Climate change

The Earth is Watching…Let’s Act.

The 2019-20 Final Cycle: Climate Change

Amid COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, the Climate Change Cycle took a deep-dive into the facts of our climate crisis, and grappled with how the performing arts can respond. The Climate Change Cycle first launched with a gathering at the Banff Centre in April 2019, and culminated during the pandemic in June 2020. It was a grand adventure in emissions reduction and new practice, originally conceived as a digital meet-up between eight locations (six Canadian cities and two international). Over the course of the global economic shutdown, our initial IRL locations transformed into digital URL “rooms”, each bringing together artists, scientists, academics, the young and the old through a masterful hybrid online space, created from necessity, and culminating in a performative and event-based sharing of ideas with the broader theatrical community. This final performance event happened concurrently in several time zones and audiences had the option to enter through a room and participate or watch it all livestreamed wherever broadband permitted. English Theatre is proud to host recordings of The Green Rooms here (coming soon).

For more information about the Climate Change Cycle please download The Summit Report 2019, by Adrienne Wong, Chantal Bilodeau and Sarah Garton Stanley and look for I Can’t Breathe by Mieko Ouchi (Final Report from The Green Rooms).

The Summit Report Green Rooms: Carbon Emissions Report The Green Rooms Report

Part 1: The Summit

APRIL 2019 | BANFF CENTRE FOR THE ARTS

In April 2019, NAC English Theatre, in partnership with the Banff Centre and several key organizations, gathered together nine Inspirers from Canada, USA, Australia and the UK for a three-day conversation about the costs of Climate Change and how we might reimagine the footprint of Canadian theatre. This final Cycle is co-curated by Associate Artistic Director of English Theatre Sarah Garton Stanley and playwright, translator and Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle, Chantal Bilodeau. Cultural leaders from across Canada joined the conversation. The NAC gratefully acknowledges the partnership of the Banff Centre and the collaborating support of the Stratford Festival, as well as the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Council and the Australia Council for the Arts.

Part 2: The Green Rooms

JUNE 2020 | ONLINE FROM EVERYWHERE

As part of its response to the escalating climate crisis – and in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic – NAC English Theatre in partnership with Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA), the Canada Council for the Arts, The City of Kingston, HowlRound Theatre Commons and The National Theatre School brought together participants for an extraordinary three-day/three-country digital experiment to re-imagine the future of theatre. Learn more