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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

Blessings and Provocations from the 2024 Under the Radar Symposium
Essay
Blessings and Provocations from the 2024 Under the Radar Symposium
by Ashley Malafronte
8 April 2024
Perform Europe Open Call Launch Event
Video
Perform Europe Open Call Launch Event
Learn More About the Vision Behind the New Edition of Perform Europe and Explore the Opportunities of the Open Call
Friday 1 December 2023
Europe
2023 ArtsLink Assembly: The Future is Not What It Used to Be
Video
2023 ArtsLink Assembly: The Future is Not What It Used to Be
A two-day assembly featuring perspectives from artists rooted in their communities, and figures in cultural policy and practice, philanthropy, and social justice.
Thursday 16 November to Friday 17 November 2023
Chicago, Illinois and Kyiv, Ukraine
This Changes Everything 2015 Dialogue Series on Climate Change
Video

This Changes Everything 2015 Dialogue Series on Climate Change

11 May, 18 May, 30 May, and 1 June 2015
New York, NY, United States

The Foundry Theatre presented their 2015 Dialogue series This Changes Everything with events in New York City that will be livestreamed on global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on 11 May, 18 May, 30 May, and 1 June at 4 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles) / 6 p.m. CDT (Chicago) / 7 p.m. EDT (New York) / 23:00 GMT / 12 a.m. BST (London).

Supporting the Intersection of Art and Activism
Essay

Supporting the Intersection of Art and Activism

26 April 2015

Jennifer Sokolove talks about funding work around climate change, and how organizations can reimagine granting to support work at the intersection of art activism.

Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind—Hearing the Voices of the Future
Essay

Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind—Hearing the Voices of the Future

25 April 2015

Norwegian composer Marte Røyeng has created a musical exploring sustainability with children, hoping to help them think about big issues.

Walking The Awkwardly Heroic Yet Often Depressing Path of Near Impossible Catastrophe Evasion Through Kick-Ass Poetics
Essay

Walking The Awkwardly Heroic Yet Often Depressing Path of Near Impossible Catastrophe Evasion Through Kick-Ass Poetics

24 April 2015

Elizabeth Doud addresses the emergency of climate change and the need for a poetics to shift consciousness.

Where Is The Hope?
Essay

Where Is The Hope?

23 April 2015

Jeremy Pickard of Superhero Clubhouse searches for hope and asks impossible questions as he creates nine Planet Plays, which examine the world in the context of climate change.

The Nature of Positive
Essay

The Nature of Positive

22 April 2015

Australian scenic designer Tanja Beer explores designing with the intentions of enriching audiences as well as our environment and communities.

36.5 / a durational performance with the sea
Essay

36.5 / a durational performance with the sea

21 April 2015

Sarah Cameron Sunde explores the issue of water rising on our planet, explores the drastic changes through art, and implores people to consider the water.

Looking for the Ending (Or is it the Beginning?)
Essay

Looking for the Ending (Or is it the Beginning?)

20 April 2015

Alanna Mitchell talks about transforming her book Sea Sick: The Global Ocean in Crisis into a one-woman show, and the conversation she found in theatre.

Twitter Chat
Essay

Twitter Chat

How Can Artists Shift the Climate Change Story?—Thurs, April 23—Participate with hashtag #howlround

20 April 2015

This hour-long conversation will take place on Thursday, April 23 on hashtag #howlround at 11am PDT (Vancouver) / 1pm CDT (Austin) / 2pm EDT (Toronto) / 18:00 GMT / 7pm BST (London).

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.

Before Resilience
Essay

Before Resilience

The Ethics of Theatre Production

17 April 2015

Adam R. Burnett looks at resilience in theatre, how artists seem to forget where they’ve been, and the ethical responsibilities in the production of production.

Devising The Environment
Essay

Devising The Environment

Experimenting Inside The Black Box

10 March 2015

In this last post in his series, Stephen Spotswood reports on the piece of theatre his students devised, and muses on its successes and everyone’s willingness to participate.

Devising the Environment
Essay

Devising the Environment

Finding A Narrative In The Noise

8 January 2015

Everyone starts to wonder what they’re creating with Stephen Spotswood on his journey to devise a piece with both environmental studies and theatre majors.

