Iowa State University Theatre, in partnership with the international Climate Change Theatre Action Initiative, ISU’s MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment, the EcoTheatre Lab, ISU Parks Library, Ames Public Library, and ISU Office of Sustainability/Live Green! Initiative, presents Climate Change Theatre Action: Lighting the Way. This production is the first of ISU Theatre’s 2019-2020 mainstage season, HERoic, which features all plays by female playwrights as ISU Theatre commits to the 50/50 by 2020 gender equity movement.
The Plays:
Chantal Bilodeau – HOMO SAPIENS
Yolanda Bonnell – DRIP
Catherine Butterfield – BOUNTY
Mindi Dickstein – STARVING TO DEATH IN MIDTOWN
Jordan Hall – RUBE GOLDBERG DEVICE FOR THE GENERATION OF HOPE
Naomi Iizuka – HANAMI
E. M. Lewis – EARTH DUET
Karen Malpede – HERMES IN THE ANTHROPOCENE: A DOGOLOGUE
Lana I. Nasser – THE BUTTERFLY THAT PERSISTED
Yvette Nolan – BREATHING SPACE
Karla Ortega, ISU student – INTERWOVEN, a poetry submission
Elyne Quan – POND LIFE
Shy Richardson and Karina Yager – TRES MARIAS: CATEGORIES
Caridad Svich – A LETTER FROM THE OCEAN
Caridad Svich – THIS
Additional songwriters and poets from the Ames and ISU community who contributed to our music selections:
Help Me by Olivia Ann Griffith
Let’s Get Out by Mumbi Kasumba
What It Pleads, lyrics by Bethmari Márquez Barreto, music by Olly Manning
The Ocean is Blue by Amelia Yoder
ACTIONS at our performances to encourage local involvement in climate efforts:
1. Sustainability Resource Fair with representatives from local and university sustainability programs.
2. Voter Registration (through the League of Women Voters) will accompany information about the climate platforms of all policy candidates in upcoming elections.
3. Dramaturgy display featuring information about climate change, the international CCTA initiative, and what community members can do to take action.
4. Call for local songwriters, poets, and visual artists who focus on environmental work to contribute to ISU’s CCTA performance.
5. Study Guide for our youth matinee that includes information about climate change and what youth can do to take action.
6. Talkbacks following each performance to connect the plays to climate action.
7. Symposium Roundtable Event: Leading the Way: Women Tell the Stories of Climate Change. Panelists from a variety of environmental backgrounds will discuss recent environmental movements led by women and how they tell the stories of climate change.
Performers:
Travis Cooper, Sam Elliott-Rude, Lena Frank, Daniel Heddendorf, Sydni Lapsley, Olly Manning, Bethmari Márquez Barreto, Lena Menefee-Cook, Cole Nugent, Jonathan O’Neill, Kathryn Ripley, Roger Rivera, Jonathan Smith, Scyler Torrey, Rachel Ward, and Jensen Wilke.
Creative Team:
Director: Vivian M Cook
Production Manager and Lighting Designer: Will Coeur
Scenographer: Robert Sunderman
Costume Designer: Kelly Schaefer
Music Director: Mat Wymore
Technical Director: Natalie Hining
Costume Shop Supervisor: Doris Nash
Dramaturg: Taylor Sklenar
Stage Manager: Zoey Lazere
Assistant Stage Manager: Anthony Nelson
Assistant Director: Alyson O’Hara
Props Designer: Amy Taylor
Outreach Assistant: Bethmari Márquez Barreto
Publicity: Stacey Maifeld, Britney Walters
Humanities Iowa Scholar: Brianna Burke
Consultant and Producing Partner: Charissa Menefee
Theatre Secretary: Lori Sulzberger
Director of ISU Theatre: Brad Dell
Partners and representatives:
The International Climate Change Theatre Action Initiative: Chantal Bilodeau
MFA Program in Creative Writing & Environment and the EcoTheatre Lab: Charissa Menefee
ISU Parks Library and Ames Public Library: Susan Jasper and Mary Logsdon
ISU Office of Sustainability/Live Green! Initiative: Merry Rankin
Leading the Way: Women Tell the Stories of Climate Change Roundtable Symposium Panelists:
Dr. William Gutowski (atmospheric dynamics in climate, United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Toni Sleugh (student climate movements, Climate Reality Campus Corps), Dr. Yu Wang (global energy policy, renewable energy), and Dr. Danielle Wirth (ecofeminism).
Poster Design: Britney Walters
ISU’s CCTA contribution is supported by Humanities Iowa and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Performances:
Fisher Theater, ISU Campus:
October 4th (10 a.m.): Youth Matinee
October 4th-5th (7:30 p.m.)
October 6th (1:00 p.m., followed by the Symposium Roundtable at 3:30 p.m.)
Outside Parks Library, ISU Campus:
October 10th (5:15 p.m.)
Ames Public Library
October 13th (2:00 p.m.)
All performances are free and open to the public.