A Green Moment to Share: A Theatrical Laboratory to Explore Climate Crisis Possibilities within Single Moments
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Climate Crisis, Social Justice, and Emotions
2.2. Embodied Knowledge
2.3. Theatre of the Oppressed and Climate Change
2.4. Research-Based Theatre
3. Methodology
3.1. Participants
3.2. Development of a Research-Based Theatre Project
3.3. Determining the Case Study Boundaries through Thematic Analysis
3.4. Rehearsal Two Case Study: Exploring How the Body Encounters the Climate Crisis through Image Theatre
4. Analysis and Discussion
4.1. Exploring Embodied Moments of Struggle with the Climate Crisis
4.2. Exploring Power in the Climate Crisis
4.3. Exploring Positionality in the Climate Crisis
4.4. Exploring Agency in the Climate Crisis
4.5. Making Sense of Climate Crisis through Image Theatre
5. Conclusions
5.1. Thinking Forward
5.2. Final Thoughts
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
1 | Originally the plan had been to use Forum Theatre in the performance of AGMTS. In Forum Theatre actors perform short “problem” scenes and invite the audience to pause the action and advise or replace a character to rehearse possible solutions to an oppressive situation. However, through rehearsal the ensemble realized that the climate crisis was internal and psychological, which made it poorly suited to Forum Theatre as a performance method. |
References
- Akómálafé, Bayo. 2017. These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books. [Google Scholar]
- Baird, Rachel. 2008. The Impact of Climate Change on Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. London: Briefing. Minority Rights Group International. [Google Scholar]
- Barone, Tom, and Elliot W. Eisner. 2011. Arts-Based Research. Thousand Oaks: Sage. [Google Scholar]
- Boal, Augusto. 1992. Games for Actors and Non-Actors. London and New York: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Boal, Augusto. 1995. The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy. Oxfordshire: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Castellano, Marlene Brant. 2000. Updating Aboriginal Traditions of Knowledge. In Indigenous Knowledges in Global Contexts: Multiple Readings of Our World. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, pp. 21–36. [Google Scholar]
- Collins, Patricia Hill. 2002. Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. Oxfordshire: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Creswell, John W., and Cheryl N. Poth. 2016. Qualitative Inquiry and Research Design: Choosing among Five Approaches. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. [Google Scholar]
- Dawson, Kathryn. 2018. Performative Embodiment as Learning Catalyst: Exploring the Use of Drama/Theatre Practices in an Arts Integration Course for Non-Majors. In Creativity in Theatre: Theory and Action in Theatre/Drama Education. Cham: Springer, pp. 67–87. [Google Scholar]
- Denzin, Norman K., and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds. 2011. The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research. Newcastle upon Tyne: Sage. [Google Scholar]
- Diamond, David. 2007. Theatre for Living: The Art and Science of Community-Based Dialogue. Bloomington: Trafford Publishing. [Google Scholar]
- DiAngelo, Robin. 2018. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism. Boston: Beacon Press. [Google Scholar]
- Dryzek, John S., Richard B. Norgaard, and David Schlosberg, eds. 2011. The Oxford Handbook of Climate Change and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Freire, Paulo. 1994. Pedagogy of Hope. New York: Continuum. [Google Scholar]
- Gallagher, Kathleen, Nancy Cardwell, Danielle Denichaud, and Lindsay Valve. 2022. The Ecology of Global, Collaborative Ethnography: Metho-Pedagogical Moves in Research on Climate Change with Youth in Pandemic Times. Ethnography and Education 17: 259–74. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Garza, Alicia. 2020. The Purpose of Power: How We Come Together When We Fall Apart. Fort Worth: One World. [Google Scholar]
- Ginwright, Shawn. 2019. Hope and Healing in Urban Education: How Urban Activists and Teachers Are Reclaiming Matters of the Heart. Oxfordshire: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Greene, Maxine. 2000. Releasing the Imagination: Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. [Google Scholar]
- Haraway, Donna J. 2016. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Durham: Duke University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Harney, Stefano, and Fred Moten. 2013. The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning and Black Study. London: Minor Compositions. [Google Scholar]
- Hickman, Caroline, Elizabeth Marks, Panu Pihkala, Susan Clayton, R. Eric Lewandowski, Elouise E. Mayall, Britt Wray, Catriona Mellor, and Lise van Susteren. 2021. Climate Anxiety in Children and Young People and their Beliefs about Government Responses to Climate Change: A Global Survey. The Lancet Planetary Health 5: e863–73. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- hooks, Bell. 2014. Teaching to Transgress. Oxfordshire: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Hopthrow, Tim, Nic Hooper, Lynsey Mahmood, Brian P. Meier, and Ulrich Weger. 2017. Mindfulness Reduces the Correspondence Bias. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 70: 351–60. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Hrach, Susan. 2021. Minding Bodies: How Physical Space, Sensation, and Movement Affect Learning. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Jin, Zhouying. 2013. Global Technological Change: From Hard Technology to Soft Technology. Singapore: Intellect. [Google Scholar]
