Vision Statement

WAM envisions a world where women and girls have equal opportunities and equal access to learning, earning, expression, and aspiration.

Mission

WAM Theatre’s mission is to create professional theatre with a focus on the stories of people who identify as women*, and to use that art as activism to support opportunities for women and girls.

WAM’s Role

WAM pursues its mission by supporting storytelling of women’s lives through theatre, providing not only the message but also the means for other organizations to have a transformational effect on the lives of women and girls everywhere.

Goal One

Tell more stories. ART is the defining aspect of WAM and its vehicle for activism and change. Aspire to produce artistically excellent, transformational theatre about women’s lives, that is relevant to our times, accessible to everyone, and produced in alignment with WAM’s accountability commitments.

Strategies

• Within 3 years, produce 2 full productions per year on a sustainable basis, in addition to other artistic endeavors and Community Engagement programs, expanding WAM’s message, activism, and ability to hire and equitably pay women theatre artists and staff
• Utilizing formal criteria to protect WAM’s values and accountability work, explore a longer-term residency/partnership with a theatre company or other institution endowed with significant performance venues, production resources, and operational support, to enhance WAM’s ability to plan and commit to its seasons

Goal Two

Contribute to the global work of dismantling oppression, particularly as it relates to women and girls, by deepening relationships and community work.

Strategies

• Continue mission-driven and values-aligned community and artistic collaborations
• Focus on the intersectional issues of gender, race, ability, age, sexuality, class
• Amplify public information that enhances awareness about issues impacting the progress of women and girls
• Continue WAM’s unique philanthropic practice of redistributing a portion of box office receipts to local, national, and global organizations that focus on creating opportunities for women and girls
• Provide equitable employment opportunities to an increased number of women theatre artists, creatives, and administrators
• Continue reimagining board and committee structure to reflect WAM’s equity values
• Continue accountability training and education for all staff, board, and volunteers, offering opportunities to the larger community when possible
• Participate in equity initiatives in Berkshire County, and in the larger arts community

Goal Three

A financially sustainable WAM Theatre, necessary to attain Goals One and Two, recognizing that their pursuit may at times conflict with WAM’s accountability commitments and unique culture, both of which must take precedence.

Strategies

• Commit to equity as a driver of a sustainable financial plan that projects realistic and achievable growth and expansion and that prioritizes staff capacity
• Create a 5-year financial plan to support increasing production and growing some current part-time positions into full-time positions to create capacity for the increased schedule
• Create and implement a resource development plan (fundraising, supporter engagement, in-kind support, grants, shared resources with others) consistent with WAM’s values and accountability commitments.
• Address staff and artist pay equity, benefits, working conditions, and staff growth in the long-term financial plan
• Create a succession/pathway plan that reflects WAM’s values, accountability goals, and strategic directions

*Language around gender is ever evolving. At the time of this plan, woman is defined as cisgender, woman, transwoman, and all others who identify as woman.