Institution: Quest University Canada
Instructor: Elaine Avila
Description: This course focuses on theatre in response to climate change. We will examine our cultural and personal assumptions about nature by reading anthropology and literary criticism, (Survival by Margaret Atwood, The Truth About Stories by Thomas King and The Wayfinders by Wade Davis). Students will apply this analysis while reading play texts as literature and blueprint for performance. We will read essays by performer/creators, short plays written for the International Climate Change Theatre Action, and full length plays written in response to Big Oil, food production, environmental disaster, and the Arctic. Projects will include writing an analytical essay, a presentation and writing a short climate change theatre play. Central Questions: What social and cultural assumptions do you have about “nature”? How do these relate to climate change? How does storytelling (theatrical, embodied, experiential learning) provide new avenues to address climate change?
Level: Undergraduate
Timing: Taught once or twice annually
Country: Canada
Syllabus: Texts: Climate Change Theatre