Remount of 'EMILIE' Set for WAM Theatre's Spring 2017 Season

Following hard on the heels of the opening of their critically acclaimed co-production of The Bakelite Masterpiece, WAM Theatre's Artistic Director, Kristen van Ginhoven has announced plans for the first event of the company's eighth season in 2017.

A special event - a limited run remount of WAM's very successful 2013 production of Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight, written by Lauren Gunderson and directed by van Ginhoven, will run from March 30-April 9, 2017, and be presented at Shakespeare & Company's Tina Packer Playhouse in Lenox. This announcement is made possible through the generous early support of Greylock Federal Credit Union.

In celebration of this announcement, WAM is offering a special 'Buy Now, Choose Your Date Later' ticket option that will be available only until the end of November. These special early purchase tickets go on sale on Tuesday, October 11, 2016.

"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 couldn't be more delighted to be making this announcement and hope many others will come forward to support our efforts by purchasing their tickets today with our special 'Buy Now, Choose Your Date Later' option!"

With this early discount deal all tickets are just $30 each - a substantial saving off the regular ticket prices of $35-$50 - and can be booked at www.WAMTheatre.com. Just book your tickets before the end of November and then, in February, a WAM representative will call you to reserve the performance you'd like to attend between March 30- April 9. There will be ten performances of this special limited-run remount over the two week period.

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).

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.

In keeping with WAM's double philanthropic mission, a portion of proceeds from this production will be donated to an organization that benefits women and girls.

IF YOU GO:

Emilie: La Marquise Du Châtelet Defends Her Life Tonight

by Lauren Gunderson

Directed by Kristen van Ginhoven

Presented by WAM Theatre

March 30-April 9/17

at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company

Kemble Street, Lenox, MA

Tickets: $30 "Buy Now, Choose Your Date Later"- special until end of November

Starting December 1, tickets will range from $35-$50

For tickets visit www.WAMTheatre.com

CAST:

Suzanne Ankrum as Soubrette

Brendan Cataldo as Gentleman

Joan Coombs as Madam

Kim Stauffer as Emilie

Oliver Wadsworth as Voltaire

Lauren Gunderson is the most produced living playwright in America for 2016, the winner of the Lanford Wilson Award and the Steinberg/ATCA New Play Award, a finalist for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and John Gassner Award for Playwriting, and a recipient of the Mellon Foundation's 3-Year Residency with Marin Theatre Co. She studied Southern Literature and Drama at Emory University, and Dramatic Writing at NYU's Tisch School where she was a Reynolds Fellow in Social Entrepreneurship. Her work has been commissioned, produced and developed at companies across the US including South Cost Rep (Emilie, Silent Sky), The Kennedy Center (The Amazing mg American Adventures of Dr. Wonderful And Her Dog!), The O'Neill, The Denver Center, Berkeley Rep, Shotgun Players, TheatreWorks, Crowded Fire, San Francisco Playhouse, Marin Theatre, Synchronicity, Olney Theatre, Geva and more. Her work is published at Playscripts (I and You, Exit, Pursued By A Bear, and Toil And Trouble), Dramatists (Silent Sky, Bauer) and Samuel French (Emilie). She is a Playwright in Residence at The Playwrights Foundation, and a proud Dramatists Guild member. She is from Atlanta, GA and lives in San Francisco. LaurenGunderson.com

Director Kristen van Ginhoven WAM Theatre: 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. Regional Theatre: 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: They 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 the Artistic Director of WAM Theatre, an associate member of the Society of Stage Directors and Choreographers and a theatre artist for the International Schools Theatre Association. She was a member of the 2013 Lincoln Center Director's Lab.

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.

Over the past six years, WAM Theatre has donated more than $21,000 to eight nonprofit organizations and provided paid work to more than 175 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.

Pictured: Kim Stauffer. Photo by Enrico Spada.

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