[Capdist-announce] PRESS RELEASE: WAM THEATRE PROUDLY PRESENTS WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY’S PRODUCTION OF WHERE WE BELONG

[Gail Burns]

May 6, 2021



Contact: Gail Burns, Marketing and Publicity Associate

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

pr at wamtheatre.com; 413.274-8122

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wamtheatre/albums/72157719161737445



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



WAM THEATRE PROUDLY PRESENTS

WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY’S PRODUCTION OF

WHERE WE BELONG

WRITTEN & PERFORMED BY MADELINE SAYET

A Special Benefit for WAM Theatre Streaming Digitally June 24-27, 2021

LENOX, MA (May 6, 2021) — WAM Theatre is thrilled to announce it will
present a special limited run of Madeline Sayet’s solo show, WHERE WE BELONG
, directed by Mei Ann Teo. This Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company film
adaptation, produced in partnership with Folger Shakespeare Library, is
filming now at Woolly Mammoth in Washington, D.C., and will be available
for digital streaming through WAM Theatre June 24-27, 2021 only. This
limited engagement for WAM audiences will be a benefit, with proceeds
dedicated to furthering and deepening WAM’s accountability work.

In 2015, Mohegan theatre-maker Madeline Sayet travels to England to pursue
a PhD in Shakespeare. Madeline finds a country that refuses to acknowledge
its ongoing role in colonialism, just as the Brexit vote threatens to
further disengage the UK from the wider world. In this intimate and
exhilarating solo piece, Madeline echoes a journey to England braved by
Native ancestors in the 1700s following treatise betrayals – and forces us
to consider what it means to belong in an increasingly globalized world.

“Madeline Sayet’s WHERE WE BELONG blew me away when I first encountered it.
Her openness to sharing her journey across the sea, into the sky, and back
home to Mohegan is a deep, insightful, and often very funny, revelation.”
says Maria Manuela Goyanes, Artistic Director of Woolly Mammoth. “WAM is an
ideal partner for this broader visibility because their mission aligns with
Woolly's - we both try to create space for stories that have yet to be
heard, especially those from women of color. It's so exciting to be able to
share this show with their audiences, who may never have seen it in D.C.
otherwise.”



“All of us at WAM are honored to partner with Woolly Mammoth Theatre in
D.C., a theatre whose work we’ve long admired. Madeline Sayet’s beautiful
solo piece reckons with our past, while honoring the many different stories
of the Indigenous cultures surrounding the place we live and work. We are
excited to share this limited run with our WAM audiences. “ Kristen van
Ginhoven, Producing Artistic Director, WAM Theatre.



Writer/performer Madeline Sayet is someone who understands this power of
stories, she says:  “For my people, the Mohegans, the ways the stories are
passed down is sort of an act of resistance. I grew up knowing the stories
were special, because they come from the land we stand on. Both my
great-aunt, Gladys Tantaquidgeon, and my mother [Melissa Tantaquidgeon
Zobel] have been medicine women. I was raised with this consciousness of
story medicine and the idea that stories aren’t neutral: They can heal
people and they can damage people. A lot of my own work is about the
transformative capacity of stories. What stories do we need to bring us
together; what stories do we need to imagine a way forward and create hope?
What are the stories that enable us to create our best possible futures?”

WHERE WE BELONG features Madeline Sayet and premiered at Shakespeare's Globe
<https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/where-we-belong-2019/> in
London in 2019 as part of Border Crossings’ ORIGINS Festival, the UK’s only
large-scale multidisciplinary festival of Indigenous arts and culture.
While at Woolly Mammoth, Madeline has been adapting the original piece for
the digital realm with Director Mei Ann Teo.

PERFORMANCE SCHEDULE
WHERE WE BELONG will be available for streaming on demand June 24-27, 2021.
Tickets will go on sale at WAMTheatre.com on Tuesday, June 1st.

