<div dir="ltr"><div style="text-align:right">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</div><div style="text-align:right">Contact: Kristen van Ginhoven Artistic Director, WAM Theatre</div><div style="text-align:right"><a href="http://www.wamtheatre.com">www.wamtheatre.com</a></div>
<div style="text-align:right"><a href="mailto:kristen@wamtheatre.com">kristen@wamtheatre.com</a>; 518 243 9627</div><div style="text-align:right">Press Photos can be found at:</div><div style="text-align:right"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/sets/72157633357363354">http://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/sets/72157633357363354</a> </div>
<div> </div><div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><b>WAM Theatre announces fall production: <i>In Darfur</i> by Winter Miller</b></div><div style="text-align:center"><br></div><div style="text-align:center"><i>Fifth season benefit celebration, Change Makers, on August 24, includes a sneak peek of In Darfur and a panel discussion with the author and other award-winning artist/activists. </i></div>
<div><br></div><div>LEE, MA (8/06/14) – As WAM (Women’s Action Movement) Theatre prepares to celebrate its fifth season at the August 24 Change Makers benefit, artistic director Kristen van Ginhoven has announced that this year’s fall production will be the New England premiere of <i>In Darfur</i>.</div>
<div><br></div><div><i>In Darfur</i> is the provocative account of three intertwined lives at a camp for internally displaced persons. The story follows an aid worker’s mission to save and protect lives, a journalist’s pursuit to deliver a front page story, and a Darfuri woman’s quest for safety. It is a searing story of urgency and international significance.</div>
<div><br></div><div><i>In Darfur</i>’s author, <b>Winter Miller</b>, will participate in the panel discussion that is the cornerstone of WAM Theatre’s fifth season benefit celebration, Change Makers, taking place on August 24 at 7 pm at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. In addition to the panel discussion with Miller and other extraordinary artists who seek to create positive social change through their work, the event will also include a sneak peek at In Darfur and the announcement of the beneficiary of this year’s philanthropic donation. </div>
<div><br></div><div>After five years of producing plays and donating more than $10,500 to organizations that help women and girls, van Ginhoven says the time is right to select a play for the fall production that deals more directly with the issues WAM Theatre was founded to address. “I have loved <i>In Darfur</i> for four years, since I met Winter and she sent it to me, but I was scared to step up and produce such a challenging work of theatre. I have always said that I don’t have the resilience to be one of those people on the front lines, that what I can do is create an entertaining, intellectually stimulating and imaginative evening in the theatre to benefit those who do confront the serious issues head-on. This year, many different events have come together to make this the story we must tell with our fall production. I have every confidence that our audience will receive this relevant story with enthusiasm.” </div>
<div><br></div><div>Van Ginhoven was inspired to create WAM Theatre after reading the book “Half the Sky” by New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. Miller’s drama In Darfur was inspired by what she saw as Kristof’s researcher at the start of the genocide in Darfur in 2004. After winning the 2006 "Two-Headed Challenge" commission from the Guthrie Theater and the Playwrights’ Center, Miller traveled with Kristof to villages and refugee camps along the Chad/Sudan border. In Darfur premiered at The Public Theater in Manhattan for a sold-out run; a subsequent staged reading in the Public's 1800-seat Delacorte Theater in Central Park – a first for a play by a woman – drew a standing-room-only crowd. </div>
<div><br></div><div>WAM Theatre’s production of <i>In Darfur</i>, scheduled for October 30-November 16, will be the play’s New England premiere. It will be presented at the Berry Family Studio (Studio 3) in the Elayne P. Bernstein Center at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, MA. Tickets will go on sale September 1 on the Shakespeare & Company website at <a href="http://www.tickets.shakespeare.org">www.tickets.shakespeare.org</a>.</div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Four exceptional artist/activists on the August 24 Change Makers panel.</b> </div><div><br></div><div><b>Miller</b>, a founding member of the Obie-recognized collective 13 Playwrights, whose other plays include The Penetration Play, The Arrival, Paternity, Amandine, and Seed, will be joined by three other extraordinary, award-winning artist/activists on the August 24 Change Makers panel, all of whom promote social justice and human rights through their work: </div>
