WAM Theatre Announces The Cast For Reading Of PIPELINE By Dominique Morisseau

The WAM Theatre 2018 Fresh Takes Play Reading Series continues with Pipeline by Dominique Morisseau at 2pm on Sunday, August 12, in the auditorium at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, MA. After the reading, the company will lead a dynamic post-show conversation about race, parenting, and the American education system.

Morisseau won a 2018 Obie Award for Playwriting for the Lincoln Theatre Company production of Pipeline. WAM is proud to present a reading of this cutting edge new play, which Village Voice critic Michael Feingold praised as "powerful, passionate, and intelligent." Dawn M. Simmons will make her WAM directorial debut with this reading.

In Pipeline, Nya, an inner-city public high school teacher is both committed to her students, and desperate to give her only son opportunities they'll 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.

"I love the idea of using a piece like this that is so powerful and heartbreaking to spark dialogue," director Dawn M. Simmons said, "The writing is crystalline, the characters are real and the story is now. I hope that Dominque's words touch the audience in such a way that they can't help but speak or ask questions during our post-show discussion. We don't have to have answers, but the text is the perfect window into our universal humanity if we just let ourselves see and feel the pain and frustration of Nya and her son Omari."

Pipeline brings together a stellar company of actors. We are thrilled to welcome back Erica Tryon (WAM's Noms de Guerre, Everywoman, Like/Unlike) and Jean-Remy Monnay (WAM's Samsara and the Founder and President of the Black Theatre Troupe of Upstate New York), as well as WAM Theatre's Associate Artist Barby Cardillo (Facing Our Truth, The Attic, the Pearls and Three Fine Girls, Measure for Measure) and WAM Theatre Advisory Board Member Kevin Craig West (WAM's Noms de Guerre) coming back from LA for this reading. Recent University of Massachusetts, Amherst theatre graduates Isaiah Michael Grace and Sandra Seoane-Serí make their WAM debut to round out the cast.

Pipeline is co-sponsored by The Clark Art Institute. WAM Theatre is dedicated to telling the stories of women and girls, and The Clark's summer exhibit Women Artists in Paris, 1850-1900 (on display through September 3) tells the stories of an international group of women artists who overcame the gender-based restrictions of their time to make remarkable creative strides, taking important steps in the fight for a more egalitarian art world. A visit to the exhibition is the perfect complement to the afternoon's reading.

The auditorium at the Clark is located in the Manton Research Center. The Clark recommends patrons park in the Main Lot and walk down the path to the Manton building.

Tickets are $25 (general admission), $20 for educators, and $15 for patrons under 30. For more information and to purchase tickets online visit: http://www.wamtheatre.com/pipeline/

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