The relatively young class of diverse leaders steering D.C.’s top theaters through a treacherous time for the arts has its newest face: Reggie D. White, whose résumé spans acting, directing and playwriting in addition to in-office leadership, will be Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company’s new artistic director. He’ll assume the role this spring.
The appointment comes after White’s predecessor, Maria Manuela Goyanes, announced her departure in March for New York’s Lincoln Center Theatre. Goyanes, whose seven-year tenure led Woolly through the pandemic and to its first Tony Award (for “A Strange Loop,” in 2022), was only its second artistic director. Howard Shalwitz led Woolly for nearly four decades after co-founding the company in 1980, and built its reputation for bold and risk-taking work.
White, 38, is relatively new to D.C., but not exactly a stranger: He comes from Arena Stage, where artistic director Hana S. Sharif brought him on as second-in-command when she took over in 2023. (The two previously worked together in a similar capacity at Repertory Theatre of St. Louis.) His play “Fremont Ave.” about three generations of Black men — which this paper called “sharp-eyed and heartfelt” — concludes there this week.
White’s job title at Arena — senior director of artistic strategy and impact — reflects a bit of buzzword gymnastics: He did not previously want to be on track to become an artistic director. “Having worked at a large legacy institution in D.C. and seeing the shifts in culture and audience patterns and the political upheaval, the constraints felt nearly impossible to deal with,” White said by phone.
Interviewing for the gig seems to have changed his mind. A nine-person search committee that included board members and senior staff narrowed down more than 120 applicants to a final four. “They were unromantic about the challenges,” White said of Woolly’s leadership, a clarity that ultimately excited him for the problem-solving ahead.
Finances for the institution, which has an annual budget of $6 million, are relatively stable, largely thanks to a recent $2 million gift from the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. But like many arts organizations, Woolly is navigating funding gaps under the Trump administration, rising costs and the challenge of getting ticket buyers through the door.
“We’ve been trying to be as nimble as possible,” said managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, noting that a round of layoffs occurred last fall. Douglas added, “I feel really excited to build a co-leadership model that will make sure D.C. artists are prioritized and that Woolly Mammoth can really lean into the legacy that Howard and Maria laid such a beautiful foundation for, and to see how Reggie brings his take to it.”
Under White’s stewardship, audiences can expect to see more of what the theater is known for: regional and world premieres of provocative new plays, plus occasional revivals of familiar ones. White said he’s not likely to act onstage (he made his Broadway debut in 2019, as an understudy in Matthew López’s “The Inheritance”), but looks forward to directing and using Woolly as a launchpad for his playwriting. The first full season he’ll program will begin in the fall of 2027.
Sharif praised White by phone as “visionary leader with a deep understanding of the complexity of the field” well equipped for a “moment of evolution and transition” in the industry. White will join Sharif, Karen Ann Daniels at Folger Theatre, Reginald L. Douglas at Mosaic Theater and whoever succeeds Studio Theatre’s outgoing artistic director David Muse in a fresh class of leadership at D.C. theaters — at a time when programming diverse stories could make any one of them a target.
“It can be very tempting for institutions with a little more flexibility in their mission to program things that are safe. But safety is explicitly not in the mission of Woolly,” White said, adding, “Being a Black queer man, it will be dangerous to be the front face of a theatrical institution in the nation’s capital committed to taking risks.” Under White and Douglas, Woolly will be a rare major arts institution led by two Black executives.
White, who grew up moving between Southern California and New Orleans, thought he might be a lawyer before taking his first theater class (he wrote a paper on Woolly Mammoth while studying at California State University, East Bay). He has worked as an actor in the Bay Area and in New York, where he also served for two years as artistic director of the Atlantic Acting School. He has written and directed theater regionally and off-Broadway, including as a resident artist at Vineyard Theatre, where he co-conceived an acclaimed piece about Nikki Giovanni and James Baldwin.
White said he’s interested in plays that spark curiosity and optimism rather than dwell on collective rage. “There’s something very powerful about allowing people to laugh their way to a solution,” White said. But don’t expect Woolly to pivot to pleasant crowd-pleasers. White added, “If people leave the theater and say, ‘Oh, that was really nice,’ then I failed.”
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