Climate Change

Indie-theatre take on Deepwater spill

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

photo: Encyclopedia Britannica online

Wallace Heim writes: 

During April and May, The Way of Water, Caridad Svich’s play about the effects of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill toured over fifty venues in North America and Brazil, and in Berlin, Aberystwyth, Glasgow and London. The play toured not as a production but as script-in-hand readings by actors in each place.

The play, marking the two-year anniversary of the spill, traveled quickly, more like an indie-music event than a theatre tour. This new kind of theatrical experience is low-budget, international, tied in with social media and carbon-light.

The play deals with the toxic effects of the spill on four people, on their health, livelihoods and sense of community. The play’s impetus is towards taking action against corporate malfeasance, a revision of the plotline of An Enemy of the People.

Seeing the reading in Aberystwyth, Carl Lavery, Senior Lecturer in Drama, blogged ‘Ten Thoughts on The Way of Water. Here are three:

When I think of The Way of Water, I think of its linguistic rhythms and poetic beats – its politics of voice.

When I think of The Way of Water, I think of 4 young actors in Wales finding its meanings, walking its lines, tracing its shapes.

When I think of The Way of Water, I think of my Dad who died from a lifetime of exposure to the toxic fuel tanks of Phantom fighter jets.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

The right environment

from The Last Lunch

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes:

The Best New Play Award, offered collaboratively by New Writing South and the Brighton Fringe, is an award that has nothing to do with ecology. But this year’s award was given to two productions that have something to do with ecology.Playwright Jonathan Brown won for his play about meat-eating, The Last Lunch.

The company Feral Theatre won for Triptych, three productions on loss and extinction: Papusza, The Last of the Curlews and TreeStory.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Announcing Heatwave: LA’s Theatre Community Commits to the Environment

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) is proud to partner with

TO SUPPORT

HeatWave: LA’s Theatre Community Commits to the Environment.

Register here to attend the HeatWave conference on June 9th by clicking here!

HeatWave is a project which brings together the professional Los Angeles Theatre Community – writers, devised theatre makers and producing theatre companies – to confront and grapple with environmental issues, including Climate Change and issues of Environmental Justice.

HeatWave is designed to generate new works and connect the Theatre Community to the Environmental Community, as well as promote and facilitate greener practices in operations and production.

Join us for our kick-off day-long event at TreePeople’s Conference Center in Coldwater Canyon Park.

  • 12601 Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
  • Saturday, June 9, 2012
  • 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

$25 Registration Fee (includes lunch)

Scheduled Speakers include:

  • Terence McFarland (LA Stage Alliance)
  • Ian Garrett (CSPA)
  • Douglas Clayton (LA Stage Alliance)
  • Justin Yoffee (Arts, Earth Partnership)
  • John Raatz (GATE Foundation)
  • Spoken Word by Steve Connell & Douglas Kearney
  • Video by Heidi Druckler Dance Theatre
  • Staged Reading TBD

For more information about HeatWave and HeatWave events, visit www.HeatWaveTheatre.org!

One Day on Earth

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory
Kellie Gutman writes:

On Friday June 1, and Sunday June 3, New York’s premier reuse center, Materials for the Arts, will be the recipient of proceeds from screenings of One Day on Earth.  It was made in 2010, and filmed in every country on earth on the same day.  There will be a week of showings to benefit local charities in New York City.

Materials for the Arts is a program of the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.  It collects unneeded materials from businesses and individuals and donates them to arts programming across the city.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Call for papers for Nordic Summer University summer session 2012 – kreds 2

This post comes to you from Cultura21

Learning from the future – towards cultures of sustainability

This year’s summer session of the Nordic Summer University will take place on July 28th – August 2nd, in Denmark, at Brandtbjerg Højskole near Vejle. The NSU is organized in “study/reflection circles”, working with a theme for 3 years. This is the last session of circle/kreds 2 around the theme of transculturality. The work of the circle has led to a published anthology in 2010, Learning from the Other, and upcoming, the anthology Learning from nowhere – the becoming of culture. This last session will prepare the field to a possible new circle, moving from taking the perspective of ”Learning from the future” (2013-2015). This shift will focus then on the theme of cultures of sustainability or transculturality from an uncertain future.

