[Capdist-announce] PRESS RELEASE: WAM Theatre Announces Digital Production ofROE by Lisa Loomer

[Gail Burns]

August 25, 2020



Contact: Gai 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 here:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/albums/72157713011054691



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

WAM Theatre Announces Digital Production of

ROE by Lisa Loomer  Directed by Kristen van Ginhoven

Two Women. Multiple Truths. One Landmark Supreme Court Case.

October 17-20, 2020

LENOX, MA (August 25, 2020) —  WAM Theatre’s reimagined 2020 season will
center on a creatively designed digital production of the area premiere of
Lisa Loomer’s celebrated play ROE, available October 17-20.  The digital
production will be directed by WAM’s Producing Artistic Director, Kristen
van Ginhoven.

Supported with powerful theatrical design elements, the large ensemble cast
will illuminate the history of one of the most polarizing social issues of
the modern era - the Roe v. Wade, U.S. Supreme Court ruling that
established a woman’s right to an abortion. WAM’s innovative, online
performance will bring the dynamic history and how it relates to our
current world into the comfort of your own home.

“As WAM grappled with the question of what to do in the fall, to ROE or not
to ROE, we were inspired by our conversations with the ROE creative team to
find a different way forward in telling this important story,” said van
Ginhoven. “Art and telling this story is essential, especially in the world
we are living in right now. Creating this opportunity for our artists to do
what they do best and our audience to experience this story, while putting
artist and patron safety and smart financial decisions at the forefront,
felt like a necessity.”

Over the past few months, the extraordinary creative team of ROE has been
meeting regularly to dream about how they might tell this story in the time
of COVID and the national reckoning with race. What has come of this
dreaming is an illuminating digital production that creates the opportunity
to blend technology and performance and collaborate with new artists in the
video and website design worlds. The creative team for the ROE digital
production includes set designer Juliana von Haubrich, costume designer
Deborah A. Brothers, lighting designer Aja M. Jackson, sound designer Amy
Altadonna, and dramaturg Talya Kingston. Hope Rose Kelly will be the stage
manager. Local production company, OutPost Productions, will be the video
editors and Abby Tovell from T Square Design Studio will be designing the
ROE digital production website.

Assisting the creative team are assistant director Catherine Dickerson,
assistant costume designer Calypso Michelet, assistant lighting designer
Frida Swallow, assistant sound designer Elisabeth Castellon Goncalves,
assistant dramaturg Tatiana Godfrey, and assistant stage manager Ashley
Lewis. For more information on the ROE creative team visit:
https://www.wamtheatre.com/showsandevents/roe/roe-creative-team/.

“At first, designing ROE during a pandemic felt like building a sandcastle
in a storm,” said Scenic Designer Juliana von Haubrich. “The shape of what
we could do kept changing as the virus raged around us. Finally, after my
original ideas washed away, and I was left with a new kind of empty stage:
a virtual one, where we could ‘build’ anything our minds could imagine. Now
anyone in the world can experience ROE. Now, it’s not a show to watch in a
theater, it’s a world to experience!”

Thanks to a grant from Mass Humanities, WAM is also working in
collaboration with Scholar-In-Residence Dr. Laura Briggs, Professor of
Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies at UMass Amherst, and dialogue experts
Essential Partners to open up and deepen the conversation around
reproductive justice during this election year.

“Playwright Lisa Loomer stated that during her writing process she “started
to see how a play called ROE might begin to look at the larger cultural
divide in this country for which this issue is a lightning rod’.  In our
early conversations with Dr. Briggs and Essential Partners, we were made
aware of an article written by a group of people who came together for
dialogue across difference following the bombing of an abortion clinic in
1994. This quote lept out to us: “In this world of polarizing conflicts, we
have glimpsed a new possibility: a way in which people can disagree frankly
and passionately, become clearer in heart and mind about their activism,
and, at the same time, contribute to a more civil and compassionate
society.’  Those quotes are guiding our work,” shared van Ginhoven.

In keeping with WAM’s double philanthropic mission, a portion of the
proceeds will be given to an organization taking action for women and
girls. The beneficiary for ROE will be announced soon.

Tickets will go on sale September 8th. For more information about WAM
Theatre’s 2020 programs, events, and artists, please visit
www.WAMTheatre.com.



