[Capdist-announce] Fwd: PR: WAM Theatre's 'In Darfur' to be a powerful, immersive experience

[Gail Burns]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Gail Burns, Marketing and Publicity Associate

www.wamtheatre.com

pr at wamtheatre.com; 518.243.9627

Press Photos can be found at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/sets/72157648406784701/

*WAM Theatre's fifth-year production delivers a powerful, immersive
experience. *

*Previews begin October 30*

LEE, MA (10/14/14) – WAM Theatre emerged five years ago with a mission to
make a powerful impact on the lives of women, both locally and globally.
Now, for her fifth annual fall production, artistic director Kristen van
Ginhoven has selected a play that lives up to the company’s mission. The
New England premiere of *In Darfur*, by Winter Miller, will be a
no-holds-barred theatrical event. Tickets are now available through
Shakespeare & Company, where the play will run from October 30 – November
16 in the Berry Family Studio. Opening night, Saturday, November 1, is
already sold out. *Press performance is Sunday, November 2 at 2:30. RSVP
required. *

*In Darfur* is the compelling, provocative tale of three lives that
intersect in the most challenging of circumstances: a camp for internally
displaced persons. The story follows the mission to protect lives by an aid
worker (Rich Lounello), the quest for safety of a Darfuri woman (Sipiwe
Moyo) along with her struggle to maintain her dignity, and the dogged
pursuit of a journalist (Tricia Alexandro) to deliver a front-page story
that will focus the world’s attention on a humanitarian crisis.Timely,
moving, and laced with unexpected humor,* In Darfur* is a journey of
courage and humanity in the face of peril.

Van Ginhoven and her team have orchestrated a multifaceted dramatic event
that breaks down theatre’s fourth wall. “We are creating a world and
dropping the audience into it,” she says. “That is why we are presenting
this production in the Berry Family Studio at Shakespeare & Company, a
black-box space that we can transform into the desert, a refugee camp, a
Darfuri village. By putting the audience into this world, we all become
part of the story. This immersive approach helps achieve Winter's aim of
having this play stay with audiences longer than the duration of the
performance. It invites us accept the invitation to be uncomfortable, as
well as allows us to find relief in the comical moments, as humor in dire
circumstances is a necessity. We hope this theatrical experience will
result in greater empathy and inquisitiveness about what's going on around
us in the world."

WAM Theatre’s production of *In Darfur* will be enhanced by an Audience
Engagement Series consisting of an on-site art exhibit and post-show
conversation with different guest speakers each night, all designed to
create the opportunity for a deeper exploration of the issues surrounding
this play.

The art exhibit will feature an intimate look at the production's
beneficiary, Mother of Peace Orphanage in Illovo, South Africa, and the
daily lives of the 13 women who have dedicated their lives to caring for
the 81 children in the orphanage. In keeping with its mission to benefit
organizations that help women and girls, WAM has selected these 13 women to
receive this year’s philanthropic donation of 25% of box office proceeds
from *In Darfur*. In addition, the art exhibit will feature the work of
several other artists of local and global renown, all with a core theme of
social justice, women’s rights and gender equality. The photo exhibition
literally gives a human face to WAM Theatre’s philanthropy.

In an attempt to contextualize the intensity of *In Darfur*, following each
performance, speakers immersed in topics raised by the play – such as
journalistic ethics, the limits of NGOs and aid agencies, life in a refugee
camp, the impact of genocide on women, and rape as a weapon of war – will
engage the audience in a conversation to parse these issues.

More information about the Audience Engagement Series will be announced
shortly.

A critically relevant drama, *In Darfur* is informed by Winter Miller’s
first-hand experience in a refugee camp on the Chad border as a researcher
for New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof during the Darfuri genocide.
This thought-provoking play premiered at The Public Theater in Manhattan
for a three-week sold-out run. A subsequent one-night-only 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. Says Pulitzer
Prize-winner Kristof, “It’s incredibly powerful… It’s based on a real case
in Darfur’s Kalma camp that I once reported on... (Winter) turned it into
this great play and it both shined a spotlight on Darfur and, in a broader
sense, other humanitarian disasters. It’s an excellent, poignant play.”

That Miller worked for Kristof is just one element that makes *In Darfur*
the right play at the right time. Van Ginhoven was inspired to create WAM
Theatre after reading *Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity*,
written by Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. The Pulitzer Prize-winning
husband-and-wife team has just released their follow-up book,* A Path
Appears*, about how to take action, just as van Ginhoven did five years ago
in creating WAM Theatre. On October 16, Kristof will deliver the 2014
Hardman Lecture at MCLA in North Adams, and van Ginhoven is bringing the
cast and crew of In Darfur to meet the man who motivated her to turn her
theatrical avocation to activism.

