[Capdist-announce] PRESS RELEASE: WAM Theatre Announces Appointment of Four New Board Members

Gail Burns gail at wamtheatre.com
Mon Jan 28 11:31:42 EST 2019


January 28, 2019

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/wamtheatre2/albums/72157689043519263

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WAM Theatre Announces Appointment of Four New Board Members

LENOX, MA (January 28, 2019) — WAM Theatre is pleased to announce the
appointment of

four new board members. Carolyn Butler, Margaret Fluhr, Ellen Ring, and
Diane Scott join newly elected Board President Wendy Healey, Vice President
Arwen Lowbridge, Secretary Lynn Festa, and WAM Co-Founder and Artistic
Director Kristen van Ginhoven, to lead the Berkshire-based company into its
second decade.

“As we head into our second decade we have immense gratitude as we reflect
on the service of all our past board members. All of them, especially our
three past board presidents, Tammy Valicenti, Ashley Berridge, and Nicholas
Webb, have been instrumental in the impact and success of WAM in our first
decade,” shared Kristen van Ginhoven. “We thank all of our past board
members for their service and are excited to start our second decade with
these four new passionate advocates joining our board. We look forward to
continuing to strategically expand our board as we build deeper
relationships with people from across a range of perspectives who are
interested in helping WAM create opportunity for women and girls through
our unique mission of theatre as philanthropy.”

New Board President Wendy Healey added: “We are tremendously proud of the
four new board members we are adding this year.  They each bring different
expertise to the table, but share a passion for the art WAM creates, and
the organizations we support with a portion of our box office proceeds. As
we start our tenth anniversary season, we are extremely grateful to
everyone who has supported our growth, and to old and new friends who will
join the WAMily and help us continue our work.”

Fluhr has more than 37 years of experience as a clinical social worker
working to stop child abuse and neglect. She has always been an active
supporter of the arts, including theater, classical music, and dance, and
she frequently attends performances in Manhattan and in the Berkshires.

“As someone who has long been committed to advancing the position of women
and girls, in both my personal and my professional life, I am thrilled to
be a part of such an outstanding creative arts organization,” said Fluhr.
“WAM provides women and girls with experiences that help them to grow and
develop confidence in themselves as artists and as people. Furthermore, it
helps to support worthy non-profit organizations that provide a variety of
services to women and girls in the entire Berkshire community and beyond. I
cannot  think of a better combination. “

Butler brings more than 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit sector
as a fundraiser, board member, and volunteer in the areas of arts, culture,
and social services.

“WAM has the unique mission of producing theatre that shines the light on
the stories of women, then taking a percentage of the proceeds from this
amazing work to support women and girls in our local and world community.
This is a guide to how we can all help to make change in the world,” Butler
opined. “The staff and the artists that make WAM possible are an
inspiration to me, and I feel lucky and honored to be part of this
wonderful organization.”

Scott is an Associate Professor in Arts Management and Chair of the Fine
and Performing Arts Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts
in North Adams. She specializes in creative and fine arts entrepreneurship,
management, and organizational behavior.

“Initially, I wanted to join the WAM Board because I was so impressed with
the quality of their artistic work,” Scott explained. “Now I’m excited
about both the quality of their work with and in the community to benefit
women and girls.”

Ring has spent the last 30 years in various areas of retail. In 2005 she
started her own retail jewelry business, Ellen L Ring Ltd, specializing in
buying and selling fine second-hand jewelry, which she runs online and
across the country selling at antiques shows.

"I had just finished reading Half the Sky in 2012 when I met Kristen and
discovered WAM. It was kismet!,” Ring exclaimed. “Immediately, I wanted to
be as involved as possible with this organization which spoke to my soul
and with this powerhouse of a woman at the helm; smart, capable, engaging,
and warm. Spreading the word about WAM and its philanthropic mission became
a yearly goal and now to be a part of this outstanding team excites me.  I
am proud and honored to be an integral part of WAM’s continued success and
growth."

WAM recently announced its tenth anniversary season including two Mainstage
productions - the world premiere of Lady Randy by Anne Undeland running
April 18-May 5, and Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau running October
25-November 10, presented in partnership with Multicultural BRIDGE. Two
Fresh Takes Play Readings will correlate directly to the Mainstage
productions; and an expanded Education program will include a new Elder
Ensemble for women 65 and older, along with the successful, established
Teen Ensemble, both of which will debut their original devised theatre
pieces at the WAM Gala in July.

