WAM Theatre Artistic Team
Kristen van Ginhoven: Artistic Director, co-Founder
kristen@wamtheatre.com
Kristen’s WAM Theatre credits include directing ‘The Attic, The Pearls and Three Fine Girls’ by Jennifer Brewin, Leah Cherniak, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Alisa Palmer and Martha Ross (beneficiary: Berkshire United Way Teen Pregnancy Prevention Initiative) ‘Melancholy Play’ by Sarah Ruhl (beneficiary: Women’s Fund of Western MA) and ‘The Last Standing Protestor’ by Lydia Styk for ‘A WAM Welcome’ (beneficiary: Women for Women International). Additional directing credits include ‘Petticoats of Steel’ at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, NY, ‘Vendetta Chrome’ at Emerson College in Boston, a staged reading of ‘If We are Women’ by Joanna McLelland Glass for Theatre Voices in Albany, NY and ‘Footloose’ at the Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, NY. Kristen has been assistant director to Edward Hall on ‘Two Men of Florence’ at the Huntington Theatre in Boston, MA, Jesse Berger on ‘Sleuth’ and ‘Absurd Person Singular’ at the Barrington Stage Company in Pittsfield, MA and Melia Bensussen on ‘Taming of the Shrew’ at the Actor’s Shakespeare Project in Boston, MA. Kristen has also been involved as a director with projects at the Majestic Theatre in West Springfield, MA and ArtsEmerson in Boston, MA. She is an associate member of the Society of Stage Director’s and Choreographers.
Her career as an actor includes playing such roles as ‘Helena’ in ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Rosalind’ in ‘As You Like It’ by William Shakespeare, Claire’ in ‘Proof’ by David Auburn and as ‘Beatrice’ in ‘A View From the Bridge’ by Arthur Miller. She worked in various regional Canadian theatres, such as the Neptune Theatre, the Sudbury Theatre Centre and the Tarragon Theatre in Toronto, where she was part of the world premiere of Jason Sherman’s ‘An Acre of Time’. Most recently, she played ‘Molly’ in ‘Molly Sweeney by Brian Friel for Theatre Voices in Albany, NY, and ‘Dotty Otley’ in ‘Noises Off’ by Michael Frayn at the Cohoes Music Hall in Cohoes, NY. Kristen is a proud member of the Canadian Actor’s Equity Association (CAEA).
As an theatre educator, Kristen has worked at Emerson College in Boston, MA and Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. She is a freelance artist for ISTA (International Schools Theatre Association), an association devoted to international youth theatre education who hold events and festivals worldwide where young people, teachers and artists come together to explore theatre through intense collaboration. For ISTA, she has travelled to places such as China, Thailand, India, Berlin, London, Portugal and Paris.
Kristen has a Masters in Theatre Education from Emerson College, where she received the Presidential Fellowship, a Bachelor of Arts from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University.
Leigh Strimbeck: Artistic Advisor, co-Founder
leigh@wamtheatre.com
Leigh’s WAM Theatre credits include playing the role of ‘Joan’ in ‘Melancholy Play’ by Sarah Ruhl (beneficiary: Women’s Fund of Western MA) and directing ‘Mirror, Mirror’ in ‘A WAM Welcome’ (beneficiary: Women for Women International). Leigh is an actor, director, writer and acting teacher. Her college education included two years at Bennington College and two years at New York University, where she graduated with a BFA in Dance/Drama. Most recently, Leigh played ‘Florence Dobbe’ in the film Love Orchard, directed by Farhad Mann starring Kristanna Loken & Bruce Dern. She also played ‘Clare’ in ‘Kingdom of the Shore’ written by Terence Lamude and directed by Maggie Mancinelli-Cahill at Capital Repertory Theatre in Albany, NY
Her teaching began in New York City 30 years ago at the Actors and Directors Lab, and she has taught almost continuously since then. Later, she moved to Sweden where she learned the language, taught theater, and toured with a children’s theater company for a year. When she returned to the US she joined the Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble (BTE) in Bloomsburg, PA, where she remains an Associate Member. There she continued to teach, perform and began directing. Plays she directed at BTE include: ‘Fools Rush In, ‘Voice of the Prairie, ‘Sea Marks’, ‘The Nest’, ‘Daytrips’, ‘The Baltimore Waltz’ and ‘Death of a Salesman’.
During her twelve years with BTE she acted in dozens of plays and served as Ensemble Director for three years. She was a site reporter for the National Endowment for the Arts for five years, and spent three years on the professional theatre companies panel. She traveled with BTE during a USIA tour of Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Namibia. The following year she returned to Zimbabwe for five weeks to adjudicate the National Theater Organization of Zimbabwe’s Theatre festival and to teach workshops.
Other plays directed at various regional theaters include ‘Children of a Lesser God’, ‘On the Verge’, ‘Tonight We Improvise’, ‘The Mystery of Irma Vep’ and ‘Private Eyes’. She co-wrote and directed ‘Berwick’, ‘America’ and ‘This House Builded’, both history plays commissioned by their communities. One man shows: ‘Here be Dragons’, co-written with Paul Outlaw; ‘Heavy Mettle’ and “Working Class’, both written and performed by Richard Hoehler.
Leigh also works with the New York State Defender’s Institute as a communications coach for their annual conferences and was an adjunct professor at SUNY Albany for 11 years.
Currently Leigh works as an Assistant Professor of Theatre at Russell Sage College in Troy, New York where she has created and directed a work about young women, body image, and the pressure to be perfect called ‘Mirror, Mirror’. In 2010 she worked on a new piece with the women of Russell Sage, ‘I’m Not a Feminist, But….’ a look at the past 50 years of feminism and why the majority of young women today don’t identify as feminists.
WAM Theatre’s graphic design work is done by Enrico Spada.http://enricospada.com/