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Chantal Bilodeau

Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of storytelling and the climate crisis.

Chantal Bilodeau (she/her) is a Montreal-born, New York–based playwright and translator. As founding artistic director of the Arts & Climate Initiative, she has been instrumental in getting the theatre and educational communities, as well as audiences in the United States and abroad, to engage in climate action through live events, talks, publications, workshops, national and international convenings, and a worldwide distributed theatre festival. She is writing a series of eight plays that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight Arctic states. In 2019, she was named one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation” by Audubon magazine.

A performer lies down on a set piece that looks like a whale.
The Intimacy of the Climate Crisis
Essay

The Intimacy of the Climate Crisis

26 June 2023

Chantal Bilodeau introduces a new installment of the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series, which focuses contemporary plays and playwrights that explore the intimate impacts of climate change on both individuals and communities.

a group of performers lifting up a young child onstage
What I Learned About Gender Parity and Racial Diversity from Running a Global Participatory Initiative
Essay

What I Learned About Gender Parity and Racial Diversity from Running a Global Participatory Initiative

24 March 2019

Chantal Bilodeau examines data from the Climate Change Theatre Action initiative, which she runs, to better understand how racial and gender bias plays out in the theatre world.

Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening
Video

Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening

Emerson College

Friday 8 June to Sunday 10 June 2018
Boston, MA, United States
actors and a puppet onstage
Chantal Bilodeau on “Breaking Up with Aristotle” and Finding New Ways to Tell Stories Onstage
Podcast

Chantal Bilodeau on “Breaking Up with Aristotle” and Finding New Ways to Tell Stories Onstage

Theatre History Podcast #61

7 May 2018

Playwright Chantal Bilodeau joins us to discuss her essay "Why I'm Breaking Up with Aristotle," and how we need to explore new forms of storytelling in order to create theatre that engages with issues like climate change.

Why Do Women Climate More Than Men?
Essay

Why Do Women Climate More Than Men?

18 March 2018

Chantal Bilodeau kicks off this week’s series on Theatre in the Age of Climate Change by suggesting that women in the arts may be our planet’s best bet for survival.

F*ck the System (And the Horse It Rode In On)
Essay

F*ck the System (And the Horse It Rode In On)

17 September 2017

Chantal Bilodeau kicks off this week's series on Theatre in the Age of Climate Change, and argues that we as a theatre community need to recognize when our practices and systems are detrimental to the earth and other people, and strive to change them.

Theatremakers vs The Climate Fools in the White House
Essay

Theatremakers vs The Climate Fools in the White House

19 April 2017

Chantal Bilodeau writes about an initiative called Climate Change Theatre Action.

Why I’m Breaking Up with Aristotle
Essay

Why I’m Breaking Up with Aristotle

22 April 2016

Chantal Bilodeau on writing ourselves out of the pyramid and why she is breaking up with Aristotle.

Nurturing Local Seeds Into Global Vibrancy
Essay

Nurturing Local Seeds Into Global Vibrancy

Climate Change Theatre Action

20 September 2015

Chantal Bilodeau kicks off our second Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series by writing about her work on the international Climate Change Theatre Action initiative.

In Search of a New Aesthetic
Essay

In Search of a New Aesthetic

19 April 2015

Chantal Bilodeau kicks off the series Theatre in the Age of Climate Change with an account of her trip to the Canadian Arctic and how that changed how she wanted to write plays.

Climate Change Series Highlights
List

Climate Change Series Highlights

I've been curating the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series for four years. Here are some of the pieces that have really stuck with me.

Theatre in the Age of Climate Change
Series

Theatre in the Age of Climate Change

The climate crisis has been called a “crisis of imagination.” The phrase refers to our inability to grasp the magnitude and violence of the changes we are facing, our reluctance to let the reality of it permeate our collective consciousness, and our resistance to envision positive futures.