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Climate Emergency

Climate change poses an existential threat to humanity and theatremakers need to be part of addressing it. Here, you’ll find content about artistic work that engages with the climate crisis, as well as learnings about how to make theatre practices more eco-friendly. Chantal Bilodeau’s long-running Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series is a must-read, and don’t miss Groundwater Arts’s video series on the Green New Theater.

The Latest

Essay
Passing the Baton
by Chantal Bilodeau
7 April 2026
Essay
The Making of Things We Will Miss: Meditations on the Climate Crisis
by Emily K. Harrison
16 March 2026
Essay
Theatre as a Partner in Environmental Sustainability Awareness in Delta State, Nigeria
by Dennis OBIRE, Cornelius Onyekaba , Eseovwe Emakunu
11 September 2025
performers onstage
Essay

Climate and Rasa

26 March 2019

Erin B. Mee examines how using the Sanskrit aesthetic theory of rasa—rather than the aesthetic theory of catharsis—is a necessary step when it comes to creating sustainable theatre.

College Ambassador program logo
Essay
25 March 2019

Lucy Latham talks about the work London-based organization Julie’s Bicycle is doing in encouraging the creative community to act on climate change and environmental sustainability.

a group of performers lifting up a young child onstage
Essay
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.

four performers in parkas performing outside
Essay
24 January 2019

Maximilian Kempf discusses climate change theatre through the lens of the Anthropoligists’ show This Sinking Island.

Four people standing in front of a tree
Essay

Reflections on 2018

31 December 2018

HowlRound Director Jamie Gahlon reflects on 2018 and looks forward to 2019.

a group of people
Essay
20 September 2018

Annalisa Dias discusses her work with the newly formed Groundwater Arts Collective, and suggests ways that other theatremakers committed to climate justice can adopt the framework of a Just Transition.

a college of multiple landscape photos
Essay
19 September 2018

Ashley Teague discusses how Notch Theatre Company is using community-led theatre and storytelling to help fight to protect public land. 

a group of people
Essay
18 September 2018

Lani Fu introduces the Climate Commons, an initiative that emerged from the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change convening in June 2018. 

a person and a puppet on stage
Essay

How Do We Comprehend the Effects of Climate Change?

17 September 2018

Kendra Fanconi explains why it might take us eighty-eight minutes to digest one simple sentence about climate change.

a large group of people
Essay

the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening

16 September 2018

Playwright MJ Halberstadt reports on Theatre of the Age of Climate Change convening, which took place 8-10 June 2018 in Boston, MA. 

Essay
12 August 2018

Associate Producer Ramona Ostrowski and Fellow JD Stokely reflect on how HowlRound made the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening on 8-10 June 2018 our greenest convening yet.

Video

Emerson College

Friday 8 June to Sunday 10 June 2018
Boston, MA, United States

HowlRound, in partnership with Chantal Bilodeau (The Arctic Cycle), Elizabeth Doud (Climakaze Miami/Fundarte), and Roberta Levitow (Theater Without Borders) presented the Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Friday 8 June to Sunday 10 June 2018. Follow @howlround in Twitter, and use hashtag #theatreandclimatechange.

actors and a puppet onstage
Podcast

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.

Essay
22 March 2018

Alison Weller reflects on the process of writing Boundless, a play about a fishing community on Cape Cod that faces climate change every day.

Essay

City of Culture…City of Climate Change Communication

21 March 2018

American Studies scholar and educator Nassim Winnie Balestrini reports on how Climate Change Theatre Action relates to her seminar on cultural studies at the University of Graz in Austria.

Essay
20 March 2018

Peterson Toscano describes his solo show Everything is Connected, which tackles religion, LGBTQ issues, privilege, and climate change.

Essay
19 March 2018

Aysan Celik talks about the ways she’s found laughter to be a catalyst for honest conversations with her students about Climate Change.

Essay
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.

Essay

Ten Things You Can Do

25 January 2018

Jonathan Mandell reports on the Martin Segal Theatre Center's 2018 Theatre and Resistance Symposium, and lists ten things theatre community can do right now to make a change.

Essay
2 January 2018

Holly Derr interrogates green(drama)turgy at Oregon Shakespeare Festival and how stories can be used to reconnect people to their physical world.

Video
Monday 23 October / Sunday 22 October
Palmerston North, New Zealand

Massey University presented the Climate Change Theatre Action event Still Waving—a series of readings and performances—livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced howlround.tv network on Monday 23 October at 2 p.m. NZDT (Wellington, UTC +13) / Monday, October 23 at 12 p.m. AEDT (Sydney, UTC +11) / Monday, October 23 at 9 a.m. SGT (Singapore UTC +8) / Monday, October 23 at 2 a.m. BST (London, UTC+1) / Monday, October 23 at 01:00 UTC / Sunday, October 22 at 9:00 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / Sunday, October 22 at 6 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7).

Essay
4 October 2017

HowlRound announces the four selected convening proposals for the HowlRound Challenge, a new initiative to incubate ideas and seed action to make a better theatre and a better world.

Essay
22 September 2017

Canadian playwright Colleen Murphy writes about the importance of including Indigenous characters in plays and Indigenous artists in the process of making them.

Essay
21 September 2017

While researching and developing his musical The Rising Sea, playwright Eric Schorr reflects on the parallels between the historical narrative of slavery and the modern narrative of climate change.

Essay

What Happens When You Threaten Murder in the Title of Your Play?

20 September 2017

In the third installment of this series, Australian playwright David Finnigan discusses how he navigated the attacks of climate deniers on his provocatively titled play. 

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