the performers were on a tour of the back roads of Germany the day the Berlin Wall fell, the audience went on a tour as well.
There are other aspects to Shalwitz’s job besides checking on the daily movements of the theatre. A core part of Shalwitz’s job is reading scripts, trying to figure out what the public needs.
“You work with what you discover. You learn what’s on your mind from what your reading, you know what I mean?” a phrase that he repeats throughout the conversation.
This season Shalwitz has chosen plays that focus on sexuality and gender. The first show of the season was, In the next room or the vibrator play, by Sarah Ruhl. Shalwitz choose this play because it was written by a female and about female sexuality.
Shalwitz’s love of the theatre came from a strong arts background instilled in him from a young age. Born in 1952 and raised in Buffalo, New York, Shalwitz’s parents would take him and his three siblings to the Ontario Shakespeare Festival every summer for a weekend.
In high school Shalwitz would be in theatre productions. He would get leads in the school plays and musicals. Growing up a block away from the school, Shalwitz could be heard singing down the street.
“I could hear him from all the way down the block singing at the top of his lungs. When I had friends over I was so embarrassed!” says Lisa Shalwitz, 47, Shalwitz’s younger sister, laughing. Lisa is a social worker in San Francisco.
Lisa is not surprised that her brother is involved in the arts. With all the Shalwitz children growing up with theatre in the their lives and singing show tunes around the house, it seemed to make sense.
“One of us was bound to be [involved in the arts],” said Lisa.
Shalwitz was brought up in a Jewish household and though he does not practice the religion anymore, he feels that the values he was instilled with helped make him who he is today. What Shalwitz is giving to the world, he feels comes from the morals he was instilled with.
“I think there’s a strong connection between the values I grew up with and what I’m doing. The values very much come from my parents,” says Shalwitz scraping his fork against the small container trying to get the last of his macaroni and cheese. When pressed what values he means, Shalwitz elaborates with, “this process of continual inquiry,” which is exactly what he asks his audience to do when they come to see a production.
Shalwitz further explains that his parents showed him he needed to make a contribution and a difference in the world. Sitting in the austere lobby of the Woolly Mammoth Theatre, it is easy to see the contribution that Shalwitz has given.
After high school Shalwitz had plans; he would follow in his father’s footsteps and become a doctor. Shalwitz went into undergrad at Wesley College as pre-med. Shalwitz came out with a degree in philosophy and the knowledge that he was not going to become a doctor. After some decision he went to Brown University for a Masters degree in teaching. It was a hard year and so Shalwitz decided to take some time off.
At the end of 1976 he was cast in a Studio Arena production of “A Little Night Music” in Buffalo, New York. Professionals thought Shalwitz had talent and so he left for the Big Apple to try his luck in professional theatre.
“People were just very encouraging to me and I thought why not? I just did the New York thing,” says Shalwitz with a shrug of his shoulders, his forest green jacket going up and down.
Shalwitz spent four years in New York City. He lived in Manhattan and went to auditions, trying to break out in the business. During a theatre internship at the New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Shalwitz met Rodger Brady who would be a co-founder of Woolly Mammoth Theatre. After two years of talking about the idea and concept of Woolly Mammoth Theatre, in 1978 Shalwitz and Brady wrote a manifesto of what they wanted to accomplish. After doing some productions in New York under the Woolly name, the pair saw that New York was not for them.
“We came to the conclusion we didn’t want to be in New York. It was too commercial. The theatre didn’t take itself seriously,” says Shalwitz putting all the trash from his lunch into one tight little package in his macaroni container.
After doing some searching and spending several months looking at possible locations, Washington become the home for Woolly Mammoth Theatre.
“It was an exciting time in Washington,” says Shalwitz.
Shalwitz explains that getting the theatre off the ground had to be done by a step-by-step process. During that period, it was not that easy to raise money.
“Washington was a traditional city, hard to raise money in. We literally walked around knocked on doors. Hey can we do a show here?”
The group settled in the Health and Human Services Building auditorium. It was an odd place to have rehearsals, but they made do.
“I think we must have looked like homeless people, I’m sure,” laughed Shalwitz thinking about his 27-year-old self, wearing blue jeans and a blue-checkered shirt.
Through a fellow Brown graduate, Woolly Mammoth found a home for six years at The Church of the Epiphany, located on G Street. Later, the theatre moved from the church to a warehouse on Church Street. The warehouse was small, but it suited their purposes for the time being. Shalwitz fondly recalls having to put away the benches that served as seats for the audience, every night. The goal was to be out in five years. They stayed for 13. During 1998-1999 Shalwitz looked for a new home for the theatre.
“We were at, as an institution, at a really strong point,” explains Shalwitz. The only remaining co-founder (the others had left after some years) found a space on the 7th street corridor.
Lots of people wanted that space, but Shalwitz did not want to give it up because it was perfect.
“We ended up being on the winning team. Lots of people wanted the space. I thought, lets put all our eggs in one basket,” says Shalwitz.
In May 2005, after four years of building and planning, they moved into the new theatre, which is where they are today. The building is much larger than their last one. The new building looks like a “pick your own path” story. There are iron-rod staircases all over the buildings, making it seem as if the audience can go any direction they choose. There are also multiple theatres within the one building. One theatre is a simple black box, folded chairs sit on risers. Another theatre is in the Shakespearean style; the audience sits on top of the performers in box seats that circle almost all the way around the stage. There are many different paths that an audience member can go down.
With the new space came new growth and the space has challenged Shalwitz and the rest of the team to do even better than before.
“Since we’ve moved here we haven’t done small plays. What I mean by that is intellectually small plays. There’s got to be something of substance to respond to. I’m not saying it wasn’t true before. It’s more true now,” says Shalwitz his arms spread out over the table, as if trying to make a visual of the theatre’s growth.
The next show that Woolly Mammoth Theatre is producing is called House of Gold and tackles the issue of child beauty queens. The show focuses on JonBenet Ramsey and what the adults of the world made her into.
Even though Woolly Mammoth is 31, Shalwitz still says the theatre is being worked on and improved. There is a need to always be ahead of the needs of the audience.
“It’s sort of like you’re always founding a theatre,” says Shalwitz. “I think it is a standard mantra we want to be one step ahead of the audience, but not two. It’s a needle we’re trying to thread.”
Miriam Weisfeld, Director of New Play Development at Woolly, explains that Shalwitz not only is always continually founding the theatre, but he’s always trying to see what is on the horizon for Woolly Mammoth.
“He is a restless tinkerer, he is never satisfied. He is most interested in how we can do better. We are like sharks here [at Woolly Mammoth]. We have to keep going or we die. That is from Howard.”
The next contribution that Shalwitz is going to be making is as a director. Shalwitz will be directing Clybourne Park this coming July. Shalwitz has directed this play before and the original cast will be coming back to perform this summer.
“I’m in the rehearsal hall with a lot of people I know which is pure bliss,” says Shalwitz.
There is still more for Shalwitz in the future, a world other than Woolly Mammoth. Shalwitz is contemplating looking at new projects that do not involve the theatre he founded 31 years ago. It could be the book he is currently writing about the work he has done or maybe he might go into teaching.
“I think that right now, I want to figure out how to enlarge my contribution to the world other than Woolly Mammoth,” not that it would mean leaving, assures Shalwitz.
“I guess I’m trying to figure out how to take that next step, something broader than Woolly Mammoth. I liked to figure out what that next step is.”
For right now Shalwitz is staying where his, a self proclaimed provocateur of the theatre. Always asking the hardest questions and trying to meet the needs of the public.
“I’m sort of a pain in the neck,” Shalwitz says with a chuckle.
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