[Capdist-announce] WAM Theatre Announces 2017 Season

[Gail Burns]

Excited to announce our 8th season! There is more information on the WAM
Website and photos in the Flickr album. Please don't hesitate to get in
touch if you need anything else.

February 28, 2017

Contact: Gail Burns, Marketing and Publicity Associate

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

pr at wamtheatre.com; 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 2017 Season

The Berkshire-based theatre company launches its eighth season

with exciting new collaborations and the 4th annual Fresh Takes reading
series

LENOX, MA (February 28, 2017) — WAM Theatre’s Artistic Director Kristen van
Ginhoven announced plans for the company’s 2017 season today. The
Berkshire-based professional theatre company celebrates its eighth year
with two Main Stage productions, a thought-provoking series of play
readings, and several exciting new collaborations and initiatives.

“In a time when the courage to stand up for one's beliefs is paramount, WAM
is re-energized to be a place where Arts and Activism Meet,” van Ginhoven
explained. “Our 2017 season bravely explores a broad range of perspectives
around issues affecting women and girls. Now, more than ever, we must
listen carefully, act thoughtfully and speak out bravely. WAM is proud to
take action for women and girls through our spirited storytelling and our
impactful philanthropy.”

Already this year WAM was honored to be one of the organizers of the
official Pittsfield Sister March Event in Solidarity with the Women’s March
on Washington, held at the Colonial Theatre on January 21. More than 1,600
people came through the theatre to make art, learn about local activist
groups, watch a live-stream of events from DC, and enjoy a reading by
regional artists and writers.

WAM THEATRE GIRLS ENSEMBLE

Just last week the Second Cohort of the WAM Girls Ensemble out of school
program presented their original devised theatre piece, What’s That Sound?
at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company. Under the
leadership of WAM teaching artists Amy Brentano, Barby Cardillo, and their
assistant, Lia Russell-Self, the girls have been rehearsing since the
beginning of the year to create this piece which tackles questions about
identity, race, gender, fear, age, history, and protest.

The Girls Ensemble will attend an International Schools Theatre Association
(ISTA) Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, March 16-19. There they will join
students from schools around the world to spend three days devising theatre
around the theme of race, inclusion, prejudice, and oppression.

After they return, the girls will tour What’s That Sound?  to local schools
and present another free public performance on April 8 at the Spectrum
Playhouse in Lee.

FRESH TAKES PLAY READING SERIES

We kick off our fourth season of Fresh Takes Play Readings on Sunday, March
12 with The Flora and Fauna by Alyson Mead, directed by Fresh Takes Curator
and WAM Artistic Associate, Molly Clancy. The play, which chronicles the
celebrations and challenges of a female friendship that spans almost 30
years, is the winner of the Arizona-based Bridge Initiative: Women in
Theatre New Work Contest.

“I’m excited about our national collaboration with The Bridge Initiative
and our local partnership with The Berkshire Festival of Women Writers who
will receive a portion of the box office proceeds from this first reading,”
Clancy said.

The season continues with Really by Jackie Sibblies Drury, directed by
Alice Reagan, on Sunday, May 7; and The Droll by Meg Miroshnik, directed by
van Ginhoven and co-produced with local professional actor Jennie Jadow, on
June 4. Reagan directed last summer’s acclaimed production of Or, at
Shakespeare & Company, where Jadow is a long-time actress and Theatre
Educator.

“The Droll is a play that has captured my attention and imagination for
quite some time, and when Kristen expressed her long-standing interest in
the piece as well, a collaboration naturally followed,” Jadow explained.
“The play’s central theme of awakening a child to the power of theatre, so
that a future generation can carry forth an awareness of culture and art,
even in the darkest of times, and, potentially, at great personal cost,
highlights for me the active role of the artist in our society.”

Sponsored by The No. Six Depot Roastery and Café in West Stockbrige, with
additional support from the Dramatists Guild Fund, the Fresh Takes Series
occurs on select Sundays at 3:30 pm and features a talk-back with the cast
and director following the play reading.

