Review: WAM Theatre, Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story

Elayne Bernstein Theatre, Lenox, MA

www.wamtheatre.com

through October 24, 2021 (streaming digitally November 1-7)

by Jarice Hanson

 

Photo by David Dashiell

WAM Theatre’s new production of “Kamloopa: An Indigenous Matriarch Story” is an important contribution to the burgeoning field of cultural stories that broaden our understanding of traditions of oppressed peoples and the perspectives of people who have systematically been undermined. The story weaves together themes of popular culture, self-awareness, critical self-analysis, personal expectations amid cultural stereotypes, and female relationships. Though the story addresses serious topics and issues, they are framed as a comedy. The balancing act is difficult, but successful.

 

Set in Canada on the traditional Syilx Territory, the spoken language that introduces the play and functions as a touchpoint throughout the two hour, two act play, is Nsylixcin. For an audience member who has little knowledge of northern tribal nations, the language is complex, beautiful, and redolent of historical richness. It draws the ear into listening closely, and that is part of the story’s mission—to honor indigenous people and reclaim identity. The three actresses and the production‘s creative team are all people who identify as persons of color, and many are members of Indigenous Nations.

 

Author Kim Senklip Harvey is a gifted playwright whose growing body of work focuses on Indigenous theater and storytelling. She is most definitely a playwright and author to watch, and in addition to her plays, she is the author of a book titled: “Love Stories from a Salish Plateau Dirtbag” (soon to be published), and she is working on an adaptation of the award-winning “Kamloopa” for television.

 

Director Estefanía Fadul has mined the joy in the script. As she states in her program notes: “This play invites us on a madcap adventure as three women work out the messiness of identity and what it means to belong, subverting all expectations and crafting their own path.” The three actresses, each of whom plays multiple parts, are Sarah B. Denison, Jasmine Rochelle Goodspeed, and Ria Nez. They play their characters with crisp differentiation. Carolyn Eng’s sound design is subtle, but oh, so effective, aided in part by original drumming by Ty Defoe.

 

WAM Theater is committed to building relationship with “Indigenous Tribes, Nations, and Peoples on whose land we live and work.” As part of the mission of WAM, which stands for “Where Arts & Activism Meet,” this show, and others, starts with the acknowledgement that “It is with gratitude and humility that we acknowledge that we are working, performing, and gathering on the Ancestral Homelands of the Mohican people, who are the Indigenous peoples of this land."

PREVIEW: WAM, Lady Randy

WAM, Lenox, MA
www.wamtheatre.com
April 20-May 5, 2019

Lady Randolph Churchill, c 1880

Most people have no idea who Lady Randy was. Yet, Jennie Jerome, the mother of Winston Churchill, was the proverbial female force to be reckoned with in her own right. She was a woman who was at once so ahead of her time and yet very much a product of her era.

The world premiere of “Lady Randy” by Anne Undeland takes the Shakespeare & Company Bernstein Theatre stage this spring. The play kicks-off the first production of WAM’s 10th Anniversary. The play was first developed by Undeland and director Jim Frangione at the Berkshire Playwrights’ Lab, making this a true collaboration of outstanding regional talent.

“Lady Randy” began its life at Berkshire Playwrights Lab (BPL) and has been in development by WAM staff for the past year and a half. BPL’s mission is to give playwrights a safe and supportive environment.

Undeland will play the title role, with WAM newcomer Mark Zeisler portraying the roles of Winston Churchill and nine other smaller roles. Undeland is well known to local audiences for her one-woman shows at Ventfort Hall, and performances at Mixed Company in Great Barrington and Oldcastle Theatre in Bennington, VT.  Zeisler has extensive credits on Broadway and in regional theatres across the country. In the Berkshires, he has performed for the last two seasons with Shakespeare & Company.

In 1875, the American heiress, Jennie Jerome, seemed to have have it all. She had married an English lord; she was young, rich, and beautiful; and she had just given birth to Winston Churchill. “Lady Randy” takes the audience on a dizzying ride through the treacherous, kaleidoscopic sexual and political landscape of her marriage.  A woman ahead of her time, Jennie kept everyone watching, kept them guessing, and she never, ever surrendered.

