World Premiere Production Slated for Fall & Pearl Cleage Play Moved to December Fresh Takes
LENOX, MA (August 28, 2025) — WAM Theatre‘s Artistic Director Genée Coreno and Managing Director Molly Merrihew announce updates to the company’s 2025 Performance Season. The previously scheduled fall mainstage production, Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous, will now be presented as a Fresh Takes Play Reading in December at Ventfort Hall. Taking its place this fall will be the world premiere of an award-winning, new work opening October 16—title to be announced next week.
“Our change in the fall mainstage reflects WAM’s commitment to centering artists and embracing the unexpected opportunities the world presents,” said Artistic Director Genée Coreno. “When an artist’s path takes an extraordinary turn, we celebrate them—and we stay nimble, reimagining, evolving, and leaning into daring ideas together. Though Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous deserves a full production, and we hope to realize that in the future, we felt compelled to bring its voice forward now through a reading. In its place, we are proud to present a bold world premiere that celebrates the fearless feminist storytelling our audiences have come to expect.”
Coming This December: A Fresh Take on Pearl Cleage’s Acclaimed Work
WAM will now present Pearl Cleage’s Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous as a Fresh Takes Play Reading on Saturday, December 14 at 2 p.m. at Ventfort Hall in Lenox, MA. Directed by Cloteal L. Horne, the piece is a heartfelt, humorous, and provocative exploration of aging, legacy, and artistic ownership.
“I’m thrilled to make my WAM directorial debut with this powerful, poignant work,” said Director, Cloteal L. Horne. “Pearl Cleage’s writing calls us to grapple with the civic responsibilities of both artist and citizen. This reading is a love letter to Black Womxn—an invitation to reimagine aging, navigate friendship across generations, and make meaningful art in a society that often sidelines us. We hope audiences leave challenged, moved, and inspired to listen deeply and create shamelessly gorgeous new ways of being.”
The story follows veteran actress Anna Campbell and her long-time confidante Betty as they return to the US after decades of exile to perform at a women’s theatre festival. When Anna discovers that her bold, controversial work is being reinterpreted by a much younger artist with a background in adult entertainment, the generational tension explodes. With razor-sharp wit and warmth, Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous examines legacy, reinvention, and what it means to claim space as a woman artist.
Pearl Cleage reflects, “Writing this play was for me an act of bearing witness to long nights of passionate conversation with other Black female theater makers about what it meant to be a Black woman writing plays.”
Fall Mainstage World Premiere — Title Coming Soon
WAM’s updated season will now feature the world premiere of a highly anticipated new play opening on October 16, 2025. The title and full cast will be announced next week. This exciting new production, a finalist at both the 2025 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center and recent Modern New Works Festival, continues WAM’s mission to spotlight urgent, relevant stories led by women and nonbinary artists.
Flexibility Meets Purpose
“We’ve made a swift pivot, and we’re proud of how our team, artists, and board responded with flexibility, courage, and purpose,” said Managing Director Molly Merrihew. “This change gives us an exciting opportunity to share not just one, but two powerful plays in our Fall/Winter Season that speak to this moment. WAM remains deeply committed to elevating the voices of women theatre artists, utilizing our art to mobilize our community, and challenging the national trend of declining representation in theatre and beyond.”
What’s Next at WAM
WAM’s 2025 Fall/Winter season features expanded offerings, including:
- A Second Mainstage Production (October 16 – November 2)
- A Fourth Fresh Takes Readings (December 14th)
- Community Engagement Programs featuring documentary screenings, panels, and creative collaborations with women-led theatre companies (stay tuned!)
- The Elder Ensemble, launches next week (October 22)
Tickets for Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous are now on sale here. Tickets for the Fall Mainstage will be released next week at WAMTheatre.com.
