[Capdist-announce] FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: WAM Theatre Announces Fresh Takes Season

[Gail Burns]

March 17, 2015

Contact: Gail Burns, Marketing and Publicity Associate

www.wamtheatre.com <http://www.wamtheatre.com/#_blank>

pr at wamtheatre.com <pr at wamtheatre.com#_blank>; 518.243.9627

Press Photos can be found at:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/
<https://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/sets/72157648698789976/#_blank>


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WAM Theatre Announces Second Series of Fresh Takes Staged Readings

Lenox, MA [March 17, 2015] - WAM Theatre is excited to announce the line-up
for its second season of Fresh Takes Staged Readings at No. Six Depot
Roastery and Café in West Stockbridge. The first series last year sold out
all five readings, and whetted the appetites of area audiences for more
professional readings of plays that explore the lives and experiences of
women and girls. Each reading is followed by a talkback with the actors and
directors.

WAM Artistic Associate Molly Clancy is curating the 2015 series. “The Fresh
Takes readings are very intimate in the wonderful art gallery space at No.
Six Depot,” Clancy explained, “So the post-show discussion are very
conversational, like a book club. We really want to create that dialogue
with our audience and get to know them better. And we want to show them
what kind of theatre WAM produces, even during months when we don’t have a
major production scheduled.”

All of this year’s plays were penned by living, female playwrights and
include the 2012 Pulitzer Prize winner Water by the Spoonful by Quiara
Alegría Hudes, and Silence by Moira Buffini, which earned the Susan Smith
Blackburn Prize for best English-language play by a woman. The June
reading, Noms de Guerre, will be part of the Lift Ev’ry Voice Festival and
playwright Jacqueline E. Lawton will be in the Berkshires to participate.

This season Clancy has selected plays that have had successful productions
or readings elsewhere, but are new to the Berkshire audience. “These plays
tell stories that are relevant, provocative, and contemporary. This is also
a way for WAM to test out plays we are considering for the future, which is
exciting for our audience to get a ‘sneak peek’ and offer their feedback.”

Another focus of the Fresh Takes series is to feature local actors and
directors, artists audiences have grown to love on area stages over the
years. The series opens on April 19 with popular actress Tod Randolph
directing Silence, and in June stage and film star Jayne Atkinson will be
directing Noms de Guerre. 2014 Fresh Takes curator Kelly Galvin will
direct Three
Tall Girls by Meg Miroshnik in May; Clancy herself will take the
directorial reins on Water by the Spoonful in August, and WAM Artistic
Director Kristen van Ginhoven will direct the final Fresh Takes offering, The
Effect by Lucy Prebble, in September

Fresh Takes Staged Readings

Fresh Takes, WAM Theatre’s play-reading series held in the gallery space at
No. Six Depot Roastery and Café, 6 Depot St., West Stockbridge, MA, on the
following Sundays at 3 pm: April 19, May 17, June 14, August 16, and
September 13.

Curated by WAM Theatre’s Artistic Associate Molly Clancy, Fresh Takes will
give a stage to ground-breaking works – which have been successfully
presented elsewhere but are new to our Berkshire audiences - that tell
women's stories. Featuring local established and emerging actors and
directors, the series will explore the work of provocative contemporary
voices.

There are only 25 tickets available per reading. Tickets are $20, which
includes a post-show discussion and the opportunity to meet the cast and
director. Refreshments will be available for purchase at No. Six Depot
Roastery and Café. See www.WAMTheatre.com for more information.

Information on all five shows is below, for the casting breakdown and more
information visit:
http://www.wamtheatre.com/fresh-takes-casting-breakdown-2015/

April 19, 2015

Silence

by Moira Buffini

directed by Tod Randolph


A bride and groom forge a pact to keep a secret in this dark comedy where
Shakespeare's cross dressers meet Monty Python's blithering knights. At the
end of the first millennium, Princess Ymma of Normandy was forced by
England's King Ethelred to marry a young Viking, Lord Silence of Cumbria.
The events conspire to send them dashing through the mud of England fleeing
an enraged despot's murderous rampage. Winner of a Susan Smith Blackburn
Prize and sparkling with deliberate clashes of period and style, WAM
Theatre embarks on a journey of power, identity, gender and desire.

May 17, 2015

The Tall Girls

by Meg Miroshnik

directed by Kelly Galvin


Welcome to Poor Prairie, the dusty, desolate town where
fifteen-and-a-half-year-old Jean has been exiled as caretaker for her
wild-child cousin, Almeda. It’s a grim, dangerous place to eke out an
existence as a teenage girl—until an out-of-towner arrives with a brand-new
basketball in tow. As the town’s girls come together to form a team set on
making it out of Poor Prairie, a murky committee of townspeople threatens
to stamp out girls' sports altogether. Written by award-winning playwright
Meg Miroshnik this play dramatizes issues important to the WAM Theatre
community; the fight for class, education and gender equality.

June 14, 2015

Part of the Lift E’vry Voice Festival

Noms de Guerre

by Jacqueline E. Lawton

directed by Jayne Atkinson


Mira is a rising star in the Republican Party, but her campaign against
reproductive rights puts her at odds with her best friend, Jude, an
award-winning journalist. When Jude discovers that Mira’s war hero husband
Douglas is linked to a massacre of Afghan civilians, Mira is thrown into a
whirlwind of political intrigue and must decide whether to hold on to her
career or save her husband. WAM Theatre presents this haunting, lyrical and
passionate story nominated for a 2014 Kilroy, and written by Jacqueline E.
Lawton who was named one of the top 30 national leading black playwrights
by Arena Stage’s American Voices New Play Institute.

August 16, 2015

Water by the Spoonful

by Quiara Alegría Hudes

directed by Molly Clancy


Somewhere in Philadelphia, Elliot has returned from Iraq and is struggling
to find his place in the world. Somewhere in a chat room, recovering
addicts keep each other alive, hour by hour, day by day. The boundaries of
family and community are stretched across continents and cyberspace, birth
families splinter and online families collide. A winner of the 2012
Pulitzer Prize, WAM Theatre invites the Berkshire audience to partake in
this artful and heartfelt meditation on life on the brink of redemption.

September 13, 2015

The Effect

by Lucy Prebble

directed by Kristen van Ginhoven


In this clinical romance two young volunteers, Tristan and Connie, agree to
take part in an experimental drug trial. Succumbing to the gravitational
pull of attraction and love they manage to throw the trial off-course, much
to the frustration of the clinicians involved. This funny, moving and
perhaps surprisingly human play explores questions of sanity, neurology and
the limits of medicine. WAM Theatre presents this vibrant theatrical
exploration of fate, loyalty and the inevitability of physical attraction.
Written by Lucy Prebble, a finalist for the 2013-2014 Susan Smith Blackburn
Prize, the play garnered the Critics' Circle Award for Best Play.

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 to create professional theatrical events for everyone, with a
focus on women theatre artists and/or stories of women and girls.

WAM Theatre also has a philanthropic mission, inspired by the book Half the
Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas
Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, and donates a portion of the proceeds from its
theatrical events to organizations that benefit women and girls.

Over the past five years, WAM Theatre has donated more than $15,000 to
seven nonprofit organizations and provided paid work to more than 100
theatre artists. In addition to the main stage productions and special
events, WAM Theatre’s activities include a comprehensive educational
outreach program and the Fresh Takes Play Reading Series. For more
information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com <http://www.wamtheatre.com/>

# # #

-- 
Gail M. Burns

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

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

*Thank you for your support!*
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