Climate Theatre symposium
Climate Theatre: Understanding the Relation between Ecology and Performance in a Climate Emergency
6-7 November 2023
The Graduate Center, City University of New York
Climate Theatre explores how the performing arts are responding to the climate emergency and how human interactions with the natural world have been represented historically and in performance in the contemporary era.
Many today argue that sluggish or ineffectual responses to the climate emergency are the result of a cultural crisis, not a lack of scientific or technological know-how. The symposium thus explores how theatre and performance stage cultural attitudes towards the environment, climates, and other nonhuman species. It investigates how theatre condenses overwhelming events, such as environmental catastrophes into salient theatrical images that resonate emotionally with daily life.
The symposium will explore how performance mediates the impacts of ecological concerns including large scale weather events, species endangerment or extinction, pandemics, food, and water insecurity for its audiences over time and to what effect? How does performance give expression to and navigate the range of emotions that accompany such change and loss? What performative techniques are favoured by activist performances in public spaces that critique a lack of leadership for climate action?
We look forward to welcoming you to The Graduate Center for two stimulating days of discussion about these pressing issues.
About the symposium
Keynote speakers include Una Chaudhuri (NYU) and Bonnie Marranca (PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art).
The symposium will be held at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY), 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States.
Symposium convenors: Peter Eckersall (The Graduate Center, CUNY), Denise Varney (University of Melbourne), Peta Tait (La Trobe University), Jen Parker-Starbuck (Royal Holloway, University of London) and Lara Stevens (University of Melbourne).
The symposium is supported by the PhD Program in Theater and Performance at the Graduate Center CUNY, The University of Melbourne, La Trobe University, the Australian Research Council, and Art Science Connect.
Program
The symposium program, including presentation abstracts and biographies, and all relevant information, can be downloaded via the link below.
Registration
Presenters and attendees must register via the link below.
Queries can to be directed to ecological-theatre@unimelb.edu.au