WAM Theatre Concludes 5th Anniversary Season With Sold-Out IN DARFUR

After a full season of events to celebrate their fifth anniversary season, WAM Theatre successfully concluded the year with a sold-out production and their largest gift presentation yet to a beneficiary.

In keeping with WAM Theatre's double philanthropic mission, a gift presentation was made following the closing performance to the beneficiary of the sold out New England premiere production of In Darfur by Winter Miller, the thirteen housemothers at the Mother of Peace Orphanage in Illovo, South Africa. Susie Weekes, the Berkshire connection to the Orphanage, received a gift of $5005 following the closing performance on November 16.

These 13 housemothers have made many personal sacrifices to care for 84 children who have been orphaned, abused, or impacted by HIV/AIDs. Significantly, most of the housemothers plan to use this donation to invest in education for themselves and members of their families. For more information, visit www.wamtheatre.com/fall-production-2014/meet-the-housemothers-of-mother-of-peace-illovo/ or www.motherofpeace.org.za/illovo_home.html.

In Darfur opened on November 1 to critical accolade and enthusiastic audience response, both at the performances and on social media. Audience members called it "a powerful, involving, intense, moving, uplifting experience." As well as a " profound experience of the strength, courage, resilience of the human spirit, simultaneously life challenging and life affirming."

J. Peter Bergman of the Berkshire Edge called In Darfur"...a power punch of a play realized with a mighty imagination and a clarity of vision. This is great theater...with its direct simplicity and emotional stoppers. This sort of work makes me proud to live in The Berkshires where wonderful talent abounds."

Jeffrey Borak of the Berkshire Eagle wrote, "In Darfur," particularly in this production, is at its best when it is at its most personal. There are moments of raw, unsettling, visceral power."

Selling out every single performance, including two added matinees, the performances were complemented by an art exhibit featuring work by award-winning photojournalists John Stanmeyer and Ron Haviv, work from local artists featured in the current Paper Dresses exhibit, curated by PRESS Gallery Chief Melanie Mowinski and a more in-depth look at the 13 women who were the beneficiaries of the production.

Plus each performance was followed by a post-show conversation, moderated and curated by WAM Theatre's Kimberly Ciola, and featuring a number of experts including playwright Winter Miller, professors Denise Ellis, Charles Jones, and Jennifer Browdy, international aid activist Brenda Oppermann, and recently released terror hostage Theo Padnos, whose article detailing his 22 months of captivity was the cover story in the New York Times Magazine during the show's run.

"As we are about to say goodbye to WAM's fifth anniversary year, I could not feel more proud of our accomplishments and more inspired to continue to use theatre to benefit women and girls. During In Darfur, when I was in the room with our audience, our actors, our team and post show guest for that performance, I was filled, for the first time in my professional life, with really feeling and knowing the power of theatre. Thank you to our community for being so supportive of our efforts. I'm extremely proud of the impact WAM Theatre has made in our first five years."

Mother of Peace Orphanage is WAM Theatre's seventh beneficiary, raising the total amount of funds donated since launching WAM Theatre in 2010 to over $15,500. WAM Theatre's other beneficiaries include Rites of Passage and Empowerment Program for Girls (ROPE), Shout Out Loud Productions, Berkshire United Way's Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative, Edna's Hospital in Somaliland, The Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts, and Women for Women International. This is in addition to providing paid contract work to over 100 theatre professionals it's first five years.

The New England premiere of In Darfur, written by Winter Miller and directed by Kristen van Ginhoven, ran from October 30 through November 16 at the Berry Family Studio in the Elayne P. Bernstein Center at Shakespeare & Company's Kemble Street campus in Lenox, MA.

2014 Season - The Fifth Anniversary Season:

The 2014 season for WAM began with another sold out event: Motherhood Out Loud presented in March as part of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers.

