LENOX, Mass. — Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven, Associate Artistic Director Talya Kingston, and the WAM team announced a 2022 centering around theatrical stories and a cabaret benefit performance that will take place in venues across the region.

 

The season includes: "The New Galileos" by Amy Berryman, "Bright Half Life" by Tanya Barfield, a "MisCast Cabaret, Escaped Alone" by Caryl Churchill, and "Cadillac Crew" by Tori Sampson.  

 

"WAM's 13th season puts women center stage and in control of their own lives and bodies," said Talya Kingston, WAM Associate Artistic Director. "We are thrilled to be collaborating with arts venues from across the region and incredible Berkshire-based theatre artists  to present a series of dynamic and unique live performances as gathering spaces for community. At each event, we will witness women stepping out of a narrative that has been set for them and into their own power in unexpected ways. Written by some of our best living playwrights, the stories we will share explode with ideas but center on relationships and in doing so offer new perspectives on how to interact with each other and the world."

 

Descriptions included in a press release are italicized.

 

The season begins with a staged reading of "The New Galileos" by Amy Berryman (Walden Theaterworks Hartford & London's West End), directed by Megan Sandberg-Zakian (WAM's Holy Laughter; Skeleton Crew at Huntington Theatre Co.), performed on Sunday May 1 at 2pm at Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield. This reading is being presented in partnership with Berkshire Museum and Flying Cloud Institute's Girls In Science Program.

 

In a future not too distant from our own, three female scientists—a marine biologist, a glaciologist, and a soil expert—are being held hostage by their government because of their work fighting climate change. As they are interrogated, the women face the ultimate question: what are they willing to sacrifice to defend the truth? Amy Berryman's edgy new play explores the interaction of science and capitalism. 

 

"I'm thrilled to be returning to WAM, and especially to be digging into Amy Berryman's vivid and gripping The New Galileos." said director Megan Sandberg-Zakian. "As the daughter of a molecular biologist mom, I am wildly moved and terrified by this brilliant intersection of a near-future authoritarian regime with the personal, professional, and ethical stakes that female scientists already face." 

 

Next will be "Bright Half Life" by Tanya Barfield (The Call at Playwrights' Horizons; The Blue Door, Pulitzer nominee), directed by Gina Kaufmann (Williamstown Theatre Festival, Shakespeare & Company). This play will be presented at Mass MoCA in North Adams on Sunday June 5 at 2pm in celebration of Pride Month eighteen years after Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage. 

 

A kaleidoscopic play about love, heartbreak, skydiving, and the infinite moments that make a relationship. Hailed by The New Yorker as a "well-written portrayal of smart women finding, losing, and finding themselves and each other again," Bright Half Life follows the deep and complicated love story of Vicky and Erica. Pause. Rewind. Fast forward. And hold on! 

 

"I fell in love with Bright Half Life because it is about two women who feel real to me and who I can wholly root for," said director Gina Kaufmann. "The play asks whether love, even huge soulmate love, even love that includes family and kids, is enough to give our lives meaning." 

 

On Thursday July 7, WAM will host an evening of Broadway music, hosted by Tony Award and Drama Desk Nominee Jayne Atkinson (WAM's Ann, The Rainmaker, Enchanted April). In this MisCast Cabaret, WAM artists, accompanied by live musicians, will perform songs from musical theatre roles in which they would not traditionally be cast. 

 

Next WAM will present "Escaped Alone" by Caryl Churchill (Cloud 9, Top Girls) directed by Kristen van Ginhoven (WAM's Producing Artistic Director and Co-Founder). take place on Sunday August 7 at The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home in Lenox. 

 

Back by popular demand and featuring some of the region's favorite actors, Escaped Alone, by iconic feminist playwright Caryl Churchill, brings us to a backyard where three old friends and a neighbor spend a series of summer afternoons chatting, while visions of apocalyptic horror play out inside their minds. Deemed "the most dazzlingly inventive living dramatist in the English language" by The New York Times, Churchill entwines histories, laughter, and song over tea and catastrophe.

 

"While written before this pandemic, Escaped Alone provides a resonant opportunity to use humor and absurdity to look at it all," said Kristen van Ginhoven. "If we can't laugh at all we are facing in our inner and outer worlds, then what do we have? I am excited to explore how one of our most esteemed contemporary female playwrights defies convention to explore how we navigate catastrophe." 

 

WAM's fall mainstage production will be "Cadillac Crew" by Tori Sampson (If Pretty Hurts Ugly Must be a Muhfucka, Playwrights Horizons; This Land Was Made, Vineyard Theater) featuring Featuring MaConnia Chesser (WAM's ROE, The Virgin Trial, et al.; An Iliad, Ancram Opera House & Shakespeare & Company) performed at the Tina Packer Playhouse at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox.

 

The play opens with four female activists working in a Virginia civil rights office on the day of a much anticipated speech by Rosa Parks. From the Civil Rights Movement to the present day, Cadillac Crew illuminates forgotten leaders who blazed the trail for desegregation and women's rights. With remarkable insight, explosive storytelling and unexpected humor, the play asks, what happens when black women refuse to be written out of history?

 

In addition to WAM's performance programming, the company has expanded its Community Engagement programs and outreach. Beginning in March with two free online workshops - Playwriting with Winter Miller (In Darfur, The Penetration Play) and Improvisation with Tatiana Godrey  (Improv Cincinnati and Impro Theatre LA) -  WAM also will bring back their theatre ensembles: the Teen Ensemble during the April school break and the Elder Ensemble in August. Other programming include a new online conversation series.  

 

Much of the 2022 Season will also be available as a live stream for those who wish to partake in WAM's offerings from the comfort of their own homes. 

 

TICKETS

WAM's Fresh Takes Play Pass is now on sale. See all 3 with the purchase of a Fresh Takes Play Pass. Seating is limited at all Fresh Takes readings, and expected to sell-out, your purchase of a Fresh Takes Play Pass guarantees your seat all season.

 

Each Pass includes one ticket each to: "The New Galileos" on Sunday May 1 at Berkshire Museum; "Bright Half Life" on Sunday June 5 at Mass Moca, Club B10; "Escaped Alone" on Sunday August 7 at The Mount, Edith Wharton's Home.

 

Single tickets to Fresh Takes play readings will go on sale March 15.

 

WAM will release tickets for the "MisCast Cabaret" and fall mainstage "Cadillac Crew" in the coming months.

 

For tickets and more information about WAM Theatre's 2022 Season, programs, events, and artists, visit wamtheatre.com.