[Capdist-announce] PRESS RELEASE: WAM Theatre Announces Audience Enrichment Offerings for Bakelite Masterpiece

[Gail Burns]

September 21, 2016

Contact: Gail Burns, Marketing and Publicity Associate

www.wamtheatre.com

pr at wamtheatre.com; 518.243.9627

Press Photos can be found at:

http://gallery.berkshiretheatre.org/main.php


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WAM Theatre Announces Audience Enrichment Offerings for Bakelite Masterpiece

Lenox, MA [September 21, 2016] -  Thanks to a grant from Mass Humanities,
WAM Theatre is able to offer a comprehensive audience enrichment program
around their upcoming co-production with the Berkshire Theatre Group of The
Bakelite Masterpiece by Kate Cayley and directed by WAM Artistic Director
Kristen van Ginhoven. These include post-show conversations with the
playwright and other notable scholars, program notes, and a lobby display
and resource list exploring Truth and Reconciliation from World War II to
today, along with a subsidized ticket program.

“The Bakelite Masterpiece explores the themes of humanity's ever-present
need for justice and our search for truth,” van Ginhoven explained. “And so
the aim of our audience enrichment program is to promote critical,
reasoned, and open-minded discussions of the basic values around truth and
reconciliation that are at stake both in the play and in our world today.”

The play is set at the end of World War II. Holland is in chaos. The artist
Han van Meegeren is arrested. His crime? Selling a long-lost painting by
the Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer to Hermann Goering, Nazi leader. His
defense? It was a perfect forgery painted by him. His proof? In front of
his prosecutor, art historian and resistance fighter Geert Piller, he must
paint another flawless Vermeer to save his life. A play that debates
beauty, faith, memory, and the reconstruction of a country. The cast
features Corinna May and David Adkins.

Program Notes

The primary scholar on this project is Brenda Oppermann, a senior advisor
for military and civilian organizations working primarily on issues
concerning international peace and conflict. She is currently a Visiting
Professor at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M
University. She lives in the Berkshires when not traveling for work. The
production playbill will include program notes written by Oppermann giving
an overview of formal and informal Truth and Reconciliation efforts
throughout the world since World War II, and how humanity’s ever-present
need for justice has influenced the success and failure of these efforts.

Post-Show Conversations

There will be a facilitated post-show conversation after each weekend
matinee and a couple of the evening performances to promote open discussion
of the larger issues around Truth and Reconciliation directly affecting our
community. The conversations will dive into what Truth and Reconciliation
means to us today and what it asks of us. The conversations will be
moderated by van Ginhoven and WAM Education Coordinator Alicia Maher, and
will feature Brenda Oppermann and the playwright Kate Cayley, as well as
other community members.

These conversations will provide a space for the audience to share their
thoughts, engage with the issues around Truth and Reconciliation embedded
in the play and how they relate to our responsibilities as citizens.

Post-Show Conversation Schedule:

Sunday, October 2, following the 2pm matinee:

Kate Cayley, playwright

Thursday, October 6, following the 7pm performance:

David Adkins and Corinna May, actors

Saturday, October 8, following the 2pm matinee:

David Adkins and Corinna May, actors

Sunday, October 9, following the 2pm matinee:

Adriana Millenaar Brown, author of An Unlikely Hero: Adrianus Millenaar
Dutch Farmer Turned Diplomat in World War II Europe

Friday, October 14, following the 7pm performance:

Brenda Oppermann, scholar

Saturday, October 15, following the 2pm performance:

Brenda Oppermann, scholar

Sunday, October 16, following the 2pm performance:

Representatives from the Berkshire Commission on the Status of Women

Julia Courtney, Curator of Art, Springfield Museum

Saturday, October 22, following the 2pm performance:

Designers of The Bakelite Masterpiece

Sunday, October 23, following the 2pm closing performance:

Artist Suzi Banks Baum and Brooke Mead of the Berkshire Immigrant Center,
WAM’s beneficiaries for The Bakelite Masterpiece. Ms Baum and Ms. Mead will
speak about their respective projects and how WAM’s donation will be used
to further the impact of their work. The check presentation of WAM’s
donation will follow. To learn more about the 2016 Beneficiaries, visit:
http://www.wamtheatre.com/the-bakelite-masterpiece/

Resource List

A suggested reading list will be included in the playbill. Oppermann and
Cayley have selected five resources - books, websites, or articles - which
provide audience members with opportunities for further personal
research around
Truth and Reconciliation.

