Production Program

Community engagement around our main stage productions

WAM Theatre generally produces one to two main stage productions per year. In keeping with our double philanthropic mission, each production has a beneficiary; an organization that is working to benefit women and girls. Our beneficiaries receive a portion of our box office proceeds. In our first nine years, WAM Theatre has donated over $56,500 to our first fifteen recipients.

To heighten the cultural enrichment and impact of the overall experience of coming to a WAM Theatre production, we aim to provide access to our audiences in two ways: subsidized tickets for schools and social service groups, and community engagement activities such as panels and workshops that allow multiple access points to the world of the play and expand the conversations the play begins.

Education programs around our main stage productions encourage conversation and create an opportunity to process issues raised in the play in a safe, community oriented manner. Prior experience shows that providing subsidized tickets to local organizations in conjunction with an educational engagement program results in deeper, more impactful links with our production, our community and the under-served women and girls who live in our community.

Our 2018 community engagement programming for ANN included three post-performance discussions:

  • Women in Politics – a conversation about the unique challenges and opportunities faced by women running for elected office in the United States with Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, recent candidate for the Massachusetts First Congressional District; Stephanie Bosley, recent candidate for the First Berkshire District of the Massachusetts House of Representatives; and former Massachusetts Governor Jane Swift (the only woman to have served as Governor in our state’s history.)
  • Student matinee Talk Back with director Kristen van Ginhoven and actor Jayne Atkinson
  • Integrating Activism into Artistic Choices –  a conversation with regional theatre leaders: Amanda Rafuse, the Director of Artistic Outreach for Northern Stage Company, Daniel Elihu Kramer, Artistic Director of the Chester Theatre Company, Lee Mikeska Gardner, Artistic Director of The Nora Theatre Company, Kristen van Ginhoven, the Co-Founder and Artistic Director of WAM Theatre, and Dina Janis, the Artistic Director of the Dorset Theatre Festival.

Groups that came to ANN included: Reid Middle School, BART Charter School, Berkshire Community College, Miss Hall’s School, MCLA, MultiCultural Bridge’s Immigrant Women’s Group, and Soldier On.

If you are interested in arranging subsidized tickets for your school or community group, please contact: talya@wamtheatre.com