ROE



ROE

by Lisa Loomer

Online October 17-20, 2020



Creative Team:

Director: Kristen van Ginhoven

Assistant Director: Catherine Dickerson

Dramaturg: Talya Kingston

Assistant Dramaturg: Tatiana Godfrey

Scenic Designer: Juliana von Haubrich

Lighting Designer: Aja Jackson

Assistant Lighting Designer: Frida Swallow

Sound Designer: Amy Altadonna

Assistant Sound Designer: Elisabeth Castellon Goncalves

Costume Designer: Deborah Brothers

Assistant Costume Designer: Calypso Michelet

Stage Manager: Hope Rose Kelly

Assistant Stage Manager: Ashley Lewis

"Rousing entertainment ... a big play with big ideas." -Mail Tribune
“Cleverly illuminating” -The Washington Post
“Full of nuance and complexity" -NPR

“Shares 50 years of history in gripping style” -Mail Tribune
“A powerful and compassionate look at a controversial issue” -The Siskiyou
Daily News

ROE is an historically sweeping play with a large ensemble cast that
illuminates the history of one of the most polarizing social issues of the
modern era, the Roe v. Wade, U.S. Supreme Court ruling that established a
woman’s right to an abortion. ROE explores the women behind the landmark
case of Roe v. Wade, illuminating the heart and passion each side has for
their cause, providing a reminder of where the debate began and how hard we
have to work to communicate compassionately with people with whom we may
disagree.



Playwright Lisa Loomer says, "I wanted people to feel, as they watched the
play, that their point of view was represented, if nothing else because
that helps people be more open and willing to hear another point of view."

ROE was commissioned by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival in 2012 as part of
its American Revolutions Cycle. It was developed at the University of Texas
and The Kennedy Center (as part of DC’s Women’s Voices Festival) as well as
at OSF’s Black Swan Lab before it played for 70 performances in Ashland,
OR, and then had runs in Washington, DC (Arena Stage), Berkeley, CA
(Berkeley Rep), and Sarasota, FL (Asolo Rep).



TICKET INFO

Tickets for ROE go on sale September 8th on wamtheatre.com

Kristen van Ginhoven (director) WAM Theatre: Ann, The Bakelite Masterpiece,
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 Elsewhere: Ann (Arena Stage, Dallas Theatre Center), 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). 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 a
member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and a theatre
artist for the International Schools Theatre Association. She is a member
of the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab and the Michael Langham Workshop for
Classical Direction at the Stratford Festival of Canada. Kristen is the
co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of WAM Theatre.

Juliana von Haubrich (scenic design) Juliana has designed shows for The
Arena Stage & Dallas Theatre Center (Ann, 2019); Dorset Theatre
Festival/WAM Theatre (Ann, 2018); Shakespeare & Co. (Heisenberg, The
Waverly Gallery); WAM Theatre (Melancholy Play, Old Mezzo, Emilie, Holy
Laughter, In Darfur, Last Wife, Ann, Lady Randy); Chester Theatre (I And
You, Disgraced, Curve of Departure), WAM/Berkshire Theatre Group (Bakelite
Masterpiece), The Adirondack Theatre Festival (The Whale). In NYC, Juliana
designed for The Acting Company (Pudd’nhead Wilson, Taming of the Shrew),
and The Juilliard School (La Cenerentola, Richard II). In LA, she designed
for Echo Theatre Company (Uncle Vanya, Ghosts in the Cottonwood). Juliana
also worked in television for TNT (Babylon5), BBC (Bugs), and Paramount (Star
Trek NG/Voyager). Juliana holds an MFA in Scenic Design from Calarts and is
a member of United Scenic Artists Union 829 and IATSE. Online:
JvonHdesigns.com <http://jvonhdesigns.com/>.

Lisa Loomer (playwright)  WAM Theatre: debut  Plays: ROE, LIVING OUT, THE
WAITING ROOM, DISTRACTED, CAFÉ VIDA, HOMEFREE, EXPECTING ISABEL, TWO THINGS
YOU DON’T TALK ABOUT AT DINNER, BIRDS, MARIA, MARIA, MARIA!, and BOCÓN!,
have been produced at such theatres as The Mark Taper Forum, Arena Stage,
South Coast Repertory, The Kennedy Center, Seattle Rep, Denver Theater
Center, Berkeley Repertory, OSF, Trinity Repertory, The Williamstown
Theatre Festival, and, in New York, at The Roundabout, The Vineyard, Second
Stage, Intar, and The Public. Her work has also been produced in Mexico,
the Middle East, and Europe. Awards: Lisa is a two-time winner of the
American Theatre Critics Award, and has also received awards from the
Kennedy Center, the Pen Center, the Imagen Foundation, (Norman Lear Award),
the Jane Chambers Award, and the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, among others.
Film: credits include GIRL, INTERRUPTED. She also writes for television.