Lobby Display

In the lobby of the theatre, there will be a larger visual display of
Oppermann’s program notes. Oppermann has also gathered the information for
a visual timeline of examples of Truth and Reconciliation efforts prior to
and after the time period of the play.

Subsidized Ticket Program

As in past years, a portion of this grant allows WAM Theatre to offer
subsidized tickets to our partner organizations, including Berkshire
Immigrant Center, Multicultural BRIDGE, the Rite of Passage and Empowerment
for Girls Program, The Elizabeth Freeman Center, and Moments House. Each
year we reach out to more organizations to ensure all audiences have equal
opportunity to engage with our work, regardless of circumstance.

The Bakelite Masterpiece tickets

Tickets are $50, all preview tickets are $45. Tickets may be purchased in
person at the Colonial Theatre ticket office at 111 South Street,
Pittsfield; by calling  413-997-4444, or online at
www.BerskhireTheatreGroup.org <http://www.berskhiretheatregroup.org>.

Preview performances are scheduled for September 29 and 30. Opening is
October 1st and the play runs through October 23 on the Larry Vaber Stage
at the Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre, 6 East Street,
Stockbridge, MA. Matinees are at 2pm and evening performances are at 7pm.

Production Sponsors: Bobbi Hallig, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Berkshire
Magazine, Furlano & Arace PC, Mass Humanities

Quick Facts

The Bakelite Masterpiece

by Kate Cayley

American Premiere

Co-produced by the Berkshire Theatre Group and WAM Theatre

Previews: September 29–30; Tickets: $45
Opening October 1-October 23; Tickets: $50

At The Unicorn Theatre
The Larry Vaber Stage

6 East Street, Stockbridge, MA

Cast

David Adkins as Han van Meegeren

Corinna May as Geert Piller

Creative Team

Director: Kristen van Ginhoven

Set Design: Juliana von Haubrich

Costume Design: Deborah Brothers

Lighting Design: Lily Fossner

Sound Design: Brad Berridge

About the Playwright: Kate Cayley

KATE CAYLEY (Playwright) WAM Theatre: Debut. Plays: Tarragon Theatre: After
Akhmatova, The Bakelite Masterpiece; Zuppa Theatre: The Archive of Missing
Things; Stranger Theatre: The Yellow Wallpaper Project, The Counterfeit
Marquise, and what Alice found there, The Hanging of Francoise Laurent.
Books: How You Were Born (short stories), The Hangman in the Mirror (young
adult novel), When This World Comes to an End (poetry), Other Houses
(poetry, forthcoming). Training: University of King’s College, Halifax.
Awards: Trillium Book Award, Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction,
finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Fiction, Chalmers Fellowship.
Online: www.katecayley.ca

About the Director: KRISTEN VAN GINHOVEN

WAM Theatre: In Darfur (New England Premiere), Emilie (New England
Premiere), The Old Mezzo (World Premiere), The Attic, The Pearls and Three
Fine Girls and Melancholy Play. Regional Theatre: The Whale (Adirondack
Theatre Festival), 10 Minute Play Festival (Barrington Stage Company),
Petticoats
of Steel (Capital Repertory Theatre), Footloose (Cohoes Music Hall), Children’s
Hour (Siena College), Vendetta Chrome (Emerson College). Selected assistant
directing: The Physicists, 42nd Street (Stratford Shakespeare Festival of
Canada), Two Men of Florence (Huntington Theatre), Sleuth, Absurd Person
Singular (Barrington Stage Company) Training: Dalhousie University (BA),
Queen’s University (BEd), Emerson College (MA). Et Cetera: Kristen is the
Artistic Director of WAM Theatre, an associate member of the Society of
Stage Directors and Choreographers and a theatre artist for the
International Schools Theatre Association. She was a member of the 2013
Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. Website: www.wamtheatre.com

About the Cast

DAVID ADKINS (Han van Meegeren)

WAM Theatre: David is very pleased to be making his WAM debut in Bakelite
Masterpiece. Elsewhere: He is an Artist Associate at BTG and has performed
in over 20 seasons. David made his Broadway debut at the National Actor’s
Theatre, has worked off Broadway numerous times, and has worked extensively
in resident theaters across the country. TV: David has guessed starred
recently on Blacklist, Elementary, The Good Wife, recurred as George on The
Americans, was in the pilot BlaqJaq (dir.Forest Whitaker), the mini-series Ben
Franklin, and others like Happyish, Law and Order, SVU, Trinity, Chicago
Hope. Training: Juilliard.

