WAM Theatre Announces Casting For Fresh Takes Reading Of PARADISE

Artistic Director Kristen Van Ginhoven, Associate Artistic Director Talya Kingston, and the WAM team are proud the announce the cast for their Fresh Takes Reading of PARADISE by Laura Maria Censabella, directed by Talya Kingston, at 3pm on Saturday, November 2.

We are delighted to welcome back Jay Sefton, a popular Western Massachusetts actor, last seen by WAM audiences in the Fresh Takes reading of Honor Killing last season. He will be joined in this two-hander by Layan Elwazi (The Band's Visit on Broadway, We Live in Cairo at American Repertory Theatre, Yasmina's Necklace at Premiere Stages) in her WAM debut. Kingston, who in addition to directing this reading curates the Fresh Takes series explained that: "Layan is thrilled to be returning to the role of Yasmeen, a role that she had rehearsed for the Florida production of Paradise at Gulfshore Playhouse that had to be canceled at the last minute due to Hurricane Irma."

PARADISE tells the story of Yasmeen Al-Hamadi, a Muslim, Yemeni-American senior at a struggling inner-city Bronx high school. Dr. Guy Royston is her disaffected science teacher, a former Evangelical with a mysterious past. An unlikely research team, together they embark on a neurological study, leading to stormy conflicts over love, faith, and culture. The play, which has been produced all over the country was an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Alfred P. Sloan-commissioned play and finalist for the 2016 Saroyan/Paul Playwriting Prize for Human Rights.

Playwright Laura Maria Censabella, who will be joining us for the reading, explains that: "It was important to me that the teenage girl drive her own narrative. I wanted to get inside the experience of being devout and connected to one's community-the joy in it as well as the pain of trying to reconcile two compelling but competing cultural traditions. I'm interested in how we talk to one another over sometimes great divides." More about the process of writing and researching PARADISE can be found here: www.wamtheatre.com/paradise-playwright-laura-maria-censabella-in-conversation-with-director-talya-kingston/

This Fresh Takes reading of PARADISE has been coordinated to correlate with our main-stage production of Dominique Morisseau's PIPELINE. Each play offers a different lens on cultural bias and stereotyping in high school classrooms. Patrons can take advantage of a double bill day on November 2 when they can see both performances and have time for dinner in the middle. PIPELINE starts previews October 24 and runs through November 9.

The Fresh Takes Reading of PARADISE takes place on Saturday, November 2 at 3 pm, in Shakespeare & Company's Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, 70 Kemble St, Lenox, MA. Tickets are $25 and are available at the Shakespeare & Company Box Office Tuesday-Saturday 11 am -3 pm, by calling 413-637-3353 or online at www.wamtheatre.com/paradise/

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