Trespass Theater
Essay

Trespass Theater

Jeff Stark on The Dreary Coast

18 December 2014

The Dreary Coast is a site-specific immersive work that took place in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal, and used elements of Greek and Roman mythology, Dante’s Inferno, black metal music, and the canal’s actual history to journey its audience through one of the most polluted waterways in the United States.

A devising workshop.
Devising The Environment
Essay

Devising The Environment

Mixing Science and Theater In The Classroom

26 November 2014

The class is split almost right down the middle between theater majors and environmental studies students, with a few crossovers. That first day we have a much more immediate question to answer: Did this mix of drama and science students have the capacity to merge together into the ersatz devising company we needed them to be? Would they be open-minded, generous, and willing to play? If not, the entire semester would be an uphill process.

CultureHub Logo
The Mirror up to Nature: Reflecting the Environment in Designs, Maps, and Theatre
Video

The Mirror up to Nature: Reflecting the Environment in Designs, Maps, and Theatre

Sunday 26 October2014
New York, NY, United States

CultureHub in New York City presented the discussion The Mirror up to Nature: Reflecting the Environment in Designs, Maps, and Theatre livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 26 October at 22:00 GMT (London) / 6 p.m. EDT (New York) / 5 p.m. CDT (Austin) / 3 p.m. PDT (Vancouver) / 9 a.m. AEDT on Monday, October 27 (Sydney). In Twitter, use #howlround.

Cover art for Extreme Whether of a frog inflating its neck to reveal a globe.
Climate Science’s Challenge to Artists
Essay

Climate Science’s Challenge to Artists

29 January 2014

Karen Malpede shares insight into the importance and compelling nature of climate dramas.

An actor onstage rides a stationary bike while speaking into a microphone.
Riding a Bike on Stage
Essay

Riding a Bike on Stage

Green Theater and Katie Mitchell’s Production of Lungs

22 January 2014

Summer Banks offers an overview of eco-theatre and talks about her experience watching Katie Mitchell's production of Atmen.

A tree floating in the air.
The Aesthetic Evolution of Eco Theater
Essay

The Aesthetic Evolution of Eco Theater

23 November 2013

Eco theater is not meant as a protest or an art installation at a climate change conference. It is a complete and independent artistic practice that happens to focus on ecological issues.

The Theatre of the Future
Essay

The Theatre of the Future

9 February 2011

In this installment of the series From Scarcity to Abundance: Capturing the Moment for the New Work Sector, Meiyin Wang hypothesizes on the future of theatre and the impact it can have on the world.

Groups of attendant's notes lie scattered over a table.
Under the Radar Symposium 2024
Series

Under the Radar Symposium 2024

This series combines content from and about the 2024 Under the Radar Symposium, produced by the Under the Radar Festival and ArkType in partnership with the International Producing Commons (IPC), Creative and Independent Producer Alliance (CIPA), and HowlRound Theatre Commons. 

People, Planet, and Performance event poster.
People, Planet, and Performance: From the Global South to the World
Series

People, Planet, and Performance: From the Global South to the World

A Series from Africa on Climate Emergencies, Sustainability Practice in the Arts, and Planetary Crises

This is a broad-based interdisciplinary, intercultural, and cross-sectoral exploration of climate justice within the context of theatre and performance with a focus on the Global South.

Event poster for the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival conversation.
Artists/Ideas/Now
Series

Artists/Ideas/Now

Artist-led conversations exploring some of the biggest issues facing the world today

Climate Emergency
Series

Climate Emergency

There is a long history of performance entwining with environmental activism in Brazil. This series builds upon the HowlRound series and convening, Theatre in the Age of Climate Change, to highlight some of these Brazillan performances, research, and training initiatives. These works of eco-performance and ecopoetic theatre model creative paths forward for the reparative processes necessary to face climate change.

green bubble with white text GREEN NEW THEATRE.
Green New Theater
Series

Green New Theater

Bring your dinner, hold your kid, and we can all break bread together and hold space.

Green New Theatre (GNT) is a movement building tool that provides a set of actionable principles for the arts field to adapt and evolve in the face of the climate crisis. Our approach is multi-layered and emergent. It adapts for organizations and individuals at every level of production.