Playwright and translator Chantal Bilodeau explores the intersection of science, policy, art, and climate change.
Citizens’ Climate Radio is a monthly podcast hosted by CCLer Peterson Toscano. Browse all our past episode recaps here, or listen to past episodes here, and check out the latest episode in the post below.
In our latest podcast episode, Chantal Bilodeau tells us about Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA) 2021. Founded in 2015, CCTA is a worldwide series of readings and performances of short climate change plays presented biennially to coincide with the United Nations COP meetings.
CCTA was originally founded by Elaine Ávila, Chantal Bilodeau, Roberta Levitow, and Caridad Svich following a model pioneered by NoPassport Theatre Alliance. It has since evolved into a U.S.-Canada collaboration between The Arctic Cycle and the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
Chantal is a playwright and translator originally from Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, but now based in New York City, the traditional land of the Lenape People. In her capacity as artistic director of The Arctic Cycle, she has been instrumental in getting the theatre and academic communities, as well as audiences in the U.S. and abroad, to engage in climate action through programming that includes live events, talks, publications, workshops, national and international convenings, and a worldwide distributed theatre festival.
To tell us about one of the plays is Dr Zoë Svendsen, Lecturer in Drama and Performance in the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge. Through collaboration with members of METIS Arts, Zoe created a short play called “Love Out of Ruins,” part of a larger project called “Love Letter to a Livable Planet.” In her play, the audience gets to decide many of the details. Think of it as a sophisticated version of Mad-Libs with the aim to create a vision of the future worth pursuing. The play begins in the present time and moves forward. You get to decide the details that shape the character’s world.
You can read “Love Out of Ruins” by Zoë Svendsen at one of your CCL events. In fact, having a group of friends, students, or climate advocates sit and each fill in the lines can be a mind- and heart-expanding activity. Then you can share the results at a Climate Change Theatre Action event you host and read some of the plays by the 49 other playwrights from around the world.
Learn more about how you can get your hands on these plays and host your own event. Visit climatechangetheatreaction.com.
The Art House
As a podcaster and radio producer, our host, Peterson Toscano listens to many climate change podcasts. Every now and then though he hears a well designed podcast that hits him in the heart and the gut. It becomes a transformative audio experience. This is exactly what happened when he first listened to Claude Schryer’s Conscient podcast. As a sound designer, he is able to reach deep into a listener’s mind and even our bodies. Sound has that power. Peterson chatted with Claude about his podcast and his own journey as an artist addressing climate change. From that recorded conversation, Claude wove in sound effects and personal reflection. We encourage you to listen with headphones on.
The conscient podcast / balado conscient is a bilingual series of conversations about arts, conscience and the ecological crisis.You will find it wherever you listen to podcasts.
You can hear standalone versions of The Art House at Artists and Climate Change.
Good News Report
Our good news story this month comes from the US State of Utah. Tom Moyer shares How 25 Republicans in Utah came to endorse carbon fee and dividend. If you have good news to share, email us radio @ citizensclimate.org.
We always welcome your thoughts, questions, suggestions, and recommendations for the show. Leave a voicemail at (518) 595-9414 (+1 if calling from outside the USA). You can email your answers to radio @ citizensclimate.org.