For more information about WAM Theatre and the 2019 season, visit:

https://www.wamtheatre.com/2019-season/


FULL BIOGRAPHIES OF WAM BOARD MEMBERS

CAROLYN BUTLER (Board Member)

Carolyn Butler has been involved in the not-for-profit world for over
twenty years as a fundraiser, board member and volunteer in the areas of
arts, culture and social services. Previously Ms. Butler served on the
board of the New England Chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention and as Vice–President of the board of trustees for the Lenox
Library. She previously worked in finance, public relations and event
planning in Boston and moved back to the Berkshires in 2000 where she
worked in fundraising and event planning. She currently chairs the Lenox
Environmental Committee and volunteers her time organizing events for
various Berkshire not-for-profits including being on the WAM Theatre’s
Development Committee. One of her major projects over the last few years
was the design and construction of her passive solar house, which is net
zero. She has a BA in Sociology from Wheaton College and graduate level
study in psychology from the Harvard Extension School as well as a
certificate in positive psychology and life coaching. She is excited to be
working with WAM Theatre and its unique mission of theatre as philanthropy.
It brings together two worlds that she feels passionately about and she
looks forward to helping further the impact that WAM Theatre makes on the
world.

LYNN FESTA (Secretary of the Board)

Lynn Festa OTR, CHT, CDWF has been a certified hand therapist since 1995,
and has been a clinician in a variety of settings for over 30 years. She
combines her work as an OT/CHT with providing training to other health care
providers in promoting wellness and limiting burnout. Lynn has given
national and international presentations and webinars on this topic. Lynn
runs workshops with an emphasis on empathy and compassion, using
evidence-based studies and strategies. She attained her certificate in
positive psychology from the Wholebeing Institute and is a Certified Daring
Way™ Facilitator through The Daring Way ™. She has also completed
life-coach training through the Martha Beck Institute. She is a Clinical
Consultant at Berkshire Hand to Shoulder Center, and is the owner of Health
Professional Coaching, LLC. She resides in Lenox with her husband. With her
free time, she loves the outdoors, open water swimming, singing, and
learning to play the piano. She is a board member of the Berkshire Music
School. Lynn is grateful for the years of theatre experience as a teenager
and college student and is thrilled to be a part of WAM’s mission to
promote the many benefits theatre provides to girls of all ages.

WENDY HEALEY (President of the Board)

Wendy Healey has been in the banking and financial technology business for
over 20 years.  She has worked for Lee Bank since December of 2015. She has
been active with local chambers of commerce her entire career, and has
served on the board of three of them as well as serving as the President of
the Avon Chamber of Commerce. Wendy has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the
University of Connecticut where she majored in English Literature, as well
as a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of
Connecticut. She grew up as an Army brat and a musician. She played both
the piano and the oboe in high school, and still likes to practice her
piano music. Wendy lives in an 1832 home on an old dairy farm in Colebrook,
CT with her partner Scott and their 3 rescue dogs.  She loves spending time
around the house, doing projects both inside and out. Wendy enjoys history
and family genealogy. She is looking forward to serving on the board of WAM
because it aligns well with her appreciation of the arts and interest in
supporting girls and women.

ARWEN LOWBRIDGE (Vice President of the Board)

Arwen has been involved in the performing arts since age five, when she
started studying dance. She had a twenty career in the non-profit arts
world that began with live performance and spanned to include theatrical
production, arts administration, non-profit management, fundraising, grant
writing, teaching, and mentoring young artists. She earned her BFA in
Acting with honors from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and a Certificate in
Fundraising & Development from Rollins College’s Crummer School of
Business. In 2015 she changed directions professionally to pursue her
second passion: financial planning. Her practice focuses on serving women,
artists and the LGBTQ community with the goal of helping people make
important decisions with confidence. She is a Financial Advisor with
Baystate Financial and is pursuing her Certified Financial Planner (CFP)
designation. In addition to WAM Theatre, she sits on the Board of Directors
for the Brooklyn-based play company, The Debate Society. She lives in the
Berkshires with her husband.

MARGARET FLUHR (Board Member)

Margaret Fluhr, LCSW,ACSW, has over 37 years of experience as a clinical
social worker. She began as a preschool teacher, but changed fields after
repeatedly working with children who were troubled, but helpless to change
the traumatic circumstances in their homes. She was the director of a
program to stop child abuse and neglect and also spent many years in
private practice helping people to deal with serious emotional issues. As
the director of the program, she has had experience in writing grant
proposals and developing new programs, in supervising graduate students and
clinicians, and in coordinating graduate student training and development.
She has also served on several other boards including the Dean’s advisory
Council of the NYU School of Social Work, the Women’s Psychotherapy
Network, and the Board of her Coop in New York City. She has always been an
active supporter of the arts, including theater, classical music and dance
and frequently attends performances in Manhattan and in the Berkshires.

