(STOCKBRIDGE, Mass.) – Two-time Tony Award-nominee Jayne Atkinson will direct a benefit production of Motherhood Out Loud at Berkshire Theatre Group’s Unicorn Theatre in Stockbridge on Friday, March 28, and Saturday, March 29, 2014, as part of the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers. Proceeds from the production, co-produced by Atkinson and Susan Rose, will benefit WAM Theatre and the Berkshire Festival of Women Writers.
The cast will feature Jane Kaczmarek, Michel Gill, and local guest artists Amber Chand, Tammy Denease, Tyler Malik, Corinna May, Rachel Siegel and Barbara Sims. After successful productions across the country, including an off-Broadway run at Primary Stages in New York City, this will be its Berkshire premiere.
Performances will be held on Friday, March 28, at 7 p.m. and Saturday, March 29, at 2 and 7p.m. There will be a post-show champagne reception following the final performance on Saturday.
Additionally, there will be a panel discussion following the Friday evening and Saturday matinee performances. WAM Theatre Artistic Director Kristen van Ginhoven will moderate a panel discussion delving further into the challenges and choices surrounding motherhood today.
Friday evening the panel will feature author Luanne Rice, who wrote one of the monologues featured in the production. Rice is a New York Times bestselling author of thirty-one novels, most recently The Lemon Orchard. A number of Rice’s novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love for TNT, Blue Moon for CBS, the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations of Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells, and Beach Girls as a summer drama series for Lifetime Television. There are over twenty-five million copies of her books in print, with foreign editions in more than 20 countries.
Other featured panelists will include the cast members, producer Susan Rose, associate producer Robin Gorman Newman, director Jayne Atkinson and the four local writers who have contributed pieces specifically for this production.
Motherhood Out Loud, conceived by Susan R. Rose and Joan Stein, is a culturally and gender diverse series of monologues on the subject of motherhood, written by a host of celebrated writers. The monologues traverse the experience of motherhood from birth, sexuality, growing up and letting go to the inevitable role reversal that occurs as when women find themselves parenting their own parents. Playwrights include Pulitzer Prize winner Beth Henley, Theresa Rebeck, and Marco Pennette. As part of its Berkshire premiere, this run will include monologues from local mothers Suzi Banks Baum, Anni Crofut, Hope Fitzgerald and Jana Laiz.
Tickets run $35 – $50 and can be purchased by visiting motherhoodoutloud.brownpapertickets.com or by calling 1-800-838-3006.