- Kimmerer, Robin. 2013. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions. [Google Scholar]
- Lawrance, Emma L., Neil Jennings, Vasiliki Kioupi, Rhiannon Thompson, James Diffey, and Ans Vercammen. 2022. Psychological Responses, Mental Health, and Sense of Agency for the Dual Challenges of Climate Change and the COVID-19 Pandemic in Young People in the UK: An Online Survey Study. The Lancet Planetary Health 6: e726–38. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Lea, Graham W., and George Belliveau. 2020. Research-based Theatre as Educational Research Innovation. In Encyclopedia of Educational Innovation. Edited by Michael Peters and Richard Heraud. Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, pp. 1–7. [Google Scholar]
- Lincoln, Yvonna S., and Egon G. Guba. 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Thousand Oaks: Sage. [Google Scholar]
- Maiese, Michelle. 2017. Transformative Learning, Enactivism, and Affectivity. Studies in Philosophy and Education 36: 197–216. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Menakem, Resmaa. 2021. My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies. London: Penguin. [Google Scholar]
- Mezirow, Jack, and Edward W. Taylor, eds. 2009. Transformative Learning in Practice: Insights from Community, Workplace, and Higher Education. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. [Google Scholar]
- Moser, Susanne C., and Lisa Dilling, eds. 2007. Creating a Climate for Change: Communicating Climate Change and Facilitating Social Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Mualem, Raed, Gerry Leisman, Yusra Zbedat, Sherif Ganem, Ola Mualem, Monjed Amaria, Aiman Kozle, Safa Khayat-Moughrabi, and Alon Ornai. 2018. The Effect Of Movement On Cognitive Performance. Frontiers in Public Health 6: 100. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef] [PubMed]
- Oddey, Alison. 1994. Devising Theatre: A Practice and Theoretical Handbook. Oxfordshire: Routledge. [Google Scholar]
- Paul, Annie Murphy. 2021. The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain. New York: Eamon Dolan Books. [Google Scholar]
- Perry, Mia, and Carmen Medina. 2011. Embodiment and performance in pedagogy research: Investigating the possibility of the body in curriculum experience. Journal of Curriculum Theorizing 27: 3. [Google Scholar]
- Powell, John A., and Stephen Menendian. 2016. The Problem of Othering: Towards Inclusiveness and Belonging. Othering & Belonging 1: 14–40. [Google Scholar]
- Powell, John Anthony. 2012. Racing to Justice: Transforming Our Conceptions of Self and Other to Build an Inclusive Society. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Ray, Sarah Jaquette. 2020. A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet. Oakland: University of California Press. [Google Scholar]
- Ray, Sarah Jaquette. 2021. Climate Anxiety is an Overwhelmingly White Phenomenon. Scientific American, March 21. [Google Scholar]
- Saldaña, Johnny, and Matt Omasta. 2016. Qualitative Research: Analyzing Life. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. [Google Scholar]
- Shigematsu, Tetsuro, Graham W. Lea, Christina Cook, and George Belliveau. 2022. A Spotlight on Research-based Theatre. Learning Landscapes 15: 349–65. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
- Shotwell, Alexis. 2016. Against Purity: Living Ethically in Compromised Times. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota Press. [Google Scholar]
- Tallbear, Kim. 2014. Standing with and speaking as faith: A feminist-indigenous approach to inquiry. Journal of Research Practice 10: N17. [Google Scholar]
- Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. 2015. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton: Princeton University Press. [Google Scholar]
- Zatzman, Belarie. 2006. Narrative Inquiry: Postcards from Northhampton. In Research Methods for Drama Education. Edited by Judith Ackroyd. Stoke-on-Trent: Trentham Books, pp. 11–133. [Google Scholar]
- Zola, Irving Kenneth. 1991. Bringing Our Bodies and Ourselves Back In: Reflections on a Past, Present, and Future ‘Medical Sociology’. Journal of Health and Social Behavior 32: 1–16. [Google Scholar] [CrossRef]
Week | Subject | Objective |
---|---|---|
1 | Focus group | Collect participant experiences |
2 | Image work | Explore moments with images |
3 | Image work | Explore moments with images |
4 | Rainbow of Desire | Explore fears and desires |
5 | Cops in the Head | Explore internal voices of oppression |
6 | Improvisation practice | Gain improvisation skills |
7 | Playbuilding | Devise final performance |
8 | Playbuilding | Devise final performance |
9 | Playbuilding | Devise final performance |
10 | Focus group | Collect participant experiences |
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content. |
© 2024 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Share and Cite
Bennett, N.; Alcantar, V.; Ravindran, T.; Chen, V.; Terrell, R.; Dawson, K. A Green Moment to Share: A Theatrical Laboratory to Explore Climate Crisis Possibilities within Single Moments. Arts 2024, 13, 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040120
Bennett N, Alcantar V, Ravindran T, Chen V, Terrell R, Dawson K. A Green Moment to Share: A Theatrical Laboratory to Explore Climate Crisis Possibilities within Single Moments. Arts. 2024; 13(4):120. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040120
Chicago/Turabian StyleBennett, Nic, Venese Alcantar, Tulasi Ravindran, Vanna Chen, River Terrell, and Kathryn Dawson. 2024. "A Green Moment to Share: A Theatrical Laboratory to Explore Climate Crisis Possibilities within Single Moments" Arts 13, no. 4: 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/arts13040120