ABOUT MADELINE SAYET

Madeline Sayet (she/her) is a Mohegan theatre maker who believes the
stories we pass down inform our collective possible futures. She has been
honored as a Forbes 30 Under 30 in Hollywood & Entertainment, TED Fellow,
MIT Media Lab Director’s Fellow, National Directing Fellow, Drama League
Director-In-Residence, NCAIED Native American 40 Under 40, and a recipient
of The White House Champion of Change Award from President Obama. She
serves as the Executive Director of the Yale Indigenous Performing Arts
Program (YIPAP), Co-Artistic Director of Red Eagle Soaring: Native Youth
Theatre, and is known throughout the field for her work promoting
indigenous voices and decolonizing systems. Recent directing work
includes: Tlingit
Christmas Carol (Perseverance Theatre), Midsummer Night's Dream (South
Dakota Shakespeare), Henry IV (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), Whale Song
(Perseverance Theatre), She Kills Monsters (Connecticut Repertory Theatre), As
You Like It (Delaware Shakespeare), The Winter’s Tale (Amerinda/HERE Arts),
Poppea (Krannert Center, Illinois), The Magic Flute (Glimmerglass), Macbeth
(NYC Parks), Miss Lead (59e59).  This fall, she joins the English Dept at
Arizona State University with the Arizona Center for Renaissance and
Medieval Studies. www.madelinesayet.com



ABOUT MEI ANN TEO

Mei Ann Teo (they/she) is a queer immigrant from Singapore making theatre &
film at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice. As a
director/devisor/dramaturg, they create across genres, including music
theatre, intermedial participatory work, reimagining classics, and
documentary theatre. Teo’s international work includes Belgium's Festival
de Liege (Lyrics From Lockdown, “Truly polished, meaningful and
entertaining” -New York Times), Edinburgh International Fringe (MiddleFlight,
“Stunning” -Scotsman), Beijing International Festival (Labyrinth - Top 8 in
Beijing News). Dim Sum Warriors the Musical by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo,
composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun for national China twenty-five
city tour, Jillian Walker’s world premiere SKiNFoLK: An American Show at
the Bushwick Starr (NYTimes Critics Pick, NYMag’s matrix “Highbrow and
Brilliant”), Madeline Sayet’s Where We Belong at Shakespeare’s Globe. Teo
is the Visiting Professor of Directing at Carnegie Mellon University and
the Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory.

WAM 2021 Sponsors

WAM Theatre is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through
the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional
Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations
and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal
CARES Act for the National Endowment for the Arts.

WAM’s current sponsors include Adams Community Bank, Berkshire Roots,
Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Blue Q, Blue Spark Financial,
Brabson Library & Educational Foundation, Canyon Ranch, Chez Nous, The
Dylandale Foundation, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Haven Cafe and Bakery,
Health Professional Coaching, Heller & Robbins, Interprint, Lake House Inn,
Lee Bank, Only in my Dreams Events, Onyx Specialty Papers, Outpost
Productions, Prix Fixe, RB Design Co., The Rookwood Inn, T Square Design
Studio, Toole Insurance, and a. von schlegell & co.

WAM Theatre’s 2021 Season is also supported in part by grants from The
Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative, Berkshire Regional Planning
Commission, Massachusetts Cultural Council, and Mass Humanities. And also
by grants from the Dalton Cultural Council, Lee Cultural Council, Lenox
Cultural Council, and the Otis Cultural Council.




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
$80,000 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 500
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, detailed in their recently released
accountability
plan <https://www.wamtheatre.com/wam-accountability-plan/>.

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 <http://www.wamtheatre.com>www.WAMTheatre.com
<http://www.wamtheatre.com>

ABOUT WOOLLY MAMMOTH THEATRE COMPANY

Woolly Mammoth is “the hottest theater company in town” (Washington Post);
priding itself on developing, producing, and making theatre that disrupts
conventional processes and stimulates transformative experiences. For
almost four decades, Woolly has held a unique position at the leading edge
of the American theater, earning a reputation for staying “uniquely plugged
in to the mad temper of the times” (New York Times). The co-leadership of
María Manuela Goyanes (Artistic Director) and Emika Abe (Managing Director)
is supported by a core company of artists that holds itself to a high
standard of artistic excellence. Woolly is relentless in its desire to take
risks, experiment, innovate, interrogate, and create a radically inclusive
community. Located in Washington, DC, Woolly Mammoth stands upon occupied,
unceded territory: the ancestral homeland of the Nacotchtank whose
descendants belong to the Piscataway peoples.



ABOUT FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

Folger Shakespeare Library is the world’s largest Shakespeare collection,
the ultimate resource for exploring Shakespeare and his world. The Folger
welcomes millions of visitors online and in person. With the Folger, you
can experience the power of performance, the wonder of exhibitions, and the
excitement of pathbreaking research. In addition to being the world's
largest Shakespeare collection, the Folger is home to major collections of
other rare Renaissance books, manuscripts, and works of art. Located a
block from the US Capitol, the Folger serves a wide audience of scholars,
visitors, teachers, students, families, and theater- and concert-goers.
Join us online, on the road, or in Washington, DC. www.folger.edu


###


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

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

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