by Talya Kingston, Associate Artistic Director
Humans process our experiences through stories, (and boy do we have a lot to process right now!). The stories we tell about our lives, our histories, and our world, shape us as we move forward.
Performance Artist Peggy Shaw once told me that simply showcasing a women on stage in all her complexities is an act of radical feminism, since, along with other traditionally marginalized identities, we have been long relegated to supporting roles in someone elses story. With this in mind, WAM’s expanded artistic team (Kristen van Ginhoven, Tatiana Godfrey, Cate Alston and myself) have selected a 2022 Performance Season of ground-breaking narratives that place complex women center stage.
The beauty of live theater is, of course, that we get to experience stories together in community. This is especially true after prolonged periods of social isolation. From the beginning of planning this season, (and after listening to a podcast with Priya Parker) Kristen challenged us to think of “the art of gathering” as an integral part of our storytelling. You’ll see this in the way that we are collaborating with sister social-justice organizations and different arts venues criss-crossing the region throughout the year. We matched plays with venues and partners that allow each one to be a unique and exciting event.
We’ll begin in May in Pittsfield at the Berkshire Museum with Amy Berryman’s play The New Galileos, presented in collaboration with Flying Cloud Institute’s Girls In Science program. This science fiction play takes us into the near future where three scientists are being asked to falsify data in order for it to better fit with a political agenda. Some of you might recognize Amy’s name from her play Walden, which was the hit of TheatreWorks Hartford’s last season and has recently been performed in London’s West End. We are privileged to have been trusted with Amy’s latest work and are thrilled to be welcoming back Megan Sandberg-Zakian to direct a Berkshire cast in this dynamic reading.
Next, in June, we’ll head to North Adams for a reading of Tanya Barfield’s Bright Half Life at MASS MoCA. This fast-paced story takes us back and forth in time in a relationship between Vicky and Erica, from first meeting, to marriage, children, skydiving and the infinite moments that make a life together. It will be directed by UMass Theater Professor Gina Kaufmann. We’ve been excited about Bright Half Life for some time, and we’re thrilled to present it, in part, as a celebration of Pride Month, 18 years after Massachusetts became the first state in the country to legalize gay marriage.
In July, we’re hosting a special benefit cabaret performance hosted by Jayne Atkinson (star of stage & screen that WAM audiences will remember from her dazzling portrayal of Governor Ann Richards). In this MisCast Cabaret, WAM artists (accompanied by live musicians) will perform favorite Broadway songs from roles in which they would not traditionally be cast–a fun way to question traditional casting while singing along! The musical theatre nerds on the WAM team (I’ll leave you to guess who) are really excited about this event and may even be featured on stage!
In August, we’ll revisit a favorite from our 2018 Fresh Takes Play Reading Series. Living through a global pandemic makes Caryl Churchill’s Escaped Alone even more pertinent. Written by one of the most celebrated playwrights in the world, it places four older women center stage to explore global disaster over afternoon tea. WAM’s Producing Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven will direct a group of Berkshire County’s favorite actors at The Mount, Edith Wharton’s Home, in Lenox.
As always WAM will culminate our season with our fall mainstage production. Tori Sampson’s play Cadillac Crew takes us into a Civil Rights office in mid-1963, where four activists are eagerly awaiting a promised speech by Rosa Parks. When violence from the streets outside infiltrates the office, the women are forced to question how far they are willing to take their activism. WAM’s Tatiana Godfrey, who will be the production dramaturg, recently said of the play, “I fall even more in love with Cadillac Crew every time I read it. I can’t wait to see this in front of an audience.”
WAM returns to Shakespeare & Company in Lenox to produce this explosive story on the stage of the Tina Packer Playhouse in October. This production will feature celebrated Berkshire-based actor MaConnia Chesser (fresh off her dynamic solo performance of An Iliad) at the center of a dynamic story that promises to leave you questioning what else is left out of historical records.
For those of you who are not able to gather in person, we will be offering online content (workshops, conversations, and performances) throughout the season for you to enjoy from the comfort of your own homes. This includes our upcoming free workshops: Playwriting with Winter Miller and Improvisation with Tatiana Godfrey, and a new Spotlight Series of conversations with theatre artists that will take you behind the scenes to interrogate their process and how their work intersects with activism.
At a time of immense turbulence, WAM’s 2022 season will allow us to gather around dynamic stories of women, defying expectations and stereotypes, and stepping into power in unexpected ways. It’s a season that recognizes multiple, intersecting oppressions of racism, ageism, sexism, and homophobia, and how our identities and relationships are shaped in relation to them. After reading Bright Half Life, for example, WAM’s General Manager Dori Parkman said: “This story is so relatable, but the fact that it was focused on two women sharing their lives meant the world to me. This was the first time that I felt like I saw MY story on stage. There’s nothing that compares to feeling seen and heard through art.”
These plays can be conversation starters, amplify activism, and enable us to imagine future possibilities, but they can also be radical in the simple type of recognition that Dori describes. These are not stories that will dictate a direction for the world, or tell you what to think or how to behave. Like all great stories they will allow you a break from your own world for an hour or two to live inside of someone else’s head, and just maybe emerge with fresh perspective, questions, and ideas.
We are SO excited to begin gathering around these stories of female empowerment and we hope you’ll join us!