Big news in DC theater: after an eight-month search, the Woolly Mammoth Theatre company has found its replacement for longtime artistic director Howard Shalwitz, the venue’s cofounder who announced he was leaving last June. Maria Manuela Goyanes, now director of producing and artistic planning at New York’s Public Theater, will take the reins this September, Woolly Mammoth announced Thursday.
Goyanes has been at the Public Theater since 2004, where she’s helped produce a variety of acclaimed plays, including Hamilton, which debuted there in 2015, and more recently, the Washington-focused Kings. She currently oversees the daily production of all five of Public’s stages, and also holds faculty positions at both Juilliard and New York University.
“To lead Woolly Mammoth—one of the most radical, inclusive, and vanguard theaters in the country—is the opportunity of a lifetime,” said Goyanes in a press release. “Howard Shalwitz is a true visionary, and I am honored to build upon his founding legacy of artistic rigor, thoughtful experimentation, and field-wide innovation.”
