Performances
Two weekends of performances, two different programs of 8 plays each. Produced by the Playshop Theatre at Allegheny College. As usual, we partnered both weekends with the College’s Department of Environmental Science & Sustainability. The second weekend was scheduled and coordinated with “Blue & Gold Weekend,” which is a combination of Homecoming and Family Weekend. That partnership greatly increased our audience and expanded who came, including a few families and their students – none of whom had ever come to a theatre performance on campus before. After each performance, I co-hosted an audience talkback with a fellow faculty member who works on climate change – from either a scientific or humanistic perspective. The plays selected and talkbacks directed the climate action, which ranged from increased individual choices (sparked by Undertow) to greater self and social care around climate anxiety (sparked by several pieces, although especially Now, Inferno, and Nachtflug). Talkbacks recognized the College’s status as climate neutral but all agreed that it could do more to shift from offsets to direct changes (e.g., there is more than enough room to increase solar power generation).
One process choice that I found to be very engaging is that I tasked my Jr Seminar with selecting the plays we performed. That group read all 50 plays and decided as a group which ones to produce based on how well each would reach our audience, but it also sparked vital conversations about whose stories we should tell and why (or why not).