*In Darfur* is WAM Theatre’s most challenging and ambitious production to
date. Says van Ginhoven, “This fall I have chosen a play that scares me as
both director and producer, a play that faces head-on the issues that our
beneficiaries are working so hard to take action against. I have loved this
play for four years, since I met Winter and she sent it to me. It takes on
serious issues that are extremely relevant given the turmoil in the world
today, and, in Winter’s unique style, injects the humor that is so
necessary for survival. In the past I’ve been hesitant to produce a play
that has genocide as its backdrop for fear that tickets won’t sell. Over
time I’ve learned that our audiences are intelligent, caring, and involved.
We look forward to taking this dramatic journey with them.”

WAM Theatre’s New England premiere of *In Darfur* runs from October 30
through November 16 at Shakespeare & Company’s Berry Family Studio in the
Elayne P. Bernstein Center. Previews are October 30 & 31; opening night –
Saturday, November 1 – is sold out. Tickets are available for purchase in
person or by phone at the Shakespeare & Co. box office: 413-637-3353.
Tickets are also available at www.tickets.shakespeare.org with a per ticket
charge of $4.50 for online purchases.

*Quick Facts*
*In Darfur*, a play by Winter Miller, will receive its New England premiere
as WAM Theatre’s fifth annual fall production.

*Theatrical Run*

October 30 – November 16, 2014
Previews: Thursday, October 30 & Friday October 31, 7 pm
Opening night: Saturday, November 1, 7 pm [SOLD OUT]
Sunday, November 2, 2:30 pm
Friday, November 7, 7 pm
Saturday, November 8, 7 pm
Sunday, November 9, 7pm
Friday, November 14, 7pm
Saturday, November 15, 7pm
Sunday, November 16, 2:30pm

*Location*

Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Center, in the Berry Family
Studio (Studio 3), 70 Kemble Street, Lenox, MA, 01240

*Tickets*
Price: $15 - $40

Tickets can be purchased in person or by phone at the Shakespeare & Co. box
office: 413-637-3353.

Tickets are also available at www.tickets.shakespeare.org with a per ticket
charge of $4.50 for online purchases.

*Philanthropic beneficiary*

In keeping with WAM Theatre's double philanthropic mission, 25% of the box
office proceeds from this production will be donated to the Mother of Peace
Orphanage in Illovo, South Africa, where 13 women have dedicated their
lives to raising children who have lost their families. By selecting Mother
of Peace as this year’s philanthropic beneficiary, WAM Theatre honors and
celebrates the selfless dedication and important work of these women.

*Production sponsors*

Producer sponsor: Greylock Federal Credit Union
Lead partners, *In Darfur* Audience Engagement Series: Berkshire Bank, and
Garden Gables Inn.
Leader sponsors: Interprint and Pittsfield Cooperative Bank.
Patron sponsors: Adams Community Bank, Customs Business Solutions and Red
Lion Inn.
Supporter sponsors: Abbie von Schlegell, Regina Burgio and Dr. Jay Wise,
DDS.
Media sponsors: Berkshire Magazine and the Rogovoy Report.
Fifth-season events also partially supported by the Alford-Egremont,
Pittsfield, Otis, and Stockbridge Cultural councils.

*About WAM Theatre*

Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, WAM 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.

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
TakesPlay Reading Series at Six Depot Roastery and Café in West
Stockbridge. For more information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com

*About Shakespeare & Company*

Located in The Berkshires of Western Massachusetts, Shakespeare & Company
is one of the largest Shakespeare Festivals in the country, founded in 1978
by Tina Packer.  The organization attracts more than 60,000 patrons
annually, with a core of over 150 artists and more than 30 full-time staff.
The Company develops and performs Shakespeare, classics, contemporary, and
new plays of social and political significance, generating opportunities
for collaboration between actors, directors and designers of all races,
nationalities and backgrounds. Shakespeare & Company embraces the core
values of Shakespeare’s work: collaboration, commitment to language,
visceral experience and classical ideals, expressed with physical prowess
and an embodied contemporary voice.

The Company offers one of the most extensive actor training programs by a
regional theatre in the country, where professionals from all over the
world come to train with the Organization known for its original, in-depth,
classical training and performance methods. Shakespeare & Company is also
home to an award-winning and nationally recognized theatre-in-education
program, one of the largest in the Northeast; it reaches more than 45,000
students annually with innovative performances, workshops and residencies.
For more information, please visit www.shakespeare.org.

# #  # # #




-- 
-- 
Gail M. Burns

*Marketing + Publicity Associate*
WAM Theatre
413-458-4246
gail at WAMTheatre.com
WAMTheatre.com <http://www.wamtheatre.com>

Celebrating our Fifth Season!

Up Next:
October 30-November 16- *In Darfur <http://www.wamtheatre.com/in-darfur/>*

Click here <http://www.wamtheatre.com/donate/> to make a secure donation to
WAM Theatre
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