Dr. Laura Briggs (WAM Scholar-In-Residence) has been writing and teaching
about reproductive politics for twenty years. Professor of Women, Gender
and Sexuality Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Dr.
Brigg’s most recent book titled Taking Children: A History of American
Terror is on children in immigration detention or otherwise separated from
their parents by the state. Although much of her work might be said to be
on the pro-natalist side of thinking about reproductive justice--that is,
how we enable the children we have to survive and thrive--she have been
teaching and advising on the politics of how people prevent pregnancies and
births they cannot sustain or do not want as well, including the history
and politics of birth control and abortion. Dr. Briggs is the author of How
All Politics Became Reproductive Politics: From Welfare Reform to
Foreclosure to Trump (University of California Press, 2016); Somebody’s
Children: The Politics of Transnational and Transracial Adoption (Duke,
2012), winner of the James A. Rawley Prize of the Organization of American
Historians (History of U.S. Race Relations); Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex,
Science and U.S. Imperialism in Puerto Rico (American Crossroads Series,
University of California Press, 2002); and co-editor with Diana Marre
of International
Adoption: Global Inequalities and the Circulation of Children (NYU Press,
2009). She has written more than three dozen articles and book chapters;
some of my recent publications have been in Adoption and Culture; American
Quarterly; Feminist Studies; Scholar and the Feminist Online; American
Indian Quarterly; Scripta Nova (Barcelona). She is a member of the
editorial committee of the American Crossroads and Reproductive Justice
series at UC Pres. She has held fellowships and residencies at the
University of Michigan, University of Utah, Universidad Nacional Autónoma
de México, and Harvard University. She has been part of the organizing
collectives of the Tepoztlán Institute for Transnational History and the
Thinking Transnational Feminisms Summer Institute. My education includes a
Ph.D. from Brown University, American Studies, 1998, and a Masters of
Theological Studies from Harvard Divinity School.

WAM 2020 Sponsors

WAM’s 2020 sponsors include Adams Community Bank, Berkshire Hand to
Shoulder Center, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Blue Q, Blue Spark
Financial, Brabson Library & Educational Foundation, Canyon Ranch, Chez
Nous, Custom Business Solutions, The Dylandale Foundation, Greylock Federal
Credit Union, Haven Cafe and Bakery, Health Professional Coaching, Heller &
Robbins, Interprint, J.H. Maxymillian, Inc., Lake House Inn. Lee Bank,
Massachusetts Cultural Council, Onyx Specialty Papers, Outpost Productions,
RB Design Co., The Rookwood Inn, T Square Design Studio, Toole Insurance,
and a. von schlegell & co.

WAM Theatre is also supported in part by grants from the Massachusetts
Cultural Council, as well as grants from the Alford-Egremont Cultural
Council, Lenox Cultural Council, Pittsfield Cultural Council, and the
Sandisfield Cultural Council – local agencies supported by the
Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.

ROE is sponsored in part by Maggie and Don Buchwald, Berkshire Taconic
Community Foundation, the Brabson & Library Educational Foundation and Mass
Humanities.

WAM’s 2020 Season of Events is sponsored in part by Carolyn Butler.

ABOUT WAM THEATRE

WAM Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Berkshire County,
MA, that operates at the intersection of arts and activism. WAM creates
theatre for gender equity and has a vision of theatre as philanthropy.

In fulfillment of its philanthropic mission, WAM donates a portion of the
proceeds from their Mainstage productions to carefully selected
beneficiaries. Since WAM’s founding in 2010, they have donated more than
$75,000 to 19 local and global organizations taking action for gender
equity in areas such as girls education, teen pregnancy prevention, sexual
trafficking awareness, midwife training, and more.

In addition to Mainstage productions and special events, WAM’s activities
include innovative community engagement programs and the Fresh Takes Play
Reading Series. To date, WAM has provided paid work to more than 400
theatre artists, the majority of whom are female-identifying.

As a civic organization that embraces intersectional feminism (feminism
that acknowledges how multiple forms of discrimination overlap), WAM
understands that to address one piece of systemic discrimination means we
have to address them all. This is on-going personal and professional work
at WAM for the staff and board.

WAM Theatre has been widely recognized for having a positive impact on
cultural and community development in the region. WAM is the recipient of
the Creative Economy Standout Berkshire Trendsetter Award and previously,
was named Outstanding Philanthropy Corporation of the Year by the Western
MA Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Kristen van
Ginhoven, WAM’s Producing Artistic Director, was honored by the Berkshire
Theatre Critics Association (BTCA) with the prestigious Larry Murray Award,
presented at the discretion of the BTCA Board to a person or theatre
project that advances social, political, or community issues in Berkshire
County.



For more information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com <http://www.wamtheatre.com>

###




-- 
Gail M. Burns (She/Her/Hers)

*Marketing + Publicity Associate*
https://www.wamtheatre.com/
413-458-4246

*Our 2020 Season!*
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Make a donation now <https://www.wamtheatre.com/donateonline/> to WAM
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