SPECIAL EVENT: FINAL 2017 FRESH TAKES PLAY READING IN WILLIAMSTOWN

In another exciting collaboration for WAM’s 2017 Season, Williamstown
Theatre Festival will be hosting a WAM Theatre Fresh Takes play reading
this summer - stay tuned for more details.

Mandy Greenfield, Artistic Director of Williamstown Theatre Festival said,
"We are thrilled to host Kristen van Ginhoven and WAM for a reading at the
Festival this summer.  We look forward to supporting her wonderful work to
benefit women and girls."

Further information about the date, time and specific location of this
reading will be forthcoming.

LIMITED-RUN REMOUNT OF Emilie...

A critical and popular success our 2013 production of Emilie: La Marquise
du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight by Lauren Gunderson, directed by van
Ginhoven, returns with its entire original cast for a two week run at the
Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company. The first preview is on
March 30 and the Opening Night/Press Night will be on Saturday, April 1 at
7:30 pm. After that the show runs through April 9. This production is
sponsored by Greylock Federal Credit Union. A special weekday matinee for
school groups, sponsored by Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, is planned for
April 6 at 3 pm.

“I'm not only honored to have WAM re-mount Emilie..., I'm inspired,”
Gunderson wrote.  “WAM's commitment to powerful stories combined with their
artistic excellence and their civic impact makes me want to write more
plays like Emilie... about complex women changing the world. WAM truly
manifests my belief that theatre actively and intentionally changes hearts,
minds, and the future of a thoughtful and empathetic nation.”

Emilie du Chatelet is best known for her fifteen-year liaison with Voltaire
but she was more than a great man’s mistress. She was one of the leading
interpreters of modern physics during the Age of Enlightenment. In this
play Emilie must defend her life by tallying her achievements in Love and
Philosophy-and searching for a formula that will convince the world of her
worth.

This is the first of three WAM events that will take place on the
Shakespeare & Company campus in 2017. Artistic Director Allyn Burrows
states: “We are delighted to host WAM for three exciting programs this
year, and are honored to be able to provide a venue to a company whose
mission is vitally important to the community at large.”

WAM’s 2013 production was hailed as “Highly entertaining and highly
imaginative” by the Berkshire Eagle. Berkshire Fine Arts deemed it “An
absorbing evening of theatre for a sold-out audience.” This remount
features the original cast: Suzanne Ankrum, Brendan Cataldo, Joan Coombs,
Kim Stauffer and Oliver Wadsworth.

In keeping with WAM’s double philanthropic mission, a portion of proceeds
will be donated to this production’s beneficiary: Flying Cloud Institute.
WAM’s donation will support scholarships for public school girls who attend
Flying Cloud's after school Girls Science Clubs, so girls who show promise
and interest in science can join the Young Women in Science summer programs
where they conduct experiments with women scientists and engineers working
in laboratories at Bard College at Simon’s Rock.

WAM and Flying Cloud Institute also have support from Mass Humanities to
engage 25 girls who attend Reid Middle School in Pittsfield and are part of
Flying Cloud’s after school STEAM Team. These girls will conduct science
experiments and participate in theater activities that will heighten their
appreciation when they attend a matinee of Emilie….. on April 6th, that
features a panel of women scientists after the show.

SUMMER GALA

WAM is doing it again! Save the date of Wednesday, July 12 for our 3rd
Annual Stars in the Orchard Summer Gala at Hilltop Orchards - a magical
midsummer night’s cocktail party with wonderful music, stellar
entertainment, delicious food, and wine made on site by Furnace Brook
Winery.  The evening’s guests will be the first to learn about the fall
production and beneficiary. As part of the entertainment this year, award
winning audiobook narrator, bestselling novelist and comedienne Alison
Larkin will read a short excerpt from her new audiobook Fairytales of the
Fiercer Sex.

These are the fairytales of strong, brave, independent, and, at times,
irreverent girls and women who take charge of their lives, go on their own
adventures, rescue themselves and sometimes even save the men they love. A
perfect fit for a WAM evening!




