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This book addresses theatre's contribution to the way we think about ecology, our relationship to the environment, and what it means to be human in the context of climate change. It offers a detailed study of the ways in which contemporary performance has critiqued and re-imagined everyday ecological relationships, in more just and equitable ways. The broad spectrum of ecologically-oriented theatre and performance included here, largely from the UK, US, Canada, Europe, and Mexico, have problematised, reframed, and upended the pervasive and reductive images of climate change that tend to dominate the ecological imagination. Taking an inclusive approach this book foregrounds marginalised perspectives and the multiple social and political forces that shape climate change and related ecological crises, framing understandings of the earth as home. Recent works by Fevered Sleep, Rimini Protokoll, Violeta Luna, Deke Weaver, Metis Arts, Lucy + Jorge Orta, as well as Indigenous activist movements such as NoDAPL and Idle No More, are described in detail.
List of contents
1. Introduction.- 2. Intersectional Ecologies.- 3. More-than-human Matters: Bioperformativity.- 4. Bodily Ecologies: Exposure, Participation and Immersion.- 5. Earth As Home: Local, Imagined, Material, Global. 6. Decolonised Ecologies: Performance Against the Anthropocene 7. Conclusion: Imagining the Future(s).
About the author
Lisa Woynarski is Lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading, UK. As a performance-maker and scholar, she works at the intersection of contemporary performance and ecology, with a focus on environmental justice issues and urban ecology. Her work has appeared in
Contemporary Theatre Review,
RiDE,
Performance Research, and
Performing Ethos.
