LENOX, MASS.: WAM Theatre has announced a 2021 season, a season which will see the theatre focus on exploring their roots, ancestors, and legacy in an effort to move toward a future where there is room for everyone.
“We are thrilled to be working with such incredible theatre artists in our 12th season and can’t wait for our WAMily to enjoy their work,” said producing artistic director Kristen van Ginhoven in a statement. “In line with our recently released accountability plan, the plays WAM will present this season deliberately shift our gaze away from white-centric stories and modes of storytelling and invite us all into conversation about a new future.”
The season will open with Letters by Kamala (March 14-21), by Rachel Lynett. This play, created in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, allows three American political leaders to share their wisdom and perspective with then-candidate Kamala Harris. The play features Charlotta Bass, the first Black woman candidate for vice president, Charlene Mitchell, the first Black woman to run for president, and Patsy Matsu Takemoto Mink, the first woman of color to be elected to the House of Representatives, first Asian American woman to run in Congress, and the first Asian American to run for president. This play will stream as part of WAM’s Fresh Takes Play Readings series and will be directed by Nicole Brewer.
Next up will be The Light (April 25-May 2), by Loy A. Webb, another in the Fresh Takes Play Reading series. Colette Robert will direct this steamed reading about a surprise proposal gift that puts a relationship at risk when a couple is forced to confront a secret from the past.
This fall, WAM’s fall mainstage production will be Kamloopa, by Kim Senklip Harvey. The play follows two urban Indigenous sisters as they encounter a spirited shapeshifter and work to come to terms with what it means to honor themselves and where they came from. Dates for this production have not been announced. Estafanía Fadul will direct.
Founded in 2010, WAM Theatre operates at the intersection of arts and activism, creating theatre for gender equity and focusing on a mission of philanthropy that has seen the theatre donate a portion of the proceeds from its mainstage productions to local and global organizations taking action for gender equity.