PREVIEW: WAM Theatre, Lady Randy

WAM Theatre, Lenox, MA

www.wamtheatre.com/ladyrandy/

April 18 -May 5, 2019

The first main stage production of WAM Theatre’s 2019 season is the world premiere of “Lady Randy.” Written by and starring Anne Undeland, the play is an historical drama on the life of Jennie Jerome, mother of Winston Churchill. Performances will take place at Shakespeare & Company’s Bernstein Theatre.

Photo by Kristen van Ginhoven

The play was first developed by Undeland and director Jim Frangione at the Berkshire Playwrights’ Lab (BPL), making this a true collaboration of outstanding regional talent. From the start, BPL has been an essential part of creating “Lady Randy.” BPL’s mission is to give playwrights a safe and supportive environment so they can do their best work.

Undeland will play the title role, with WAM newcomer Mark Zeisler playing the roles of Winston Churchill and eight other characters. Undeland is well known to local audiences for her numerous one-woman shows throughout the Berkshires and VT. Zeisler has extensive credits on Broadway and in regional theaters across the country.

In 1875, the American heiress, Jennie Jerome, seemed to have it all. She had married an English lord; she was young, rich, and beautiful; and she had just given birth to Winston Churchill. “Lady Randy” takes its audience on a dizzying ride through the treacherous, kaleidoscopic sexual and political landscape of her marriage. This was a woman ahead of her time.

Undeland stated, “I hope that the audiences will connect with the production, the character, the story, the energy so that they themselves feel more human, more alive, more able to go outside and say ‘Why not?’”

For further information and to order tickets check WAM’s website at www.wamtheatre.com

PREVIEW: WAM Theatre Announces 2018 Season

WAM Theatre is a professional theatre company in the Berkshires of Massachusetts

www.wamtheatre.com

This Berkshire-based professional theatre company celebrates its ninth year with a main stage co-production with Dorset Theatre Festival (Dorset, VT) starring Jayne Atkinson, a thought-provoking series of play readings, a premiere presentation of comedienne Alison Larkin’s one-woman show, and various other special events. This season's plays showcase seven stories about inspiring women, all written and directed by women.

"Fresh Takes Play Reading Series" presents a series of ground-breaking plays that are imaginative and thoughtful explorations of complex issues affecting women and girls and feature local professional actors and directors.

The series kick off on April 15 at No. 6 Depot Roastery and Café in West Stockbridge with Swallow by Stef Smith, directed by Talya Kingston. On May 3 WAM will present a reading of The Virgin Trial by Kate Hennig, directed by Kelly Galvin, at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre at Shakespeare & Company. This sequel to The Last Wife will reunite the director and many of the cast members from WAM’s hit 2017 production of The Last Wife. On June 10 the troupe returns to West Stockbridge for a reading of Honor Killing by Sarah Bierstock, directed by Molly Merrihew.

WAM collaborates with the Clark Art Institute for the August 12 reading of Fresh Takes reading of Pipeline by Dominique Morrisseau, and wraps up on September 16 with Escaped Alone, the latest play by playwrights Caryl Churchill, directed by WAM Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven.

For detailed information about the series check the WAM website at www.wamtheatre.com

WAM & The Last Wife

Bernstein Theatre, Lenox

www.wamtheatre.com

through November 5, 2017

by Shera Cohen

The most important work of WAM is not the arts, or theatre in particular, but charity and goodwill. Since 2010, WAM Theatre (Where Arts & Activism Meet) has donated more than $32,500 to 12 nonprofit organizations that benefit women and girls, and provided paid work to more than 200 theatre artists.

Photo by Kristen van Ginhoven

WAM was founded in 2010, and “The Last Wife” marks the  end of its eighth season. In total, WAM has presented one Main Stage play each fall. Also filling out WAM’s calendar is its reading series which presents works in progress by local artists. A younger troupe, The Girls Ensemble, has performed original works in 2016 and 2017. WAM  also collaborates on community events, such as the Facing Our Truth project in 2016 and our Sister March event in solidarity with the Women's March on Washington this past January.