For more information, interviews, or media inquiries, please contact: jade@wamtheatre.com or call WAM’s Box Office at 413.274.8122
WAM TEAM LEADERSHIP
Genée Coreno (she/her)(Artistic Director) is a director and producer with a passion for devised theater created in collaboration with women, girls, and non-binary artists and designers. WAM Theatre: Artistic Director. Selected Director Credits:fragments of Outside (The Mount), Outside (Culture Lab, LIC), Madge Love (Theater Mitu & The Brick), The Hopelessly Hopeless Story of All Good Girls (The Brick), “Is This Clear Enough?” (The Poetry Project), Dutchman (UnUrban Cafe, LA), Selected Producing Credits: The Possessed Girls of St. Mary’s (Reading, at Brick Aux), thisamericanplay (pop-up theater by Blue Flamingo), The Stronger & Mother Love (Alchemical Studios), The World is Round (BAM Fisher). Select Company Management Credits: Under the Radar Festival (The Public Theater), The World is Round (Alchemical Studios), The Stronger & Mother Love (pop-up theater by Blue Flamingo), thisamericanplay (Reading, at Brick Aux), The Possessed Girls of St. Mary’s Producing Credits: The Outer Space (The Public Theater), National Mobile Unit Tour of Sweat (The Public Theater), Mobile Unit’s Twelfth Night (The Public Theater), Various Performances (Big Dance Theater). Community Engagement/Activist Work: Former Manager of Development and Engagement at Every Mother Counts and Clinic Escort at Choices; Adjunct Professor at Purchase College, Women and Performance. Training: MA in Performance Studies, NYU; BA in Drama Studies, Purchase College; Embodied Voice: Intensive Vocal Workshop; The Song of the Goat; SITI Company Summer Intensive; Theater Mitu Artist Fellowship (Japan). Creative Inspiration: I’m inspired by large-scale international work that demonstrates a commitment to dance theater practices and film-making.
Molly Merrihew (she/her)(Managing Director) is an arts executive and nonprofit leader with over a decade of experience in the nonprofit theatre and the for-profit arts and entertainment sector. She has worked collaboratively with organizations, artists, and clients ranging from grassroots ensembles to multimillion-dollar non-profit institutions and for-profit creative enterprises. Molly is a proud advocate of the Berkshire arts community, and her consulting work has also brought her to Boston and New York City. From activist art in found-spaces, to large scale Shakespearean festivals and award-winning audiobook launches, Molly is energized by passionate artists, creative thinkers, and an innate curiosity to meet new people and learn new things. Recent work experience includes spending the past four years at WAM Theatre as Managing Director. Molly spent eight years at Shakespeare & Company working in PR and Marketing. Molly’s journey with WAM began in 2014, when she spent four years in the role of Artistic Associate, curating and producing the Fresh Takes Play Reading Series. After that, she served on WAM’s Strategic Planning and Hospitality Committees for two years. Before moving to the Berkshires, Molly worked at the Florida Studio Theatre in a variety of capacities including communications and patron services. In addition to her full-time work, Molly has led consulting projects for artist organizations and projects in a variety of roles including lead strategist, project manager, grant reviewer, and copywriter. Molly has an M.S. in Arts Administration with a Graduate Certificate in Fundraising Management from Boston University. She graduated with a B.A. in Theatre and English-Creative Writing from the State University of New York at Potsdam. More recently, Molly completed the ‘Transformational Leadership Program for Non-Profit Leaders’ at the Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health. She is the co-chair of Berkshire County Development Alliance, a member of the Berkshire Business & Professional Women association, and a BRIDGE Race Task Force member.
To meet WAM’S Full Team click here.
MORE ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Pearl Cleage (she/her/hers)(playwright, Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous) is an Atlanta-based playwright currently serving as Distinguished Artist in Residence at The Alliance Theatre. The recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Dramatists Guild, she is also Atlanta’s first Poet Laureate. Selected Theatre Credits: Her plays include Flyin’ West, Blues for an Alabama Sky, The Nacirema Society, What I Learned in Paris, and Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous. Her work is anthologized in Flyin’ West and Other Plays, published by The Theatre Communications Group. In addition to the Alliance, Cleage has been widely produced, including performances at The Goodman Theatre, London’s National Theatre, The McCarter Theater Center, Penumbra Theater, Keen Company, Ford’s Theatre, the Huntington Theater, the Guthrie Theater, Kenny Leon’s True Colors Theater, Actor’s Express, the Black Repertory Company, Old Globe Theatre, the Negro Ensemble Company, Arena Stage, Alabama Shakespeare Festival, The Ensemble Theater, New Federal Theater and the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville. Additional Artistic Credits: She is also a performance artist working in collaboration with her husband, writer Zaron W. Burnett, Jr. Their groundbreaking performance work is the subject of a new documentary film Live at Club Zebra! directed by Matthew and David Adeboye. Cleage and Burnett also collaborated on In My Granny’s Garden, a book for young children, which was adapted for the stage by Rosemary Newcott and has been performed in Atlanta, Chicago and St. Louis. The author of eight novels, including What Looks Like Crazy on an Ordinary Day, a New York Times bestseller, Cleage also co-authored with Burnett “We Speak Your Names”, a praise poem commissioned by Oprah Winfrey. She is currently at work on Off Day at Chickens, in collaboration with Burnett and a play with music, Letters from Aunt Nina, based on the music and memories of Simone’s niece, actor/singer Crystal Fox.