Culture will play a decisive role in defining the way humanity approaches the meta- or mega-issue of sustainability. It is often said that we actually possess the technological knowledge to come out of the critical situation that the world is heading into.

Innumerable alliances are forming that acknowledge the urgency of the problem, from all thinkable angles of societies.

The invitation is for all interested in the themes (and crossing of themes) of culture, interculturality, transculturality, sustainability, climate change, civic participation, education, and philosophy, to contribute to our last session in circle 2 (and maybe the pre-launch of a new circle). Abstracts can be proposed along the themes of

 

  1. Theoretical/epistemological/ontological investigations and reflections;
  2. Empirical studies – past and future;
  3. Methodological considerations;
  4. Discussions of issues of policy and political implications of the field.
  5. ..or whatever creative cross-fertilization you may be working with.

Practicalities

The summer session is coordinated by Johannes Servan, University of Bergen (Johannes [dot] Servan [at] fof [dot] uib [dot] no), and Oleg Koefoed, Cultura21 Nordic and Roskilde University (oleg [at] cultura21 [dot] dk). Please send your abstract (no more than 200 words) by June 1st at the latest, to one of the coordinators.

They accept abstracts in all Nordic languages, (or in English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German); presentations can be held in English, as well as in Nordic languages (although some languages might call more for translation than others). One or more authors can hand in an abstract and/or present together.

Preliminary program is expected around June 8th. If you want to participate without presenting, registration is possible until June 15th. Whether presenting or not, you must register your participation via the NSU-website. Registration for the Summer Session is done via the form at the web page. Registration is open from April 1st to June 15th. Your will receive an email with a receipt after registration. You are not fully registered before payment has been accepted. Visit www.nsuweb.net for more information and for the story around the Nordic Summer University and Brandtbjerg Højskole. The preliminary program will be published on www.nsuweb.net. Sign up for the newsletter to get the necessary information and deadlines.

Arrival: 27th of July during the day.

Departure: the 3rd August in the morning

Registration for the Summer Session is done via the form at the webpage. Registration is from April 1st to June 15th. Your will receive an email with a receipt after registration.

Participant from the Nordic and Baltic Countries will receive travel refund.

Prices for participation, including meals and lodging, are:

  • Adult in single room: 5000 SEK
  • Adult in single room: 5500 SEK
  • Adult in two bed room: 3500 SEK
  • Child, 3-11 years: 1100 SEK
  • Child, 12-15 years: 2200 SEK
  • Student in two bed room: 1750 SEK

Students, who receive student discount, are expected to help the organizers with two-three hours work during the week. Application for student discount is done by registration. Initially, two spaces pr. Nordic country are offered. The offer does not apply to ph.d. students.

Ph.d. students can receive a certificate of participation. Participants can receive up to 5 ETCS points. As a participant you can get a discount on all publications from Aarhus University Press and a special discount on NSU’s own publications. Your order should be placed by registration to the summer session.

To read the full version of the call (PDF file), click here.

Cultura21 is a transversal, translocal network, constituted of an international level grounded in several Cultura21 organizations around the world.

Cultura21′s international network, launched in April 2007, offers the online and offline platform for exchanges and mutual learning among its members.

The activities of Cultura21 at the international level are coordinated by a team representing the different Cultura21 organizations worldwide, and currently constituted of:

– Sacha Kagan (based in Lüneburg, Germany) and Rana Öztürk (based in Berlin, Germany)
– Oleg Koefoed and Kajsa Paludan (both based in Copenhagen, Denmark)
– Hans Dieleman (based in Mexico-City, Mexico)
– Francesca Cozzolino and David Knaute (both based in Paris, France)

Cultura21 is not only an informal network. Its strength and vitality relies upon the activities of several organizations around the world which are sharing the vision and mission of Cultura21

Go to Cultura21

Tom Toles wedding cartoon

Copyright (c) The Washington Post

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory Kellie Gutman writes: Pulitzer-Prize-winning Washington Post cartoonist Tom Toles‘ latest cartoon on climate change. Toles has been nominated three times for the Pulitzer Prize in Editorial Cartooning, winning in 1990.  He replaced the legendary cartoonist Herblock at the Washington Postin 2002. Toles’ cartoons are syndicated in over 200 newspapers.  He is known for tackling complicated subjects such as environmental issues.  He often includes a small doodle, a caricature of himself, in the corner.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network) ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance. The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’. The Directory has been live since 2000. Go to The Ashden Directory