BERKSHIRE LEADERSHIP SUMMIT

We are excited to announce WAM will be hosting the first pilot Berkshire
Leadership Summit - an event for women aspiring to leadership positions in
the non-profit theatre in both artistic and operational tracks - on October
28 & 29, 2017 in the Elayne P. Bernstein Center at Shakespeare & Company.

Kristen van Ginhoven attended the Women’s Leadership Conference in San
Francisco at the American Conservatory Theater in August 2016. Inspired by
that experience, the idea was born to create The Berkshire Leadership
Summit to continue the work of shifting consciousness and perception around
women and leadership in the non-profit theatre world.  This first pilot
Berkshire Leadership Summit is informed and supported by the research that
American Conservatory Theater commissioned from the Wellesley Centers for
Women. The HowlRound blogpost about the study can be found at:
http://howlround.com/women-s-leadership-research-results-and-recommendations

This inaugural two-day, in person, pilot Summit will provide deep-dive,
nuts and bolts sessions into four areas that female theatre professionals
identified as main barriers to leadership positions: Fundraising,
Producing, Building Relationships, and Building Awareness/Creating
Opportunity.

The Summit has three central aims: providing participants with an
experience that grows their network of allies, enriching vocabulary that
supports the current industry while advocating for their future as women
leaders, and expanding concrete skills to apply on their path to leadership.

The steering committee for the Summit, who all joined forces at the August
Women’s Leadership Conference in San Francisco, is Akiba Ababa, audience
development manager at ArtsEmerson (Boston), Rachel Fink, Managing Director
at Theatre Bay Area (San Francisco), Shafer Mazow, Senior Grants Manager at
The Exploratorium (San Francisco) and Kristen van Ginhoven, Artistic
Director of WAM Theatre (Berkshires).

Additional details on this first pilot Berkshire Leadership Summit will be
announced by WAM Theatre in the coming months and will be available at:
http://www.wamtheatre.com/berkshire-leadership-summit-2017/




FALL MAIN STAGE PRODUCTION

We are delighted to announce that this year our fall Main Stage play will
be a the Northeast regional premiere of The Last Wife by Canadian playwright
Kate Hennig, which WAM first presented as a Fresh Takes Play Reading in
2016. This is the first Fresh Takes play reading to be selected for a
Mainstage Production. The show begins previews on October 13, and closes on
November 5 at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company.

A contemporary retelling of the compelling relationship between Henry VIII
and his sixth wife, Katherine Parr, The Last Wife  is a funny, powerful
examination of patriarchy, sexual politics, and women’s rights. The play
had its premiere on August 14, 2015 at the  Stratford Festival of
Stratford, Ontario, where it played to sold-out houses and had several
extensions.

Kate Parr is smart, confident, and passionate: a rising star in a world of
intense competition. But her obligatory marriage to Henry is rife with the
threat of violence and lure of deceit; her secret liaisons with Thom, her
husband’s former brother-in-law, could send her to an early grave; and her
devotion to the education and equal rights of Henry’s daughters is putting
an even bigger strain on her marriage. Does Kate risk her life to gain
authority in both her relationship and her political career? Which love
will she be led to if she follows her heart? And what kind of future is
there for her children if she makes a crucial mistake?

“I hope the theatre audience in the Berkshires -- a region recognized (even
by your Canadian cousins) for its abundance of arts and culture, and
steeped in its own rich and complex history -- will enjoy the story of
Katherine Parr from many perspectives,” Hennig said.  “They'll see how
perfectly Kate's actions echo the WAM mandate ‘to benefit girls and women’,
and the provocative nature of taking such action in the current political
climate.”

In another new collaboration, WAM Theatre will bring a reading of The Last
Wife to the Nora Theatre in Boston in October as a special event.

“The Award winning Nora Theatre,  helmed by Artistic Director Lee Mikeska
Gardner, has a mission that includes sharing works that speak with a
feminine voice on human concerns and endeavors,” van Ginhoven explained. “A
fitting collaborator for WAM, we look forward to bringing a reading version
of our production of The Last Wife to Boston in October.”

In keeping with WAM’s double philanthropic mission, a percentage of the box
office proceeds from WAM’s production of The Last Wife will be donated to
an organization that creates opportunity for women and girls. The
beneficiary of this production will be announced at the July 12th Stars in
the Orchard Summer Gala.