<div><br></div><div>Berkshire-based filmmaker <b>Cynthia Wade</b>, who is now producing the Hollywood feature film adaptation of her 2008 Academy-Award-winning documentary Freeheld, has garnered more than 45 film awards worldwide for her work, which also includes Monday’s at Racine and Selfie.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Longtime National Geographic photographer <b>John Stanmeyer</b> has been recognized with every major honor for photojournalism, including the Robert Capa, NPPA, and National Magazine, and World Press awards.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Playwright/author/actor <b>Jessica Blank</b>, whose play The Exonerated (co-written with Erik Jensen), based on interviews with wrongly convicted death row inmates, won multiple prestigious theater awards, and who followed up with the drama Aftermath, based on interviews with Iraqi civilian refugees, has several television projects in development as well as roles in four films coming out this year.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Van Ginhoven will engage the panelists in a discussion exploring art as a means to address social justice. The panelists will discuss their perspectives on the role of artist as activist and share stories of the challenges they have faced while taking on daunting issues at home and across the world. In addition to this dynamic panel discussion, the Change Makers benefit celebration will also include a sneak peek of In Darfur, the announcement of the beneficiary of this year’s philanthropic donation, and an onstage reception for top-level ticket holders.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Says van Ginhoven, “As an organization whose aims are to effect positive change through theatre, I couldn’t be more excited that this fifth season benefit celebration will showcase extraordinary artists striving to make the world a better place. Given the experience and caliber of the panelists, we are looking forward to sharing a meaningful and inspirational evening with our audience. This important discussion will pave the way perfectly for our fall production of<i> In Darfur</i>, which, as Oskar Eustis of the Public Theatre notes, is a theatrical offering that is also a call to arms.”</div>
<div><br></div><div>Tickets to Change Makers, a panel discussion and benefit celebration of WAM Theatre’s fifth season, can be purchased in person or by calling the Mahaiwe box office at 413.528.0100 or at <a href="http://www.mahaiwe.org">www.mahaiwe.org</a></div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Change Makers</b>, WAM Theatre’s fifth season celebration, benefit, and panel discussion on creating positive change through the arts, hosted by Jayne Atkinson. </div><div><br></div><div><b>Date & Time</b></div>
<div>Sunday, August 24 at 7 pm </div><div><br></div><div><b>Location</b></div><div>The Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA</div><div><b> </b></div><div><b>Ticket prices</b></div><div>Premium seating:<span class="" style="white-space:pre"> </span></div>
<div>Gold: $125; includes post-show reception with the artists/panelists on the Mahaiwe stage.</div><div>Silver: $75; includes $25 donation to WAM Theatre’s education program.</div><div>Reserved seating: $50</div><div>Tickets can be purchased online at <a href="http://www.mahaiwe.org">www.mahaiwe.org</a>, in person or by calling the box office at 413.528.0100. </div>
<div><br></div><div><b>Lead sponsors</b></div><div>Berkshire Magazine; Cohen Kinne Valicenti Cook, Attorneys; Greylock Federal Credit Union; Gogel & Gogel Law Firm</div><div><b><br></b></div><div><b>Additional sponsors</b></div>
<div>Blue Q; Canyon Ranch; Cohen + White Associates; John Gotterer; DMD, Nina Molin, MD; Lenox Village Integrative Pharmancy; Rogovoy Report; Rook Wood Inn; Rouge Restaurant & Bistro. Fifth season events also partially supported by the Alford-Egremont, Pittsfield, Otis and Stockbridge Cultural Councils.</div>
<div><br></div><div><b>About WAM Theatre</b></div><div>Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, WAM (Women’s Action Movement) Theatre was co-founded in 2010 by Canadian director, actor, educator, and producer Kristen van Ginhoven, who was inspired to take action by the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. WAM Theatre’s philanthropic mission is two-fold: first, to create theatrical events for everyone, with a focus on women theatre artists and/or stories of women and girls; and second, to donate a portion of the proceeds from those events to organizations that benefit women and girls. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Over the past five years, WAM Theatre has donated more than $10,500 to six nonprofit organizations that help women and girls, and provided paid work to more than 100 theatre artists. In its fifth year, artistic director van Ginhoven has expanded WAM Theatre’s activities to include more performances in various venues, including educational outreach and the new Fresh Takes Play Reading Series at Six Depot Roastery and Café in West Stockbridge. For more information, visit <a href="http://www.WAMTheatre.com">www.WAMTheatre.com</a></div>
<div><br></div><div style="text-align:center"># # # # #</div><div><div dir="ltr">Kristen van Ginhoven<div><i>Artistic Director</i></div><div>WAM Theatre<br></div><div><div>518-243-9627</div><div><br>Celebrating our Fifth Season!</div>
<div><br></div><div>Check out the newly redesigned website: <a href="http://www.wamtheatre.com" target="_blank">www.WAMTheatre.com</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>Up Next: </div><div>August 18/<i>Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England</i>- <a href="http://www.wamtheatre.com/fresh-takes/" target="_blank">Fresh Takes Play Reading Series</a></div>
<div>August 24/<i>Changes Makers- </i><a href="http://www.wamtheatre.com/summer-benefit-2014/" target="_blank">Five Year Celebration Benefit Event</a></div><div><div><br><div><a href="http://www.wamtheatre.com/donate/" target="_blank">Click here</a> to make a secure donation to WAM Theatre</div>
<div><br><i>Thank you for your support!</i></div></div><div><br></div></div></div></div></div>
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