I had the opportunity to see a preview of “The Last Wife” by Kate Hennig. The wife, in this instance, is Katherine Parr, the sixth and final wife of Henry VIII, who not only saved her head but also outlived her husband.

Enticing me to attend this play was the collaboration of WAM with Shakespeare & Company. The latter contributed three of its finest actors in lead roles; Nehassaiu deGannes (Kate), a spunky, articulate new-comer in the Berkshires who shined this summer in “Intimate Apparel;” John Hadden (Henry), a regular at Shakespeare & Co. whose attention to drama is especially unique; and David Joseph (Thom), a suave young man, who seems to have grown up before my eyes, with a cunning grin.

WAM has some challenges, as do other stages in the Berkshires. The most significant hurdle is timing. Since it’s no longer summer, attending performances at Shakespeare & Company, Berkshire Theatre Group, and Barrington Stage in the fall months is not an immediate thought when seeking theatre. Many venues are trying to stretch their calendars. I honestly don’t know if it works – only the box office staff know for sure -- but I have to say that I attended three of this year’s best productions this month – yes, in October.

Interview with Kate Hennig, Playwright of “The Last Wife"

WAM Theatre, Lenox

www.wamtheatre.com

by Gail Burns

Kate Hennig is a diverse, multi-award-winning theatre artist, with over 30 years of professional experience as a performer. “The Last Wife” was inspired by the life of Katherine Parr (1512-1548), the last of the six wives of King Henry VIII. Katherine was an educated woman who had had two husbands before Henry. Hennig’s play tells the story of Kate and Henry.

SPOTLIGHT: How did you come to write this play?

KATE HENNIG: This strange journey started for me in 2011, during the Arab spring. I was looking at all these dictators, these men in the Middle East who were overthrown, and I started looking for the women. Where were the women in this story? My thoughts went straight to Henry VIII, as he is an identifiable dictator of my own cultural past.

SPOTLIGHT: And what drew you to specifically to Katherine Parr?

KATE: I learned how unique her relationship with, and influence on, Henry was among his wives. She could speak to him the way none of the others could, and he would take the sharpness of her tongue. Her influence over his daughters Mary and Elizabeth was tremendous. The letters between Katherine and Henry’s son, Edward VI, are intimate and moving.

Did you know Katherine Parr was the first woman to have her writing published in the English language under her own name? Why don’t we know more about this woman who had so many accomplishments in her own right?

SPOTLIGHT: What inspired you to move the story to the present day?

KATE: I set it in the present day because that’s the root of my interest. There are women now who are silent, like the women behind those Arab Spring leaders. I look at ISIL/ISIS – where are the women? That led me to use the contemporary voice, to try to echo what women are dealing with now in what Katherine was dealing with. It is still happening. We struggle to find a place in leadership as women and we still struggle to find a voice. We have come a long way in recent decades, but the Tudors had come a long way too. Tudor women were given fantastic educations, they were writers, they were humanists, and then BOOM the Puritans came in and it was all undone. The male animal is larger and can always physically dominate, and is prone to dominate. We see that now. This story fits neatly in to present day American politics, audiences will see the correlation.

SPOTLIGHT: Is playwriting a new venture for you?

KATE: I’ve been writing plays for 14 years, which is not long in the scope of my 35-year career in theatre. Being an actor, I have an understanding from the inside of how the play structure works and how characters work. I would be happy to act any of the roles in my work. I wouldn’t want to put any character up on stage who is boring to play or who has little to do.

SPOTLIGHT: The Last Wife had its premiere last summer at the Stratford Festival. That’s an auspicious beginning!

KATE: This is the first major production I’ve had of my work. I have a long history at Stratford. It is thrilling to have an organization of this caliber take your play and do it with some of the best actors and a top-notch creative team. It was an extraordinary experience for me. Before anyone had even seen the play, six months before the opening, we were selling out, so obviously the subject matter and the actors and the Stratford setting appealed to audiences. Then once the play was running they sold out and extended the run three times. I was gob-smacked and really humbled to have a beginning like that to my playwriting career.

The Northeast Regional Premiere of “The Last Wife” takes place at the Elayne P. Bernstein Theatre, October 13 – November 5, 2017. For ticket information check WAM’s website at www.WAMtheatre.com.