WAM THEATRE’S 2017 SEASON HIGHLIGHTS

March 12

Fresh Takes Play Reading

The Flora and Fauna

by Alyson Mead

Winner of the Arizona-based Bridge Initiative: Women in Theatre New Work
Contest

directed by Molly Clancy

Sunday, March 12 at 3:30 pm - talkback following

at No. 6 Depot Roastery & Café, 6 Depot Street, West Stockbridge, MA

Admission $20

A portion of box office proceeds will be donated to the Berkshire Festival
of Women Writers

March 30-April 9

Emilie: La Marquise du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight

by Lauren Gunderson

directed by Kristen van Ginhoven

Featuring Suzanne Ankrum, Brendan Cataldo, Joan Coombs, Kim Stauffer and
Oliver Wadsworth

March 30 & 31, April 1, 7 & 8 at 7:30 pm

April 1, 2, 8 & 9 at 2 pm

April 6 at 3 pm

Presented at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company

70 Kemble Street, Lenox MA

Tickets from $10-$40

413-637-3353

A portion of box office proceeds will be donated to the Flying Cloud
Institute

April 8

WAM Girls' Ensemble

What's That Sound?

Friday, April 8 at 7:30 pm

at the Spectrum Playhouse

20 Franklin Street, Lee MA

Admission free

Suitable for ages 10+

May 7

Fresh Takes Play Reading

Really

by Jackie Sibblies Drury

directed by Alice Reagan

Sunday, May 7 at 3:30 pm - talkback following

at No. 6 Depot Roastery & Café, 6 Depot Street, West Stockbridge, MA

Admission $20

June 4

Fresh Takes Play Reading

The Droll

by Meg Miroshnik

Directed by Kristen van Ginhoven

Co-produced with Jennie Jadow

Sunday, June 4 at 3:30 pm - talkback following

at No. 6 Depot Roastery & Café, 6 Depot Street, West Stockbridge, MA

Admission $20

July 12

3rd Annual Stars in the Orchard Summer Gala

Wednesday, July 12 at 6:30 pm

At Hilltop Orchards,508 Canaan Road, Richmond, MA

Date TBA

The Williamstown Theatre Festival hosts a WAM Fresh Takes Play Reading

Date & Time TBA

Location TBA

October 28-29, 2017

Berkshire Leadership Summit

in the Elayne P. Bernstein Performing Arts Center at Shakespeare & Company

Additional details as they become available can be found at:
http://www.wamtheatre.com/berkshire-leadership-summit-2017/

October13-November 5

The Last Wife

by Kate Hennig

Northeast Regional Premiere

Director TBA

Dates: October 13 - November 5, 2017

Presented at the  Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, at Shakespeare & Company

A portion of box office proceeds will be donated to a beneficiary to be
announced at our July WAM Gala

Date TBA

Reading of The Last Wife

at the Nora Theatre Company in Boston

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 2017 sponsors include Adams Community Bank, Berkshire
Magazine, Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, Blue Q, Brabson Library &
Educational Foundation, Canyon Ranch, Custom Business Solutions, The
Dramatists Guild Fund, The Dylandale Foundation, The Feigenbaum Foundation,
Futures Education, the Garden Gables Inn, Greylock Federal Credit Union,
Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, In Touch Printing, International Schools Theatre
Association, Interprint, Dr. Jay Wise, DDS & Dr. Casey Jones, DMD,  Lee
Bank, Massachusetts Cultural Council, MAXYMILLIAN Technologies, Methuselah
Bar and Lounge, No. Six Depot Roastery and Café, Pittsfield Cooperative
Bank, RB Design Co., The Rookwood Inn, Rouge Restaurant & Bistro, The Dr.
Robert C. and Tina Sohn Foundation, T Square Design Studio, and a. von
schlegell & co.

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

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.

Since 2010, WAM Theatre has donated more than $30,000 to eleven nonprofit
organizations and provided paid work to more than 200 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 8th Season:*

2017 Season announcement coming February 28th!

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