Open Flame Theatrebelieves “ the systems we experience under are inherently self - destructive ; ” that for the sake of our survival , we must “ reimagine the way we live ourselves and this planet . ” The group performs surrealist , out-of-door opera house aimed at connecting audiences with humanity ’s impact on nature .
The execution can get reasonably dark . candid Flame Theatre ’s latest bid , The Wastelands , is about how humanity ’s desire to eclipse the born world is destroying it . “ Everywhere this civilisation goes , it leaves skeletons in its wake : ruins of factories , overgrown landfills , clear - cut woodland , ” Walken Schweigert , the group ’s artistic theatre director , told Earther . The fun was performed in dilapidate church , overgrown shipyard , abandoned mill , and derelict warehouse across the Great Lakes region over the summer .
The musical style of “ cli - fi ” plays , volume , and movies — works of fable that tackle climate alteration — has raise more and more democratic . But this theater company is doing something taradiddle order on paper or in movie theatre ca n’t . It ’s advocating for environmental stewardship by bring in the audience into nature , face - to - face with the impression of our industrialized , throwaway culture . And despite explore some of the harsher reality of animation in the 21st C , Open Flame Theatre believes its plays can effectuate positive variety . The chemical group is not alone in that survey .
“ Every diachronic moment has its theatre , but never has a time so desperately needed what theater offers , ” Theresa May , executive director of theEarth Matters On Stagefestival and a University of Oregon dramatic art professor , tell Earther .
The question is whether the subject matter environmentally - orient theater groups are promoting will get to those who really need to hear them .
Open Flame Theater ’s former carrying into action series succeeded in helping thwart Kinder Morgan ’s Northeast Energy Direct natural gas pipeline plans . Beginning in August 2015,Pipeline Processionswas performed along several incision of the proposed gas pipeline route in Massachusetts , so that mass could see what was at stake . At the end of each performance , Open Flame Theatre invited the owner of that land to speak to the audience about how the pipeline would affect them . Most were come to about how the pipeline would impact their crops , brute , and land value .
“ Ideas are abstract , ” Schweigert told Earther . “ mass imagine ‘ possibly it ’s not that speculative . ’ What shape our beliefs is consider , bringing it from the abstract to the real . ”
Schweigert may be onto something with his approach .
inquiry support the idea that themore timeyou spend in nature , the moreconnectionandconcernyou feel for it , and themore likelyyou are to playact to protect it . Studies bespeak toavoidingpoliticized voice communication , using frame up that connect to people ’s values , andfocusing on local causesas important fixings in in effect convey clime concerns and spur natural action . These are all things that outdoor , sometimes call in “ site - specific ” theatre , can do .
May points out that the the skills central to field — radical empathy , deep listening , corporate embodied practice , and a sense of ego - as - community — are the same ones that sociologists say are necessary for the “ revolution of our share imagination ” required to harness climate alteration .
According to Chantal Bilodeau , artistic theatre director ofThe Arctic Cycle , an organization created to corroborate the ontogeny of eight plays examining social and environmental variety in the Arctic , another strength of theater as a vehicle for environmental communication is that it ’s experienced in a group .
“ This bring in it local , prompt , and communal — three aspects that facilitate conversation , reinforce doings through grouping interaction , and make the development of networks possible , ” Bilodeau , who is currently working on the third turn of the serial , told Earther .
Eco - theater is not new . Dramaturg and anthropologist Dillon Slagle explain that as a statute aesthetic move , it can be traced to around the seventies .
“ These first ego - proclaimed eco - theater artists act out of political disillusionment with gravid corporations , environmental dangers , and existing social structures . The concerns ranged from pesticide use of goods and services to liquidate mopes in lower - class urban areas to deforestation , ” Slaglewrotein an article on the history of eco - theater .
One early instance of site - specific outdoor theater is the 1988 yield “ La Quinceanera ” by Teatro Nuestro , which wasperformedon California farm . The work “ exhibit the effects of pesticide use in comedic melodrama , feature ‘ El Pesticido ’ as a large masked deathly phantasma , ” Slagle write . “ Taking an strong-growing approach in performance ‘ La Quinceanera [ go ] directly to the farm DoL camp with audiences coming right out of the field . ’ ”
After the show , Dr. took to the stage to explain the health effects of pesticides , and lawyers elaborated worker ’ right . The California Rural Legal Assistance Fund declare the show “ the in force way ” to get these messages out , and list the functioning as one of its “ major victories ” because it lead to local organizing on the issue of pesticide safe .
Other groups currently engross in outdoor eco - activist style performances admit the New York - based collective of creative person and scientistsSuperhero Clubhouse , and multidisciplinary artistsMondo Bizarroin New Orleans . Then there’sReverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Choir , a performance ensemble that ’s been staging shows and protests around the globe for more than fifteen geezerhood . Their protest targets — Starbucks , coal mining , law brutality , Wall Street , and Monsanto , among others — may not all appear to be environmental in nature , but the grouping says it seeks to “ inspire mass to challenge the consumerism , racism , and militarism that are killing our planet . ”
Schweigert says he is campaign likewise sinister forces : At the tenderness of his troupe ’s work is anti - utilitarianism . “ We believe that life has an underlying value , that it does n’t call for to be utile , ” he say .
But are these content extend to those who need to find out them most ? Or are they prophesy to the consort , so to speak ?
“ It depends how you delineate ‘ the choir , ’ ” Bilodeau said . She points to theGlobal Warming ’s Six Americasstudy out of Yale University , which classifies Americans into six groups according to their response to climate issues — Alarmed , Concerned , Cautious , Disengaged , dubitable , and Dismissive . concord to this categorization , “ the choir ” ( a.k.a . the “ Alarmed ” ) is only 18 percent of the universe . “ These are the citizenry who are already very engaged in prove to make a difference . They ’re probably a pocket-sized percentage of the audience , ” Bilodeau said .
Happily , only 9 percent of Americans are outright dismissive of global warming , according to the latest findings on these six groups published last year . “ I would be uninstructed to recall they ’re endure to see a play and have a total modification of heart , ” Bilodeau said of these audiences . But it ’s also not inconceivable .
“ What ’s more likely is that we ’re run short arouse someone who is already paying aid but has n’t cipher out where to channel their energy to address [ climate change ] , ” Bilodeau say . “ That ’s who we demand to go after . ”
Open Flame Theatre was previously in residence at a Massachusetts theater of operations under the name Children of the Wild , but the radical of late reestablished itself in Wisconsin . Schweigert is currently in the beginning stages of developing The Garden , the second piece in the radical ’s Rewilding Cycle , a three - part performance series based on Dante ’s works : The Wastelands was based on Purgatorio , The Garden is breathe in by Inferno , and The Wild will be based on Paradiso . The theme of the series is how the wild attempts to reestablish itself in barren and in people .
Schweigert believes the first step of effectuate real change is “ to commence to imagine what is possible . ” flourish the human imagination , he says , “ has far more ramifications than we give it credit for . ”
Olivia Campbell is a scientific discipline journalist whose work has appear in New York Magazine , The Washington Post , VICE , Pacific Standard , Scientific American , and The Daily Beast .
Climate change
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