CORINNA MAY (Geert Piller)

WAM Theatre: 2011 & 2016 24 Hour Theatre Projects. Elsewhere: Shakespeare &
Company  28+ productions including The Unexpected Man, The Memory of Water,
King Lear, A Winter’s Tale, Twelfth Night, Enchanted April, Roman Fever, An
International Episode, Jack and Jill, Betrayal, Fortune and Misfortune,
House of Mirth, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet.
BTF/BTG: Benefactors, Same Time Next Year, Homestead Crossing, Two-headed.
Wharton Salon: The Long Run, Autre Temps. National Tour: The Graduate with
Jerry Hall/Linda Gray/Lorraine Bracco/Kelly McGillis/Morgan Fairchild.
Regional (selected):  Portland Stage Co., Merrimack Rep., Syracuse Stage,
Rep. Theater of St. Louis, Capitol Rep., Studio Arena Theatre. Film: Split
Ends (starring); Rain Without Thunder; Speck’s Last. Television: House of
Cards; Unforgettable; Bourbon Street(pilot); Law & Order; PBS: Evening at
the Pops. Et cetera: Playwright: Dancing with the Czar. Designated
Linklater Voice teacher. Feldenkrais practitioner. Proud to be a union
member: SAG-AFTRA, AEA.

About WAM’s 2016 Beneficiaries

Berkshire Immigrant Center (BIC)

The mission of the Berkshire Immigrant Center (BIC) is to welcome new
immigrants and refugees and to provide them with the tools and services
needed to integrate into the fabric of their new community.  BIC serves 800
immigrants and their families each year. Each year hundreds of thousands of
immigrants seek assistance across the US with humanitarian based
immigration law. These are mostly women and children and what they all have
in common is that they are seeking refuge and protection from violence they
have experienced abroad or even here in the US at the hands of an abuser.
Unfortunately BIC is not funded to assist these clients; they are often
among the most vulnerable and regardless of whether an attorney is involved
or not- often require the most help and are unable to compensate the Center
for our services. They are dedicated to continue helping these women and
their families navigate a path to permanent residence and safety in the US.
WAM’s donation will make it possible for the Berkshire Immigrant Center to
provide this much needed help to these women and their families.

http://berkshireic.com/

Suzi Banks Baum - New Illuminations

Suzi Banks Baum is a writer, artist, actor, teacher, and community
organizer. She is editor and publisher of An Anthology of Babes: 36 Women
Give Motherhood a Voice. She lives in Great Barrington and produces Out of
the Mouths of Babes: An Evening of Mothers Reading to Others for the
Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. In March of 2016, Suzi visited Gyumri,
Armenia interviewing women artists through affiliation with National
Geographic photographer, John Stanmeyer and 4Plus, an Armenian organization
of female documentary photographers. During her visit, Suzi learned that
the cultural expectations of women form a restrictive structure within
which they struggle to include art making in their lives. Giving these
women voice, telling their stories, and empowering them to begin to tell
theirs is essential to enhancing the quality of Armenian women’s lives.
Suzi’s project is blossoming into the New Illuminations residency in Gyumri
in October 2016 to continue interviewing women, and leading a
multidisciplinary workshop to gather stories and teach the artists the
ancient practice of book building.  WAM’s donation will help make this trip
and compensation for the female artists possible.
http://www.suzibanksbaum.com/
https://newilluminations.wordpress.com/

