(PHOTO: The Stockbridge-Munsee Community Family Services Center at their recent Christmas party.)
In keeping with WAM Theatre’s mission, we are thrilled to announce that $1,850 raised from tickets to Kamloopa will be given to the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohicans Family Services Center for their healing work with women in the community.
Throughout the process of Kamloopa (WAM’s fall mainstage production), WAM has been in conversation with members of the Stockbridge-Munsee community. We began our production process in early 2021 with a team meeting attended by Heather Breugl (then the tribe’s Cultural Affairs Director) who helped us brainstorm meaningful ways to connect our artists and audience with the Mohican people, on whose Ancestral land we would be performing. These included: complimentary tickets to tribal elders and representatives to attend the live and streamed performances, opportunities built into the production schedule to “break bread” together, Mohican historical information and guided hikes with members of the production team, a written land acknowledgement and handouts in the lobby of Shakespeare & Company’s Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre.
Those who attended the Kamloopa Opening Night will not soon forget the way that Mohican Ceremonialist Shawn Stevens opened the space with haunting music on his flute and historical and personal context to ground us. It was meaningful and moving to the artists and audiences alike as we embarked on presenting the play that writer Kim Senklip Harvey named as an Indigenous Artistic Ceremony.
Although the Mohican Tribe was driven from the Berkshires, it now resides in Wisconsin and is known as the Stockbridge-Munsee Community (much more about this history can be found here).
The Family Services Center provides the Stockbridge-Munsee Community with vital daily services such as after-school programming for K-12 students, homeless shelters, domestic violence shelter, living skills education and family fun.
After running this program for eight years, the center’s manager Kori Price says: “I have seen families just needing a little bit of help, such as paying for their drivers license and putting new tires on their car so they can continue to work, to helping them obtain their documents such as social security cards and birth certificates so they can obtain employment. Some clients we help one time and they never have to come back, and some clients we provide some type of services to help them reach their goals every month, but it is helping them become one step closer to being able to provide for themselves and/or their children.”
The donation from WAM Theatre’s production of Kamloopa will be put towards healing for women in the community. Kori Price is planning: “social gatherings with the females such as: tea parties, mediation and sharing groups, self-reflection sessions, reiki sessions, painting/art classes, etc.” She also notes that “we would like to provide personal hygiene bags to the women.”
All of us at WAM want to thank everyone who attended the live and streamed performances for helping us raise this money.
WAM Theatre is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts through the New England Arts Resilience Fund, part of the United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund, an initiative of the U.S. Regional Arts Organizations and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, with major funding from the federal CARES Act for the National Endowment for the Arts.
WAM’s current sponsors include Adams Community Bank, Blue Q,, Blue Spark Financial, Downright Pro, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Guidos, Health Professional Coaching, Heller & Robbins, Interprint, Only in my Dreams Events, Onyx Specialty Papers, Outpost Productions, Prix Fixe, RB Design Co., T Square Design Studio, Toole Insurance, a. von schlegell & co, and the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts.
WAM Theatre’s 2021 Season is also supported in part by grants from The Berkshire Film and Media Collaborative, Berkshire Regional Planning Commission, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Mass Humanities, and the Scarlet Sock Foundation; as well as grants from the Dalton Cultural Council, Lee Cultural Council, Lenox Cultural Council, Pittsfield Cultural Council, and the Otis Cultural Council.
About the Stockbridge-Munsee Family Services Program:
The Stockbridge-Munsee Family Services Program seeks to provide educational programming and direct services to families of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community. We believe that strong families are vital to the well-being of the individual and the community as a whole. We strive to deliver enriching programs in a safe and nurturing environment, to motivate leadership, self-awareness, respect and responsibility. We are committed to preventing violence and abuse and to advocating for those who have been harmed. By drawing on the community’s strengths, we can foster positive growth and change. We understand the importance of our Native American culture and spirituality as we take part in creating and sustaining a strong, healthy community. To fulfill our mission, the following services are offered: Emergency shelter, Independent living skills for adults and teens, Supervised visitation for youth and elderly, Emergency food and clothing, Domestic violence training, Staffing in-services, Information and referral, Parenting in-home and office, Assessments for adolescents and Client and youth transportation
ABOUT WAM THEATRE
WAM Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Berkshire County, MA, that operates at the intersection of arts and activism. WAM creates theatre for gender equity and has a vision of theatre as philanthropy.
In fulfillment of its philanthropic mission, WAM donates a portion of the proceeds from their Mainstage productions to carefully selected beneficiaries. Since WAM’s founding in 2010, they have donated more than $80,000 to 22 local and global organizations taking action for gender equity in areas such as girls education, teen pregnancy prevention, sexual trafficking awareness, midwife training, and more.
In addition to Mainstage productions and special events, WAM’s activities include innovative community engagement programs and the Fresh Takes Play Reading Series. To date, WAM has provided paid work to more than 500 theatre artists, the majority of whom are female-identifying.
As a civic organization that embraces intersectional feminism (feminism that acknowledges how multiple forms of discrimination overlap), WAM understands that to address one piece of systemic discrimination means we have to address them all. This is on-going personal and professional work at WAM for the staff and board, detailed in their recently released accountability plan.
WAM Theatre has been widely recognized for having a positive impact on cultural and community development in the region. WAM is the recipient of the Creative Economy Standout Berkshire Trendsetter Award and previously, was named Outstanding Philanthropy Corporation of the Year by the Western MA Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Kristen van Ginhoven, WAM’s Producing Artistic Director, was honored by the Berkshire Theatre Critics Association (BTCA) with the prestigious Larry Murray Award, presented at the discretion of the BTCA Board to a person or theatre project that advances social, political, or community issues in Berkshire County.
For more information, visit www.WAMTheatre.com