HowlRound Theatre Commons: From June 8 to 10 2018, HowlRound, in partnership with Chantal Bilodeau (The Arctic Cycle), Elizabeth Doud (Climakaze Miami/Fundarte), and Roberta Levitow (Theatre Without Borders), hosted Theatre in the Age of Climate Change, one of four convenings selected as part of the HowlRound Challenge. This effort brought together a collection of artists, activists, scientists, and educators working at the intersection of climate change and performing arts for three days of reflection, strategizing, and sharing. Much of the convening is archived on HowlRound TV.
3 comments:
This article was not wat I expected. I was surprised by how in depth the current dialogue over climate change and theater is. In my mind, it was just about environmental impact, but the article goes deeper into the social, political and economic factors as well, which are very important to take into account especially when discussing the logistics of large scale change.
Additionally, the convenings explore climate change theater in a broader context. Not limiting it to one format but opening it up to the arts in general, which I believe is a better strategy with a wider radius of impact.
Looking just at the environmental impact of traditional theater however, there are definitely some simple adjustments we can work towards to positively impact our footprint as an industry. Taking into account the impact of sourcing materials as well as disposing of them is an important place to start.
We can incorporate greener practices at CMU as well. After a brief conversation with Beth, I found out that CMU throws an overwhelming amount of its scenery out after a production. Though this is the quickest and easiest solution it isn’t the most environmentally considerate. Add on top of that the hundreds of theaters and programs across the country and the thousands around the world that do the same thing, the impact becomes massive. I’m aware that often the demand for a piece of scenery is not present and we can’t simply pass it off to someone else, but maybe there are lumber recycling options or other partial solutions that take at lease part of the burden off the environment.
The important thing is that we recognize our impact and work towards positive changes. You can’t fix such a large problem overnight, but spreading awareness and understanding are the most important first steps.
This article really focuses on what theater can do for those outside the community to promote change. It focuses on art as protest and calling out the big investors who put their dollars towards companies and efforts which threaten our planet. This is what theater is all about and I agree wholeheartedly with their efforts, but I was very surprised at what little emphasis was put on the entertainment industry itself to decrease its environmental impact. Theater, in almost all forms, is temporary. What happens when a show closes? A television show wraps a shoot? What happens to the props, the scenery, the costumes, ect...? Oftentimes, even here at CMU where there's a compost bin every few yards, it gets thrown out. I don't have the answers, but neither did this group of people before they came together and thought about the issues at hand. I do think the work they did is very beneficial and I am glad they are compiling the work people do all over the country so that there can be a more national discussion about climate change through theater, but I think that the first step towards change is looking within yourself and seeing what impact you as a person have on the environment. If they had done this, they may have also come up with ways to limit how much waste theater itself produces.
It is so important that artists have this kind of discussion, not just about climate change but also about other important social and political phenomena which require attention. My impression from this article is that some of the discussions might have been a little overly theoretical for practical purposes, but these conversations too serve their purpose and in the long term might guide strategies toward more practical matters. Either way, this article does well to raise the topic of activist theatre and its lack of organization. While artists are generally taught to imbue their art with a message, quite often this message is personal. There’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but art-as-activism programs either as classes or more community-based events outside the scope of educational institutions would, I think, be both invaluable and well-attended. Although a few such classes exist in various art programs at many colleges, it seems to me that they would be just as effectual, if not more, if put in place in high school art classes and more extensively integrated in university programs. For instance, while an art department might have a visual art-as-activism class, or a theatre or music program might have a theatre/music-as-activism course, respectively, more solid curriculums or more integrated courses might be interesting and valuable. To that effect, fine arts departments might establish broader programs that explore how art and activism interact more broadly, and in which different artists might work together on a variety of projects, producing visual art, theatre, music, etc according to their inclinations and cooperation.
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