Whole Earth Talk #2: Frédérique Aït-Touati

The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center presented Whole Earth Talk #2: Frédérique Aït-Touati livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Friday 14 April 2023 at 9 a.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7) / 11 a.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 12 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 5 p.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 6 p.m. CEST (Paris, UTC +2).

Join us for a Whole Earth Conversation with Frédérique Aït-Touati (France) about the new role theatre and performance can and should play in the new age of the Anthropocene, a geological era shaped by humans rather than by nature. We ask how the significant symbolic, imaginary, and real space of theatre can help artists and audiences realize that a contemporary theatre and performance practice can no longer just represents interhuman conflicts. How can we raise the necessary and urgent awareness to include a planetary consciousness about animals, plants, viruses, the atmosphere, as well as the “critical zone” thirty feet above and below the surface of the Earth in contemporary theatre and performance?

Frédérique Aït-Touati is a theatre director and historian. She explores the links between science, literature, and politics. Fellow of the University of Oxford from 2007 to 2014, she is now a research fellow at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) and member of the Center for Research on Arts and Language at the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris. Her books include Fictions of the Cosmos (2011), Contes de la Lune (2011), Le Monde en images (2015), and Terra Forma (2019). Her theatre work deals with ecological issues (Gaïa Global Circus, Le Théâtre des Négociations, INSIDE, Moving Earths) within her company Zone Critique and has been presented at Nanterre-Amandiers, Théâtre de l’Odéon, Centre Pompidou, Kaaitheater de Bruxelles, as well as in New York (the Kitchen, the Signature Theatre), Berlin (HAU, Berliner Festspiele), and Taipei.

About HowlRound TV

HowlRound TV is a global, commons-based, peer-produced, open-access livestreaming and video archive project stewarded by the nonprofit HowlRound. HowlRound TV is a free and shared resource for live conversations and performances relevant to the world’s performing-arts and cultural fields. Its mission is to break geographic isolation, promote resource sharing, and develop our knowledge commons collectively. Anyone can participate in a community of peer organizations revolutionizing the flow of information, knowledge, and access in our field by becoming a producer and co-producing with us. Learn more by going to our participate page. For any other queries, email [email protected] or call Vijay Mathew at +1 917.686.3185 Signal. View the video archive of past events.