Ancient Species

As the Globe Warms

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Globe Short EP31:IntheGardenofClimate Reality from Heather Woodbury on Vimeo.

As the Globe Warms is a new genus of an ancient species – an episodic story told by a single person for a live audience and for online subscribers as well. Its bare bones production puts forward an ethics of sustainability: a minimalist aesthetic yoked to a maximal engagement of imagination. As the human effect on the environment increasingly enters our personal narratives via altered weather patterns and vanishing eco-systems Globe weaves a story of ordinary people living through the extraordinary headlines of our times. It limns the themes of climate change – our relation to God, nature, survival and extinction – and explores the fateful intertwining of religion and politics in America.

The story:

Handsome herpetologist Reed Ferris arrives in the small town of Vane Springs, Nevada, determined to try to save a unique species of frog from extinction. He meets Lorelei Ray, the home-schooled daughter of a Pentecostal pastor, who has lately found herself mysteriously “speaking in the tongues” of endangered animals and sharing these possessions online with a growing following of Evangelical youth. The unlikely friendship that forms between them has unexpected and far-reaching consequences. In the mix are Tea Party zealots, closeted gay evangelicals, a working class family itself on the brink of extinction and eyewitness reports from whales, polar bears, bees, bats and frogs.

Heather Woodbury is a recipient of the C.O.L.A. (City of Los Angeles) fellowship in performance, the Spalding Gray Award for Writing and Performance, and Kennedy and National Endowment for the Arts Awards for Playwriting.

More info

www.heatherwoodbury.com

http://vimeo.com/channels/205232