Previews Start Thursday for WAM Theatre's EMILE...

WAM Theatre's eighth season continues with the limited run remount of the company's very successful 2013 production of Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by WAM Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven, featuring the entire original cast. The production will run from March 30-April 9, 2017, and be presented at Shakespeare & Company's Tina Packer Playhouse in Lenox.

"We are very excited to announce that the entire original cast and the majority of the creative team are able to reassemble for this remount," said van Ginhoven, "Giving another life to this audience favorite and critically acclaimed production has been a dream since 2013. Thanks to some early support from Greylock Federal Credit Union and others, this dream is becoming a reality."

"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."

The 2013 production was deemed "Highly Imaginative....Highly Theatrical...." by The Berkshire Eagle, which also awarded it Honorable Mention for Best Production and named Kim Stauffer's performance as Emilie one of the year's best in their Best of 2013 selection.

Audience members were equally enthusiastic, remarking: "Emilie... is everything I want in a theater experience: a great play about an intriguing, powerful woman, riveting acting, inspired directing, an artful set and engaging audience! ", and "...one of the most provocative, intelligent, funny, well acted, directed, written performances I've seen in a long time."

Emilie Du Châtelet (1706-1749), best known for her 15-year-liaison with Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher, was far more than a great man's mistress. She became a highly regarded interpreter of modern physics and a master of mathematics and linguistics during the Age of Enlightenment. In the play, Emilie searches for a formula that will convince the world of her worth by tallying her achievements in love and philosophy.

Kim Stauffer, whose credits include Mary Stuart and Macbeth at New York Classical Theatre, Outside Mullingar at Capital Rep, Madagasgar and Crime and Punishment at the Chester Theatre Company, and A Streetcar Named Desire and The Crucible at Barrington Stage Company, will reprise the role of Emilie. Voltaire will be portrayed again by Oliver Wadsworth, whose credits include the National Tour of Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang, The Well at The Public Theatre and Fully Committed (Metroland Best Performance) at Capital Repertory Theatre. Additional original cast members include Suzanne Ankrum (Tennessee Shakespeare Company), Brendan Cataldo (Adirondack Theater Festival), and Joan Coombs (Shakespeare & Company). For additional information on the cast and creative team, visit: http://www.wamtheatre.com/emilie-remount-2017/

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.

Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight had its world premiere in 2009 at South Coast Repertory Theatre in Costa Mesa, Calif. The play has been described as "fiercely inquisitive and joyfully sexy" (The San Francisco Chronicle) and an "ambitious, highly theatrical romp that literally crackles with electricity" (LA/OC Examiner). WAM first staged the play in November of 2013 at the St. Germain Stage at Barrington Stage Company.

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