Two-time Tony nominee Jayne Atkinson (Criminal Minds, House of Cards) directed a benefit production of Motherhood Out Loud at Berkshire Theatre Group's Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge on March 28th and 29th as part of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. Proceeds from the production, co-produced by Atkinson and Susan Rose, benefitted WAM Theatre and the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers.

The cast featured Jane Kaczmarek (Malcolm in the Middle and the upcoming FOX sitcom HERE'S Your Damn Family), Michel Gill (House of Cards). After successful productions across the country, including an off-Broadway run at Primary Stages in New York City, this was its Berkshire premiere.

In April, WAM Theatre was invited to present a staged reading of Everywoman, a comedy about catastrophe, presented at the UAlbany, SUNY Performing Arts Center in Albany, NY. Directed by Sara Katzoff, artistic director of the Berkshire Fringe, and written by Carolyn Yalkut, who teaches drama, film and literature at the University of Albany, the reading was held on April 3.

From April through September, WAM Theatre presented Fresh Takes, a new series of play readings held in the gallery at No. Six Depot Roastery and Café in West Stockbridge on Sunday afternoons at 3 p.m. Fresh Takes, curated by WAM Theatre Artistic Associate Kelly Galvin, gave a stage to new and reimagined works that tell women's stories. Featuring local professional actors and directors, the readings explored the work of provocative contemporary and classical voices. The inaugural 2014 series included Blue Stockings by Jessica Swale (April 13); Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare (May 18); How the World Began by Catherine Trieschmann (June 22); Seven Homeless Mammoths Wander New England by Madeleine George (Aug.17); and Waxworks by Trina Davies (Sept. 21). The 2015 Fresh Takes series will be announced in the new year.

In August, WAM Theatre held its Fifth Anniversary Celebration and Summer Benefit with Change Makers at the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center in Great Barrington. Change Makers was hosted by Pulitzer prize winning playwright Marsha Norman and WAMC Producer Sarah LaDuke and featured a lively panel discussion around creating positive change through the arts. Panelists included author and actor Jessica Blank, playwright Winter Miller, photographer John Stanmeyer and filmmaker Cynthia Wade.

The year ended with audiences raving about WAM Theatre's acclaimed sold-out New England premiere of In Darfur.

WAM Theatre also continued the Education Outreach program, launched in 2013, at Girls Inc. in Pittsfield, taught by WAM Theatre teaching artist Barby Cardillo.

In 2015, thanks to multi-year grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Greylock Federal Credit Union, the Dylandale Foundation, the International Schools Theatre Association and Petricca Industries, WAM Theatre will expand their after school Education Outreach to include more girls from across Berkshire County. This expanded program will focus on working with the participants on creating original works of theatre around issues of importance in their lives.

Established in 2010, WAM Theatre has emerged as a bold voice on the area's performing arts scene. Under the artistic direction of van Ginhoven, the company has rapidly become a strong community presence through its mission to create theatre for everyone that benefits women and girls. "Until WAM began doing these charity givebacks in the Berkshires it was rare for a theatre company to actually embrace local social programs as a matter of their core mission...WAM has created a new paradigm" (Berkshire On Stage and Screen)

About WAM Theatre - Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, WAM Theatre was co-founded in 2010 by Canadian director, actor, educator, and producer Kristen van Ginhoven, who was inspired to take action by the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. WAM Theatre's philanthropic mission is two-fold: first, to create theatrical events for everyone, with a focus on women theatre artists and/or stories of women and girls; and second, to donate a portion of the proceeds from those events to organizations that benefit women and girls.

Over the past five years, WAM Theatre has donated more than $15,500 to seven nonprofit organizations that help women and girls, and provided paid work to more than 125 theatre artists. In its fifth year, Artistic Director van Ginhoven has expanded WAM Theatre's activities to include more performances in various venues, including educational outreach and the new Fresh TakesPlay Reading Series at Six Depot Roastery and Café in West Stockbridge. For more information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com.

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