WAM: Women's Action Movement on stage

WAM Theatre (it stands for Women's Action Movement), a new theater company based in the Berkshires and in the Capital Region, just completed its four-performance inaugural weekend, and, based on the trio of compelling works that make up A WAM Welcome, it promises to bring something new to our creative communities.

 

Founded in January of this year by theater professionals Kristen van Ginhoven and Leigh Strimbeck, the group has dual missions: to produce theater that explores issues important to women and girls and to raise money for philanthropic organizations that benefit women and girls worldwide. A portion of proceeds from this weekend’s performances will be donated to Women for Women International (www.womenforwomen.org).

 

The three pieces that comprise A WAM Welcome range from a comic monologue with bittersweet overtones to a compelling ensemble piece that expresses concerns with the pressure to be perfect that young women face in our culture. The three diverse choices represent some of the styles of theater that appeal to Ginhoven and Strimbeck, the two co-directors: storytelling, strong works by women playwrights, and ensemble-created works, all of which we can expect to see in future offerings.

 

My Salvation Has a First Name: A Weinermobile Journey, written and performed by Robin Gelfenbein, is the true story of how she came to be hired as an Oscar Mayer hot-dogger, driving a twenty-three-foot-long weinermobile around the country promoting, of course, hot dogs. A professional storyteller, comedian, and writer based in New York, Gelfenbein has an appealing stage presence; she is humorous and chatty, and her tale is by turns funny and sad and finally triumphant. Accompanied by slides from her childhood and some additional visual aids, Gelfenbein shares a memoir that includes the torment of being subjected to bullying as well as the success she achieves by crafting frankfurter puns and tap-dancing through an audition—on carpeting.

 

The second piece is a one-act, one-woman play by Lydia Stryk called The Last Standing Protestor. Brenny Rabine plays the unnamed character in a staged reading; she stands on a city street corner, remonstrating with the unseen passersby, demanding to know “What enrages you?” She is ready to protest, for herself and for all of us, a litany of outrages: depleted uranium, shanty towns, the dwindling harp seal population, land mines, and more, so much more. This piece begins quietly and builds to a powerful conclusion.

 

After an intermission, Mirror, Mirror, the longest piece, is presented, with a cast of eight students from Russell Sage College. Strimbeck is currently artist in residence at Russell Sage, where she created and directed Mirror, Mirror with the students, addressing the topic of body image and unrealistic expectations faced by young women. This is heartfelt and provocative material, beginning with a pseudo fairy tale featuring the mirror goblins and encompassing anorexia, breast cancer, name-calling, growing up fat, celebrity plastic surgery, schoolyard bullies, and my new favorite action hero, Bitch Woman (Babe In Total Control of Herself) who says, “Do what you want, they’ll call you a bitch anyway.”

 

Jumping from one topic to the next in short unrelated scenes, with occasional songs, Mirror, Mirror is by turns funny, sad, or outraged. It is particularly appropriate to see these young women expressing their concern for the challenges our celebrity-worshipping culture presents.

 

Kristen van Ginhoven and Leigh Strimbeck, the co-artistic directors of WAM Theatre, are both professional actors, directors, and theater educators who, as it says on their website, believe theater is a force for good in the world. The pair was inspired to form WAM by the book Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn. I, in turn, am inspired by the founding of WAM to support Women for Women International. I am eager to see their next production, Melancholy Play by Sarah Ruhl, planned for November. The beneficiary will be the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts. Performances will be at Barrington Stage Company’s Stage 2, 36 Linden St., in Pittsfield, Mass. For more information, visit www.wamtheatre.com.