OUR SEASON SPONSORS

WAM Theatre is funded in part by Mass Humanities, which receives support
from the Massachusetts Cultural Council and is an affiliate of the National
Endowment for the Humanities; and by the Massachusetts Cultural Council
Cultural. Our 2016 sponsors include the Adams Community Bank, Berkshire
Bank, Berkshire Magazine, Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, Blue Q, Brabson
Library & Educational Foundation, Canyon Ranch, Custom Business Solution,
Dylandale Foundation, Feigenbaum Foundation, Garden Gables, Greylock
Federal Credit Union, Guido's Fresh Marketplace, International Schools
Theatre Association, Interprint, Dr. Jay Wise, DDS & Dr. Casey Jones, DMD,
 Jon Gotterer DMD, Keator Group, LLC, Lee Bank, Lenox Education Enrichment
Fund, Massachusetts Cultural Council, MAXYMILLIAN Technologies, Michele’s
Salon + Day Spa, Nina Molin MD, No. Six Depot Roastery and Café, Petricca
Industries, Pittsfield Cooperative Bank, RB Design Co., The Rookwood Inn,
Rouge Restaurant & Bistro, Toole Insurance, A. von Schlegell & Co., The
Sherman Investment Group-RBC Wealth Management, and Zabian's Fine Jewelers.

WAM Theatre is also supported in part by grants from the Lenox,
Alford-Egremont, Pittsfield Cultural Council, Cultural Council of Northern
Berkshires , Washington Cultural Council, Monterey Cultural Council,
Stockbridge Cultural Council, West Stockbridge Cultural Council, Richmond
Cultural Council – local agencies that are supported by the Massachusetts
Cultural Council, a state agency.

ABOUT THE BERKSHIRE THEATRE GROUP

The Colonial Theatre, founded in 1903, and Berkshire Theatre Festival,
founded in 1928, are two of the oldest cultural organizations in the
Berkshires. In 2010, under the leadership of Artistic Director and CEO Kate
Maguire, the two organization merged to form Berkshire Theatre Group (BTG).

Berkshire Theatre Group’s mission is to support wide ranging artistic
exploration and acclaimed performances in theatre, dance, music and
entertainment. BTG’s celebrated stages reflect the history of the American
theatre; they represent a priceless cultural resource for the community.

The Fitzpatrick Main Stage, cataloged by the National Register of Historic
Places, has been home to the Berkshire Theatre Festival since 1928. Nestled
at the corner of Main Street and Yale Hill Road in Stockbridge, this
318-seat theatre epitomizes summer theatre for many of its faithful
 patrons. The intimate 122-seat Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, is BTG’s
home for new and experimental works, showcasing world premieres and
reimagined classics. Built in 1903 and declared a National Historic
Treasure in 1998, the 780-seat Colonial Theatre is a cornerstone of
Pittsfield’s revitalization. Re-opening to the public in 2006 after a $21
million restoration, the Colonial serves as a cultural resource for the
community. Located in the lobby of the Colonial, the 150-seat Garage is a
convertible space that serves as a dance floor, stage for comedians, bands,
theatre and more.

Every year, BTG produces and presents over 240 performances to over 68,000
attendees and reaches over 13,000 students through its educational and
outreach programs. For more information on BTG, call (413) 448-8084. To
purchase tickets, call (413) 997-4444 or go online to
www.BerkshireTheatreGroup.org.

ABOUT WAM THEATRE

Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, WAM Theatre is Where Arts and
Activism Meet. The company was co-founded in 2010 by Canadian director,
actor, educator, and producer Kristen van Ginhoven. WAM’s vision is to
create opportunity for women and girls through the mission of theatre as
philanthropy.

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

Over the past six years, WAM Theatre has donated more than $21,000 to eight
nonprofit organizations and provided paid work to more than 175 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

# # #

-- 
Gail M. Burns

*Marketing + Publicity Associate*
www.WAMTheatre.com <http://www.wamtheatre.com/>
413-274-8122

*Our 7th Season:*Special  <http://www.wamtheatre.com/special/>| 24hr Project
<http://www.wamtheatre.com/2016-24-hour-theatre-project/> | Fresh Takes
<http://www.wamtheatre.com/fresh-takes-2016/> | Stars in the Orchard
<http://www.wamtheatre.com/stars-in-the-orchard-2016/> | Bakelite
Masterpiece <http://www.wamtheatre.com/the-bakelite-masterpiece/>

Make a donation now
<https://app.etapestry.com/onlineforms/WAMTheatreInc/donate.html> to WAM
Theatre!
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