WAM Theatre Girls Ensemble to Present MISS LABELED, 5/11

The Inaugural Cohort of WAM Theatre's Girls Ensemble program will be presenting a public performance of their original theatre piece, Miss Labeled, on Wednesday, May 11 at 7:30 pm at the Spectrum Playhouse, 20 Franklin Street, in Lee, MA. Miss Labeled focuses on the labels young girls feel they are given by society and their peers. It explores issues such as bullying, domestic violence and school dress codes and is suitable for ages 10 and up. The performance is free of charge and open to the public.

Beginning in September, 2015, six young women ages 14-20, selected by audition, met on Saturday afternoons to create this new piece of devised theatre under the leadership of WAM teaching artists Amy Brentano and Barby Cardillo. Devised theatre is a collaborative process where the participants use different theatre techniques to create original material around a chosen starting point. Participants in this inaugural cohort hale from Lenox, Lee, Dalton, North Adams, Pittsfield, and Richmond, Massachusetts.

At this performance the roles will be played by five area actresses: Iris Courchaine, a Lee High School sophomore; Brittany Dorwin, a recent graduate of McCann Technical School; School; Siena Gamberoni, an eighth-grader at Richmond Consolidated School; Isabelle Lapierre, an eighth grader at St. Agnes School in Dalton; and Claudia Maurino, a ninth-grader at Monument Mountain Regional High.

"Devising original work from scratch with a group of young women who've never worked together before is at once courageous and inspiring," Brentano explained. "Delving into the process not knowing the final outcome creates a unique, delicious tension that results in unexpected discoveries and a tight ensemble. Taking the show on tour has presented the opportunity for the actors to continue developing the material as they receive information from our talkbacks."

"The girls engaged in impassioned discussions as they improvised scenes and wrote monologues," Cardillo said. "Amy and I have had the pleasure to guide and direct these girls as they created an exciting theatre piece that includes music, dance, and text. This has been one of the best educational theatre experiences I've ever had. I found it really inspiring."

"I hope this show will encourage people to take a step back and reflect on how gender stereotypes have affected their lives and to think about what they can do to alter the labels we give to each other and ourselves every day," said Ensemble member Claudia Maurino.

The inaugural cohort, which included Dorwin, Lapierre, and Maurino, gave their first public sharing of Miss Labled on December 11, 2015 at the Elayne Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company, followed by a school tour to Lenox Memorial High School, Richmond Consolidated School, and Hoosac Valley High School this spring. An excerpt will also be performed at WAM's Stars in the Orchards Benefit on July 14 at Hilltop Orchards in Richmond, MA.

If you or a young woman of your acquaintance would like to be part of future WAM Education programs, we will be offering summer and fall Girls Ensemble Junior programs for ages 8-12 at IS183 Art School of the Berkshires in Stockbridge, MA. Dates and costs will be announced soon. Auditions for the 2017 Girls Ensemble Cohort will be held in December of 2016. Visit http://www.wamtheatre.com/wam-education/ for more information.

Seed funding for this program has been provided by multi-year grants from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, Greylock Federal Credit Union, the Dylandale Foundation, the Lenox Education Enrichment Fund, the International Schools Theatre Association (ISTA) and Petricca Industries as well as a grant from the Feigenbaum Foundation, Interprint and various local cultural councils.

Additionally, the Girls Ensemble is an ISTA endorsed project. Based in the United Kingdom, ISTA brings together young people, artists and teachers from different countries in different settings to experience, create and learn about theatre. ISTA produces over 50 international arts events each year. WAM Theatre aims to bring our Girls Ensemble participants to an ISTA event within the first five years of our after school program being launched in 2015. www.ISTA.co.uk

Photo by Enrico Spada

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