Interviews News

Edinburgh’s greener Fringe

June 20, 2012Ashden Directory, FringeAssociate Editor, Bevy, Climate Change, Consumerism, Ecological Themes, Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Japanese Earthquake, Macbeth, Nuclear Leak, Oil Spill, Remarkable Number, Robert Butler, Sensibilities, Silent Prayer, Six Ways, Theatre Pieces, Twitter, Urban Architecture

Fukushima – A Silent Prayer of Poetry

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes:

Among the bevy of shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe about Hitler, adolescence, Macbeth and stage spiritualists, there is a remarkable number of dance and physical theatre pieces with ecological themes. Consumerism and happiness, oil and politics, the Japanese earthquake, undercover policing, urban architecture and fear of the woods are among the ideas and sensibilities these shows are expressing.

Theatre shows number highly this year, too, with around 70 that have ecological themes varying from the strongly activist to the bucolic. Shows about animals, food and an apocalypse always feature. This year, there are three shows walking to Edinburgh; shows about abattoirs, about the Deepwater oil spill and the Fukushima nuclear leak; and shows about a swamp, plastics, population and the price of milk.

Indie-theatre take on Deepwater spill

June 12, 2012Ashden DirectoryClimate Change, Corporate Malfeasance, Encyclopedia Britannica Online, Fighter Jets, Fuel Tanks, Horizon Oil, Indie Music, Interviews News, Lavery, Low Budget, Music Event, Oil Spill, Phantom Fighter, Photo Encyclopedia, Plotline, Robert Butler, Senior Lecturer, Theatrical Experience, Twitter, Young Actors

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

photo: Encyclopedia Britannica online

Wallace Heim writes:Â

During April and May, The Way of Water, Caridad Svichâ€™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 playâ€™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.

The right environment

June 5, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Climate Change, Ecology, Extinction, Features Interviews, Flowers, Fringe, Interviews News, Jonathan, Jonathan Brown, Last Of The Curlews, Lunch, Metaphors, Playwright, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Triptych, Twitter

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 yearâ€™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.

One Day on Earth

June 2, 2012Ashden DirectoryArts Programming, Associate Editor, Center Materials, Charities, City Materials, Climate Change, Department Of Cultural Affairs, Features Interviews, Gutman, Interviews News, June 3, Materials For The Arts, Metaphors, Proceeds, Reuse Center, Robert Butler, Showings, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

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,Â Materials for the Arts, will be the recipient of proceeds from screenings of One Day on Earth. Â It was made in 2010, and filmed in every country on earth on the same day. Â 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. Â It collects unneeded materials from businesses and individuals and donates them to arts programming across the city.

Tom Toles wedding cartoon

May 31, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Caricature, Cartoonist, Climate Change, Doodle, Editorial Cartooning, Environmental Issues, Features Interviews, Gutman, Herblock, Interviews News, Metaphors, Pulitzer Prize, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Toles Cartoons, Tom Toles, Twitter, Washington Post, Wedding Cartoon

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

U.S. Energy Secretary Chu on The Avengers

May 29, 2012Ashden DirectoryAmbitious Agenda, Avengers, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Dependence On Foreign Oil, Economic Opportunity, Energy Secretary, Global Competition, Gutman, Interviews News, New Jobs, Obama, Robert Butler, Secretary Of Energy, Six Ways, Steven Chu, Tesseract, Twitter, U S Energy, World Sense

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 Â he says:

Six films on culture and climate change

May 23, 2012Ashden Directory20th Anniversary, Alliance FranÃ§Aise, Associate Editor, Austrian Embassy, British Council, Climate Change, Cultural Partners, Culture Change, Earth Summit In Rio, Features Interviews, Goethe Institut, Gutman, Interviews News, Italian Institute, Metaphors, Precarious Relationship, Rio De Janeiro, Rio De Janeiro Information, Robert Butler, Six Ways, Twitter

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, Â a series of films from six European countries, and discussions, through 12 June on culture and climate change. A collaboration between CultivateÂ and the EUNIC European cultural partners: Goethe Institut, British Council, Austrian Embassy, Alliance FranÃ§aise and the ItalianÂ 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

Carbon-lite touring

May 22, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Bear Project, Bicycles, Carbon Footprint, Cast And Crew, Climate Change, Director Joe, Features Interviews, Interviews News, Joe Douglas, Metaphors, Panniers, Polar Bear, Polar Bears, Production Director, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter, World Wildlife Fund

The Last Polar Bears on tour

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Wallace Heim writes:Â

The carbon footprint of a production meets the content of the play in the National Theatre of Scotlandâ€™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 productionâ€™s legacy, the National Theatre of Scotland will donate to the World Wildlife Fund’s Adopt a polar bearÂ project on behalf of the 18 primary schools on the tour.

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

Floating platforms

May 13, 2012Ashden DirectoryAssociate Editor, Beneficiary, blog, Climate Change, Economist, Eggs, Features Interviews, Floating Platforms, Flowers, Insect, Interviews News, Metaphors, Pacific Ocean, Reflection, Robert Butler, Six Ways, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter, United Kingdom

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

A new study shows that plastic in the Pacific Ocean has increased 100 times over the last 40 years.The only beneficiary, reports The Economist, is Halobates sericeus, “a small insect that now has lots of nice little floating platforms on which to lay its eggs”.

Soap operas for social change

May 5, 2012Ashden Directory1950s, 28 April, Associate Editor, Bbc, Bbc Radio Program, Climate Change, Features Interviews, Gutman, Interviews News, Land Mines, Listeners, Metaphors, Reflection, Robert Butler, Significant Influence, Six Ways, Soap Opera, Soap Operas, sustainability, Timeline, Twitter

The Archers, courtesy BBC

This post comes to you from Ashden Directory

Kellie Gutman writes;

The BBC have looked into soap operas as agents for social change and have discovered in some cases they have changed the world. Â From the longest-running program, The Archers, which encouraged farmers in the 1950s to increase production by trying out new techniques, to a BBC radio program in Afghanistan, calledNew Home, on women’s rights, which taught listeners how to avoid land mines, the soap opera has had a significant influence.

A two-part programme on Your World (part 1, 21 April; part 2, 28 April) can be heard here.