Pecha Kucha speech, Berkshire Museum, March 8, 2012
WAM co-founder Leigh Strimbeck participated in the Berkshire’s first Pecha Kucha on International Women’s Day. She did her speech in iambic pentameter. Below is the text and some photos. Thanks to Berkshire Museum for the photos. WAM is proud to have been part of this first event, especially as it fell on International Women’s Day!
Good evening.
When you give an artist a tight framework
They’re driven to bust the frame to smith’reens
Or tighten the screws for the mere exercise
Of challenging their creativity to meet
A prescribed definition of commun-
ication hence my talk today has been
Written in iambic pentameter
Hoping to tell you a tale and give you a grin.
Once upon at time, two females were born
In countries known for fair equality
(Canada and the US of A)
Raised up they were and right educated
And while not nearly in the one percent
A list of their schools shows that fortune bent
In their favor: Bennington, Emerson, NYU
To name but a few where they both studied
In theater where their hearts grew large
After many a year teaching, travelling
Performing and the like their stars crossed
In Upstate New York, where their theater geekdom
Sparked passionate discussions, comparison
Of notes and declamations of Dionysean desire
Then as final fuel to the fire a book:
“Hark! OMG! & Behold” they cried
To one another when first they spied
Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof
And Sheryl Wudunn a book which
Espoused “Education of girls is
The issue major of this century”
So they met in two thousand and nine
With this vexing question foremost
‘What’ll we do to create opportunity
For both the female theater artist
And women and girls world over who !
Need a lift, a gift, from those who have
So much?” We know, we know – WAM, WAM Theatre
The world needs another 501c3!
We’ll dedicate ourselves part time to
This unique double philanthropy!
We’ll do 2 plays a year and rent a place
And each time, each show, a percentage
Of proceeds will go to a beneficiary
That helps women and girls here and abroad!
This idea may be, shall we say, the word
Oft used when women step out and try something new
“Crazy” but here’s what we both knew: these are
Crazy times, there’s no use denying it
So let’s get down, let’s go on and do it:
We’ll create theater work for us women
Directors who have it tough to find a gig
And for women playwrights who voices don’t
Get heard enough even here even now
In the United States of America –
We will do theatre that is not too sad
Plays that lift up hearts and inquiring minds
Pay our artists every time as best we can
and you’d be surprised how rare that t’is
For an upstart company with no angel, alas
But having both been theater artists long enough
To know that being asked to work for free is
A constant, and a low blow. We know
There is an energy we feel, we see
Every time an audience gathers to view
A work of theater having dragged themselves
Up and away from distractions galore
And made the strong choice to risk a slice
Of precious time to witness something novel
A community forms however brief
But the altruistic space is massive!
Kickstarter gave us a platform so we
Shot a video and put it out there
Thirty-five hundred please
Cried we, and getting just a tad bit more
Were off to the races and heading towards
Our first big work Sarah Ruhl’s Melancholy Play
Stunning writing by one of America’s best
On love at first sight and our amygdala-liness!
(Hey, Shakespeare made up words too!)
We chose our second beneficiary the
Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts+
Produced, paid our artists and wrote a check
For $1500 to this fantastic group
Right away planning for our next deal
The fundraising 24 Hour Theater Festival
Goal of which is to bring Berkshire Artists
Together with Capital Region Thespians
Writing, acting, producing five plays+
Brand new in 24 “frantastic” hours
Now, this is big fun you must understand
Stretching our creativity like —–taffy.
Onward cried we and jumped right back in
(We’re in Spring 2011 now)
With the O Solo Mama Mia Festival
Producing 5 female performers
Over two weekends in two venues
Solo plays on the Golden Age, Depression,
How to be a Friend of Sappho’s in 10 Days,
Katrina’s devastation and, as well,
the healing powers of the Weinermobile
Bridged two states, weekends, and diffr’ing venues
WAM to Troy New York and Pittsfield, Mass
Then giving to Edna’s Hospital In Somaliland
Six hundred and dollars forty
Enough to train, for that countryside
To gain one community midwife
Reducing the rate of fistula and death
For women laboring in a land with
Maternal health care at a standard too low
WAM! Women’s. Action. Movement is here t’stay!
And galloping on not wanting to lose
Momentum gained in a hard won way
The Attic, the Pearls and Three Fine Girls
At Barrington Stage two appeared
For our longest run yet written by
Five Canadian women and performed
By three thespians local and paid
Kristen directed this treat beautifully
which ticket sales allowed us to give
Our highest donation yet to a local beneficiary
Berkshire United Way Teen Pregnancy
Prevention Initiative – handing off
One thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars!
Social media and relentless posting on Facebook
Twitter and the like allowed us to successfully
Complete two thousand and eleven’s
Hundred by hundred campaign meaning
WAM exceeded our fundraising goals
For the year and continued to plan
Our season ahead: in Lenox we invite
You to see the 24 Hour Theater
Festival redux with fifty artists meeting
At Shakespeare and Company on April fourteenth
In August come see us create for you,
as company in residence at the
Word by Word Festival a fine and new
Workshop piece of theater which concerns the
Impact of technology on lives of women
Facebook, Twitter, smart phones our second brain
Helping us? Hurting us? A boon or a bane?
And in the fall we bring The Old Mezzo
A meditation on the political
awakening of a great opera singer
by Berkshire resident playwright Suzie
Dworkin whose work is strong and – groovy.
Final Statistics to leave you with we brag:
Over one thousand audience members
Have seen our events. Our donations have now,
To organizations here and abroad
Reached pretty near five thousand dollars
We’ve work with over 100 theater
artists and proudly say just over
eighty percent have been female.
Education, opportunity, and
Bettering the lives of women and girls
Here and abroad continues to be our thrill
Along with creating the best theater work
That meets the needs of our bill –
But before I depart and risk the malign
Of leaving you with a poor, tragic rhyme,
I want to thank you for turning your ears
To the tale of 2 who set aside fears
And founded a double philanthropy
To celebrate our potential as community
Now indulge me that chance for one last cram:
Remember it, think on it: WAM, WAM, WAM!