U.S. Energy Secretary Chu on The Avengers

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory
Kellie Gutman writes:

Steven Chu, the 12th Secretary of Energy for the United States, has a post on his Facebook page about the new movie, The Avengers. Though his friends are not listed, he does have 18,963 ‘likes’ on his page. Chu lists his job:

As Secretary of Energy, proudly carrying out President Obama’s ambitious agenda to invest in alternative and renewable energy, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and create millions of new jobs.

About The Avengers  he says:

‘[It] focuses on a new, limitless clean energy source called ‘The Tesseract.”… While the “Tesseract” may be fictional, the real-life global competition over clean energy is growing increasingly intense, as countries around the world sense a huge economic opportunity AND the opportunity for cleaner air, water, and a healthier planet…’

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Talking about climate change

Jason's story

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes: 

One of the explanations offered for why climate change is not more prominent in people’s thinking is that it’s not physically seen. It doesn’t feel ‘real’ enough.

But a different view comes out in the stories people tell about how climate change is immediately altering their everyday lives. The climate is changing how they feel about the world and their decisions about what to do.

Project ASPECT, based at University College Falmouth, is gathering people’s stories about climate change from individuals and communities in Wales, northern England, London and Cornwall. Building a digital narrative archive, they are capturing on DVD how people talk about the climate in the context of their everyday lives.

There are those who watch. Heather continues the diary her mother started, recording every day what work is done on the family farm and the weather. Duncan and Matt are surfers in Cornwall, watching the storms. There are those who work with renewable energy, or, like Hanna, find green jobs for young people. Many are changing the way they grow food and eat: Mary from Incredible Edible; Owen with his backyard in Peckham; and masked night-time Ninja guerrilla gardeners. Singers, rappers, athletes tell their stories. Spontaneous acts of community kindness sit alongside the meticulous work of digitising the weather reports from World War I ship’s logs.

In these stories of everyday life, there is a cultural reality emerging, soft-voiced, but pressing.

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Six films on culture and climate change

About Water - 2007 a film about our precarious relationship with water

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Kellie Gutman writes:

Filmbase, in Dublin, is presenting climate.culture.change,  a series of films from six European countries, and discussions, through 12 June on culture and climate change. A collaboration between Cultivate and the EUNIC European cultural partners: Goethe Institut, British Council, Austrian Embassy, Alliance Française and the Italian Institute of Culture, with additional funding from the European Commission, this film and discussion series is a lead-up to Rio +20, the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Information on the program available here

 

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory

Carbon-lite touring

The Last Polar Bears on tour

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes: 

The carbon footprint of a production meets the content of the play in the National Theatre of Scotland’s tour of their climate change play The Last Polar Bears. For the 350-mile tour, everything needed for the show will be carried by the cast and crew on bicycles made from reclaimed bikes. The vinyl panniers are made from recycled National Theatre of Scotland banners.

As part of the production’s legacy, the National Theatre of Scotland will donate to the World Wildlife Fund’s Adopt a polar bear project on behalf of the 18 primary schools on the tour.

Alongside the production, director Joe Douglas will use the tour to interview people, ‘taking the temperature of how people are feeling about climate change.’

 

“ashdenizen blog and twitter are consistently among the best sources for information and reflection on developments in the field of arts and climate change in the UK” (2020 Network)

ashdenizen is edited by Robert Butler, and is the blog associated with the Ashden Directory, a website focusing on environment and performance.
The Ashden Directory is edited by Robert Butler and Wallace Heim, with associate editor Kellie Gutman. The Directory includes features, interviews, news, a timeline and a database of ecologically – themed productions since 1893 in the United Kingdom. Our own projects include ‘New Metaphors for Sustainability’, ‘Flowers Onstage’ and ‘Six ways to look at climate change and theatre’.

The Directory has been live since 2000.

Go to The Ashden Directory