Tickets For WAM Fall MainStage Show PIPELINE Now On Sale

WAM Theatre has announced that tickets go on sale Tuesday, July 16, for their fall Mainstage production of PIPELINE by Obie Award-winning playwright Dominique Morisseau and directed by Dawn Meredith Simmons. The production will run October 24-November 9, 2019, at Shakespeare & Company's Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre in Lenox, MA.

Dominique Morisseau's book for AIN'T TOO PROUD: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF THE TEMPTATIONS was nominated for a Tony Award this past season, and the show itself was nominated for Best Musical. In 2018 she won an Obie Award for Playwriting for the Lincoln Theatre Company production of PIPELINE. WAM is proud to present a full production of this cutting edge new play, which Village Voice critic Michael Feingold praised as "powerful, passionate, and intelligent."

PIPELINE was first presented by WAM as a Fresh Takes reading in August 2018, making this the second Fresh Takes reading to be produced as a Mainstage production. Simmons, a busy and sought-after director in the Boston area, returns to direct this fully staged production. She is Artistic Director of the Front Porch Arts Collective, Co-Artistic Director of New Exhibition Room, a founding member of the Small Theatre Alliance Boston, and Executive Director of StageSource.

In the play, Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher is committed to her students, and desperate to give her only son opportunities her students will never have. When a controversial incident in his upstate private school threatens to get him expelled, Nya must confront his rage and her own choices as a parent. PIPELINE is Dominique Morisseau's beautiful and deeply moving story of a mother's fight to give her son a future without turning her back on the community that made him who he is.

PIPELINE is also the second partnership between WAM and Multicultural BRIDGE, the first being FACING OUR TRUTH in 2016.

"BRIDGE is thrilled to collaborate with WAM Theatre again, this time on Dominique Morisseau's brilliant play which is advancing a much-needed national conversation on the crisis of the Black family in the U.S." said Multicultural BRIDGE Chief Executive Officer and Founding Director, Gwendolyn Hampton Van Sant. "Through the story of one young Black student's success and challenges, we share the experience of a Black family facing long-standing cultural and systemic barriers. The school to prison 'pipeline' affects not only the poor; the constant pressure and trauma of racism can touch any family at any moment."

"Through the arts, we look forward to creating more local opportunities for authentic discussion around the stark ethnic disparities that exist for Black families as we identify solutions through activism," Van Sant continued. "Pipeline helps us enter these conversations with courage."

Additionally, PIPELINE is a co-production with The Nora Theatre Company at Central Square Theatre in Cambridge, MA, where the play will be performed from March 5-29, 2020.

"Almost as soon as I arrived in New England six years ago I was introduced to the work of WAM and their unique mission. We have been eyeing a co-production for years and the right time finally met the right play," Lee Mikeska Gardner, Artistic Director of The Nora, explained. "As most of the best projects in my career have happened, our partnership on PIPELINE started with "Hey, what if..?" and then "Yes, and..." I'm so looking forward to exploring all the questions that PIPELINE raises and not only creating brilliant theatre with WAM but engaging in the work of shifting perspectives in our respective communities."

In keeping with its double philanthropic mission, WAM Theatre will be donating a portion of the box office proceeds from PIPELINE to its 18th and 19th beneficiaries. To date the company has donated more than $65,700 to 17 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.

The PIPELINE beneficiaries will be revealed at WAM's 10th Anniversary Gala slated for Wednesday, July 24 at The Stationery Factory in Dalton, MA. A few tickets are still available:

https://www.wamtheatre.com/wam-gala-2019/

This production of PIPELINE is sponsored in part by Carolyn Butler.

Performances of PIPELINE are Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 25 at 7:30pm (previews), Saturday, October 26 at 7:30pm (opening), and Sunday, October 27 at 2pm; Thursday, October 31 at 7:30 pm, Friday, November 1 at 7:30pm, Saturday, November 2 at 7:30pm, and Sunday, November 3 at 2pm the second weekend; and Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 pm, Friday, November 8 at 7:30pm, and Saturday, November 9 at 2pm & 7:30pm.

Student matinees are scheduled at 12:30 pm on Friday, October 25, Wednesday, October 30, and Monday, November 4. A limited number of seats will be made available to the general public for purchase at each student matinee.

Tickets start at $30. Tickets for the low-priced Preview performances on Thursday, October 24 and Friday, October 25 at 7:30 pm are $25 & $30. All tickets are available through the Shakespeare & Company box office: online at shakespeare.org, call 413-637-3353, or visit http://bit.ly/WAMPipeline

The box office, located at 70 Kemble Street in Lenox, is open from 11 am-3 pm, plus 90 minutes prior to any performance. Closed Mondays.

In celebration of their 10th Anniversary Season, WAM will offer ten $10 tickets at every single Mainstage performance during the 2019 season on a first-come, first-serve basis.

For more information on WAM Theatre and PIPELINE, visit: wamtheatre.com/pipeline/

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