ELLEN RING (Board Member)

With a BA in Art History and a Master’s in International Business, Ellen
Ring has spent the last 30 years in various arenas within retail.  After 10
years at Tiffany & Co in New York City, she relocated to The Berkshires
where she was employed by McTeigue & McClelland Jewelers for 5 years and
then, in 2005, started her own retail jewelry business, Ellen L Ring Ltd,
specializing in buying and selling fine second hand jewelry. Since that
time she has been running her business on line and traveling the country
selling at  antiques shows. She most recently served on the Board of the
Berkshire County Art and Antiques Dealers Association for 5 years. Theatre
has been a passion of Ellen’s since grammar school where she appeared in
her first musical, The Pirates of Penzance and first play Tom Sawyer. She
continued acting through high school and college in musicals, dramas and
one act play competitions. Other passions include  supporting organizations
that stand up for women and children; diversity and inclusion for those who
are alienated and and animal welfare. She wants to help heal the word and
to make those silent voices heard. "What better organization than WAM, with
its philanthropic mission, its WAMily members, wonderful volunteers and
team and board of directors, with which to align myself."

DIANE SCOTT (Board Member)

Diane Scott is an Associate Professor in Arts Management and Chair of the
Fine and Performing Arts Department at the Massachusetts College of Liberal
Arts in North Adams, Massachusetts. Before joining the MCLA faculty, Diane
created nationally recognized programming that helps artists with the
business end of their fine arts careers as the principal designer and
program director for Artist INC programs in Kansas City, Missouri.  Prior
to this Diane was a member of the management faculty at Wichita State
University for more than 11 years. Diane is the recipient of numerous
teaching awards including the 2006 Barton School of Business Undergraduate
Teacher of the Year, the 2008 WSU Academy for Effective Teaching award, and
the 2017 MCLA Faculty Association Junior Faculty Award. Diane specializes
in creative and fine arts entrepreneurship, management and organizational
behavior and has taught thousands of current and future business people and
fine artists of all disciplines in traditional classrooms and professional
development settings how to improve their strategic planning, marketing,
project planning, teamwork, leadership, coaching and communication skills.
Diane holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theatre and a Master of Business
Administration from WSU.

KRISTEN VAN GINHOVEN (Co-Founder and Artistic Director)

Kristen van Ginhoven is the Artistic Director of WAM Theatre, which she
co-founded in 2010. Kristen is a member of the Society of Stage Directors
and Choreographers and Canadian Actor’s Equity Association, and is a
theatre artist for the International Schools Theatre Association. She was a
member of the 2013 Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and is a member of the
Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction at the Stratford Festival
of Canada. Kristen’s directing credits at WAM Theatre include ANN
(co-production with Dorset Theatre Festival), In Darfur (New England
Premiere), Emilie (New England Premiere), The Bakelite Masterpiece
(co-production
with Berkshire Theatre Group), The Old Mezzo (World Premiere), The Attic,
The Pearls and Three Fine Girls and Melancholy Play. Elsewhere, Kristen’s
selected directing credits include Disgraced, I and You (Chester
Theatre), Waxworks
(Williams College), 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). She has a BA from Dalhousie University,
BEd from Queen’s University and an MA from Emerson College, where she
received the Presidential Fellowship.

WAM Tenth Anniversary Sponsors

Our 2019 sponsors include Adams Community Bank, Berkshire Magazine,
Berkshire Sterile Manufacturing, Blue Spark Financial, Brabson Library &
Educational Foundation, Custom Business Solutions, The Dylandale
Foundation, Frankie's Ristorante Italiano, Greylock Federal Credit Union,
Guido’s Fresh Marketplace, Haven Cafe and Bakery, Interprint, J.H.
Maxymillian, Inc., Lee Bank, Maggie Barry, Massachusetts Cultural Council,
Only in My Dreams Events, Onyx Specialty Papers, RB Design Co., The Rogovoy
Report, The Rookwood Inn, Salisbury Bank, T Square Design Studio, Toole
Insurance, a. von schlegell & co.

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

LADY RANDY is sponsored in part by an anonymous donor and PIPELINE is
sponsored in part by Carolyn Butler.


ABOUT WAM THEATRE

Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, WAM Theatre is celebrating its
10th anniversary of being a place 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 provided paid work to more than 200 theatre
artists and donated more than $56,500 to fifteen local and global
organizations taking action for women and girls in areas such as girls
education, teen pregnancy prevention, sexual trafficking awareness, midwife
training and more. 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/>
413-274-8122

My gender pronouns: She/Her/Hers

Our 9th Season:
Fresh Takes <http://www.wamtheatre.com/fresh-takes-2018/> | Alison Larkin
LIVE! <http://www.wamtheatre.com/alison-larkin-live/> | WAM Gala 2018
<http://www.wamtheatre.com/wam-gala-2018/> | ANN
<http://www.wamtheatre.com/ann/>


Make a donation now <https://www.wamtheatre.com/donateonline/> to WAM
Theatre!
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