WAM Theatre Makes Record Donation to Berkshire Immigrant Center & New Illuminations Project

Every year WAM Theatre donates a portion of the box office proceeds from their fall Main Stage production to agencies that benefit women and girls locally, nationally, or internationally. The success of their co-production with the Berkshire Theatre Group of The Bakelite Masterpiece by Kate Cayley enabled the company to present their largest donation yet to their 2016 beneficiaries - the Berkshire Immigrant Center (BIC) and Suzi Banks Baum's New Illuminations Project.

Since its founding in 2010, WAM Theatre has now donated more than $30,000 to twelve nonprofit organizations. This year's total of $9,000 total was divided with $5,500 going to BIC and $3,500 going to Suzi Banks Baum's initiative in Gyumri, Armenia. In keeping with WAM Theatre's double philanthropic mission, a gift presentation was made following the closing performance on October 23.

"October 23 was an incredible day!" enthused Kristen van Ginhoven, Artistic Director of WAM Theatre and the director of the Bakelite Masterpiece, "Thanks to a wonderfully successful co-production with the Berkshire Theatre Group - which sold out multiple performances and had over 2,000 people attend - we were able to make this record $9,000 donation. Both beneficiaries were thrilled and delighted by the gift - which was much larger than anticipated. The successful combination of jobs created, stories told, donations made and opportunities created for women and girls on this co-production reinforces that WAM's vision of using art as philanthropy is having an amazing impact."

Banks Baum will use her donation to pay women artists in Armenia a stipend for their work as visual artists. The arts are not an accepted field of work for women in Armenia, where they are culturally limited in how they can support themselves and their families.

The Berkshire Immigrant Center will use their funds to help women from abused households navigate a path to citizenship in the United States.

These are WAM's eleventh and twelfth beneficiaries. Past recipients include: Hands in Outreach, Sisters for Peace, Mother of Peace Orphanage in Illovo, South Africa, the 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 175 theatre professionals.

The Bakelite Masterpiece opened on October 1 to critical accolade and enthusiastic audience response, both at the performances and on social media. Audience members said: powerful play with fine actors!, very interesting - well done, and Congratulations on a wise and evocative production!

With support from Mass Humanities, the show was complemented by program notes and a lobby display on Truth and Reconciliation created by Brenda Oppermann, a senior advisor for military and civilian organizations working primarily on issues concerning international peace and conflict, and by a robust series of post-show conversations, hosted by van Ginhoven and WAM's Education Coordinator Alicia Maher, with Oppermann, playwright Kate Cayley, actors David Adkins and Corinna May, the design team, author Adriana Millenaar Brown, Julia Courtney, Curator of Art at the Springfield Museums, and representatives from the Berkshire Commission on the Status of Women.

The American premiere of The Bakelite Masterpiece, written by Kate Cayley and directed by Kristen van Ginhoven, ran from September 29 through October 23, 2016, at the Berkshire Theatre Group's Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge, MA.

Based in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, WAM Theatre is Where Arts and Activism Meet. The company was co-founded in 2010 by Canadian director, actor, educator, and producer Kristen van Ginhoven. WAM's vision is to create opportunity for women and girls through the mission of theatre as philanthropy.

Inspired by the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, WAM donates a portion of the proceeds from its theatrical events to organizations that benefit women and girls.

Since 2010 years, WAM Theatre has donated more than $30,000 to twelve nonprofit organizations and provided paid work to more than 175 theatre artists. In addition to the main stage productions and special events, WAM Theatre's activities include a comprehensive educational outreach program and the Fresh Takes Play Reading Series. For more information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com.

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