Cloteal L. Horne (her/she)(director, Angry, Raucous, and Shamelessly Gorgeous) My name aptly weaves together parts of my grandparents’ names. Be it to muster the courage to stand before witnesses onstage or on screen, as a raw nerve, in order to shine a light upon hidden parts of humanity, or to architect a world that ignites the imagination towards transformation— I am committed to collaborative processes that illuminate humanity through the craft of storytelling. My work uproots classics and tethers itself to immersive ceremonies and rituals that center blackness, black-femininity. Calling on both the sacred and profane to locate that small (sometimes quiet) place where healing happens. I dedicate my practice to community, honest liberation, and building more just and joyous futures. WAM Theatre: WAM has always impressed me by being an organization committed to bringing dynamic works and critical conversations to the Berkshires, so I am thrilled to be making my directorial debut. Selected Directorial Credits Elsewhere: Play Here[___] (The Wild Project, Director), Six Characters (LCT3, Assistant Director), On The Exhale (Brown/Trinity, Director), School for Scandal (Red Bull Theatre, Assistant Director), The Alchemist (Red Bull Theatre, Assistant Director), Breaking Dawn: American Myth Project (The NET/Shakespeare & Co., Creative Producer). Teaching: Yale School of Drama, Brown University, NYU- Playwrights Horizons/Meisner Studio, Vassar, and La Jolla Playhouse Student Conservatory. Creative inspiration: The lineage of Black Femme performance artists like Lorraine O’grady, and a perspective of ‘Visionary-Realism.’ A concept put forth by sociologist, scholar, and scientist Ruha Benjamin, which necessitates that we blend an acknowledgment of the deep-seated injustices embedded in our contemporary landscape, with an unapologetic commitment to create a more just and joyous future through our art and activism. Community Engagement/Activist work: Facilitator with artEquity; The BIPOC Leadership Circle and BIPOC Surviving PWI Processing Space (Co-Program Lead) and André Cailloux Center (Board Member). Membership/Affiliations: Actor’s Equity Association, National Acting Teachers Alliance, and Budi Miller Teacher Apprenticeship. Selected Training: MFA Acting- Brown University/Trinity Rep. and BFA Theater Arts – Boston University. Final Word: Blissfully standing on the shoulders of those that come before me, I am a product of my grandmother’s prayers + the living embodiments of my ancestors, and their wildest dreams. Glory be. Connect: Website – www.ClotealLHorne.com
ABOUT WAM THEATRE
WAM Theatre is a professional theatre company based in Berkshire County, MA, that operates at the intersection of arts and activism. Now celebrating its 16th Season, WAM creates theatre for gender equity and has a vision of theatre as philanthropy. In fulfillment of its philanthropic mission, WAM donates a portion of the proceeds from their Mainstage productions to carefully selected recipients. Since WAM’s founding in 2010, they have donated more than $105,000 to 26 local and global organizations taking action for gender equity in areas such as girls education, reproductive justice, sexual trafficking awareness, midwife training, and more. WAM Theatre has been widely recognized for having a positive impact on cultural and community development in the region. WAM Theatre is certified as a women owned and operated business by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the recipient of the Creative Economy Standout Berkshire Trendsetter Award and previously, was named Outstanding Philanthropy Corporation of the Year by the Western MA Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. For more information, visit wamtheatre.com
WAM SUPPORT
WAM Theatre is certified as a women owned and operated business by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. WAM Theatre is supported by the New England Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC). WAM Theatre’s Season is also supported in part by grants from Berkshire Bank, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Brabson Education & Library Foundation, The Feigenbaum Foundation, GKV Foundation, Lee Bank Foundation, Scarlet Sock Foundation; as well as grants from the Alford-Egremont Cultural Council, Lee Cultural Council, Lenox Cultural Council, Otis Cultural Council, Richmond Cultural Council, Sandisfield Cultural Council, Stockbridge Cultural Council, and Washington Cultural Council. WAM’s sponsors include Adams Community Bank, a. von schlegell & co, Baystate Financial Wealth & Wellness Team, Berkshire Health Systems, Berkshire Muse, Berkshire Roots, Berkshire Yoga Dance & Fitness, Black Writers Read, Blue Spark Financial, Blue Q., Brava/Ombra, Doctor Sax House, DownRight Productions, Ed Herrington, Inc., Garden Gables Inn, Greylock Federal Credit Union, Guidos Fresh Marketplace, Handful Photography, Higher Bar, Heller & Robbins Attorneys at Law, Interprint, Mill Town Foundation, Inc., Onyx Specialty Papers, Outdoors Chronicle Photography, Outpost Productions, T Square Design Studio, Toole Insurance, Ventfort Hall, WANDER Berkshires, and the Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts.