Founded in 2015, Climate Change Theatre Action is a worldwide series of readings and performances of short climate change plays presented biennially to coincide with the United Nations COP meetings.
Who We Are
CCTA was founded by Elaine Ãvila, Chantal Bilodeau, Roberta Levitow, and Caridad Svich following a model pioneered by NoPassport Theatre Alliance. It has since evolved into a collaboration between The Arctic Cycle, the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, and Theatre Without Borders.
A global participatory project, CCTA uses theatre to bring communities together and encourage them to take local and global action on climate. By providing tools (a series of plays) free of charge, some guidance on how to produce events, marketing support, and a model that encourages leadership and self-determination, we make it easy for everyone to engage with an art form they may not be familiar with, and we empower them to harness their creative potential and put it in service of the greater good.
How We Do It
Every other year, fifty professional playwrights, representing all inhabited continents as well as several cultures and Indigenous nations, are commissioned to write five-minute plays about an aspect of climate change based on a prompt.
This collection of plays is then available to producing collaborators interested in presenting an event during the project’s time window, typically in the fall. Events can be in-house readings, public performances, radio shows, podcasts, film adaptations – the possibilities are endless! Collaborators can design their event to reflect their own aesthetic and community, and include additional material by local artists.
To emphasize the “Action†part of Climate Change Theatre Action, collaborators are also urged to think about an action – educational, social, or political/civic – that can be incorporated into their event. It may involve the scientific community, other departments within a university, local environmental organizations, etc. Examples of actions from previous years include: presentations by scientists; donations to hurricane relief efforts and food banks; conversations with social justice and environmental organizations; writing letters to legislators, and; sharing tools for sustainability at the local level.
Want to Join Us?
Our next CCTA will be in the fall of 2021. The Call for Producing Collaborators will go out in early 2021. Make sure to sign up for The Arctic Cycle’s mailing list to stay up-to-date. We also invite you to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
Anthologies
Lighting the Way : An Anthology Of Short Climate Change Plays
Edited by Chantal Bilodeau and Thomas Peterson, Lighting the Way: An Anthology of Short Plays About the Climate Crisis includes 49 inspiring plays by writers from around the world commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2019, plus an introduction by Chantal Bilodeau and essays by Julia Levine, Charissa Menefee, Thomas Peterson, Triga Creative, and Brooke Wood.
Responding to a prompt asking them to “give center stage to the unsung climate warriors and climate heroes who are lighting the way toward a just and sustainable future,†the writers offer a diversity of perspectives and artistic approaches to telling the stories of those who are making a positive impact.
We couldn’t be more proud of this book and hope you’ll like it as much as we do.
Writers include Hassan Abdulrazzak • Elaine Ãvila • Chantal Bilodeau • Yolanda Bonnell • Philip Braithwaite • Damon Chua, Paula Cizmar • Hanna Cormick • Derek Davidson • Sunny Drake • Clare Duffy • Brian Dykstra • Alister Emerson • Georgina Escobar • David Finnigan • David Geary • Nelson Gray • Jordan Hall • Kamil Haque • Monica Hoth • Zainabu Jallo • Vinicius Jatobá • Vitor Jatobá • Marcia Johnson • MaryAnn Karanja • Andrea Lepcio • Joan Lipkin • Philip Luswata • Abhishek Majumdar • Julie McKee • Giovanni Ortega • Mary Kathryn Nagle • Lana Nasser • Yvette Nolan • Matthew Paul Olmos • Corey Payette • Katie Pearl • Shy Richardson and Karina Yager • Kiana Rivera • Madeline Sayet • Stephen Sewell • Lena Å imic with Neal and Sid Anderson • Caridad Svich • Elspeth Tilley • Peterson Toscano • Mike van Graan • Meaza Worku • Marcus Youssef • and Nathan Yungerberg.
Lighting the Way is also available from Barnes & Noble and your domestic Amazon store.
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Where Is The Hope : An Anthology Of Short Climate Change Plays
Where is the Hope? An Anthology of Short Climate Change Plays is a collection of 50 short plays by writers from all over the world, commissioned for Climate Change Theatre Action 2017. A creative response to the question “How can we inspire people and turn the challenges of climate change into opportunities?†the plays offer a diversity of perspectives and artistic approaches in telling stories that may point to a just and sustainable future.
Included in this anthology are works by Hassan Abdulrazzak, Keith Josef Adkins, Reneltta Arluk, Elaine Ãvila, Catherine Banks, Chantal Bilodeau, Philip Braithwaite, Jody Christopherson & Ryan McCurdy, Mindi Dickstein, Clare Duffy, Angella Emurwon, Kendra Fanconi, Lanxing Fu & Jeremy Pickard, David Geary, MÄ«ria George, Jordan Hall, Vinicius Jatobá, C. A. Johnson, Marcia Johnson, Hiro Kanagawa, MaryAnn Karanja, Amahl Khouri, Catherine Léger, Ian LesÄ, E. M. Lewis, Jessica Litwak, Kevin Loring, Abhishek Majumdar, Anita Majumdar, Kasaya Manulevu, Shahid Nadeem, Sharleen Ndlovu, Dave Ojay, Achiro P. Olwoch, Giovanni Ortega, David Paquet, Sarena Parmar, Katie Pearl, Elyne Quan, Lynn Rosen, Ian Rowlands, Lisa Schlesinger, Stephen Sewell, Saviana Stanescu, Caridad Svich, Jordan Tannahill, Elspeth Tilley, Meaza Worku, Nathan Yungerberg, and Maya Zbib.
Order from the York University Bookstore for $35 CAD
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