Chantal Bilodeau tells us about Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA) 2021. Founded in 2015, CCTA is a worldwide series of readings and performances of short climate change plays presented biennially to coincide with the United Nations Climate Change Conferences.
CCTA was originally founded by Elaine Ãvila, Chantal Bilodeau, Roberta Levitow, and Caridad Svich following a model pioneered by NoPassport Theatre Alliance. It has since evolved into a U.S.-Canada collaboration between The Arctic Cycle and the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
Chantal is a playwright and translator originally from Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, but now based in New York City, the traditional land of the Lenape People. In her capacity as artistic director of The Arctic Cycle, she has been instrumental in getting the theatre and academic communities, as well as audiences in the U.S. and abroad, to engage in climate action through programming that includes live events, talks, publications, workshops, national and international convenings, and a worldwide distributed theatre festival.
To tell us about one of the plays is Dr. Zoë Svendsen, Lecturer in Drama and Performance in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge. Dr. Svendsen’s play comes out of a larger project called “Love Letter to a Livable Planet.†Through collaboration with members of METIS Arts, Zoe created a short play called Love Out of Ruins, where we get to decide many of the details.
Think of it as a much more sophisticated version of Mad-Libs with the aim to create a vision of the future worth pursuing. The play begins in the present time and moves forward. You get to decide the details that shape the character’s world.
You can read Love Out of Ruins at one of your CCL events. In fact, having a group of friends, students, or climate advocates sit and each fill in the lines can be a mind and heart expanding activity. Then you can share the results at a Climate Change Theatre Action event you host and read some of the plays by the 49 other playwrights from around the world.
For additional material, see:
- Climate Contexts: Some Principles for Theatre in an Era of Ecological Chaos by Zoë Svendsen
- The Naked Theater with Zoë Svendsen, a series of conversations with Luk Perceval, a Belgian theatre director who works in the classical European theatre in Belgium, Germany, Poland, and Norway, recorded during lockdown:
To learn more about how you can get your hands on these plays and host your own event, visit http://www.climatechangetheatreaction.com/join-us/.
Next month: Learn about Claude Schryer’s The conscient podcast / balado conscient. As a sound designer, Claude is able to reach deep into a listener’s mind and even our body.
If you like what you hear, you can listen to full episodes of Citizens’ Climate Radio on iTunes, Stitcher Radio, Spotify, SoundCloud, Podbean, Northern Spirit Radio, Google Play, PlayerFM, and TuneIn Radio. Also, feel free to connect with other listeners, suggest program ideas, and respond to programs in the Citizens’ Climate Radio Facebook group or on Twitter at @CitizensCRadio.
(Top image: Dispatch to the Future: A Theatrical Journey Through Central Park, CCTA’s kick-off event in New York City in September 2021. Photo by Yadin Goldman.)
This article is part of The Art House series.
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As host of Citizens’ Climate Radio, Peterson Toscano regularly features artists who address climate change in their work. The Art House section of his program includes singer/songwriters, visual artists, comics, creative writers, and playwrights. Through a collaboration with Artists and Climate Change and Citizens’ Climate Education, each month Peterson reissues The Art House for this blog. If you have an idea for The Art House, contact Peterson: radio @ citizensclimatelobby.org
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Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.
Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog
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