Climate Action

TCG has included climate change as a topic in our National Conference and other event programming for many years. At 2008’s Denver Conference, Dr. Alexander E. MacDonald from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helped us understand the widespread changes that would occur in the near future, and we saw how the next generation of theatre artists were beginning to talk about environmental issues in their work. At our 2019 National Conference in Miami, we worked with a Conference Committee on Climate to curate a robust track of climate action programming and featured our first Conference Artist in Residence: climate artist-activist, Xavier Cortada, whose work is focused on the accelerating threat of rising seas. In 2021, we held two Climate Action Summits, in April and December, and made climate action a central theme of our June 2021 National Conference. Climate was once again a major programmatic focus at our June 2022 TCG National Conference. 

Climate action is an important part of our new strategic plan and mission: to lead for a just and thriving theatre ecology. This process started before we were faced with COVID-19, a pandemic that was caused in part by human encroachment on the natural habitats of wildlife and other extractive economic practices. Even before the pandemic, more and more theatres had been shuttered by wildfires, flooding, and other disasters caused and worsened by climate change. We have also received a powerful blueprint for an equitable future from the BIPOC organizers of We See You, White American Theater, whose work includes demands at the intersection of racial justice and climate justice. It’s clear that the time for collective action is now.

For in order to be truly just and thriving, our theatre ecology must confront the existential challenges of environmental racism and white supremacy. In doing so, we will all benefit from regenerative practices, decolonized movement-building, and renewable resources. TCG will explore these opportunities in partnership with organizations like Groundwater Arts and Broadway Green Alliance, and with a commitment to centering Black and Indigenous leaders and frontline communities as we move forward.

Start by joining the Climate Action Community on the TCG Circle. (If you're not sure how to do that, email Corinna Schulenburg at cschulenburg@tcg.org.)

Next, read on for ways to get involved with TCG and our partners in the field on climate action, starting today. Remember: to change everything, we need everyone.

CLIMATE ACTION & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SUMMITS
TCG is partnering with other arts and grassroots organizations working on the climate crisis toward bringing conversations on climate into theatre’s mainstream. Our inaugural Summit took a look at the climate emergency as one of three major intersecting crisis facing theatre and humanity, sustainable practices emerging in the field and climate as a justice issue. Our December Summit will pick up where we left off in our inaugural Climate Action Summit in April, this time to collectively strategize how theatre can play an important role in the global response to the climate crisis, coming off November’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.

April 22, 2021 - Our inaugural Summit on Climate Action and Environmental Justice

December 9, 2021 - Virtual Summit: Climate Action in a Global Landscape

CLIMATE ACTION MONTHLY MEETINGS (CAMM)

Climate Action Monthly Meetings (CAMM) support peer-driven learning, accountability, and action for all theatre people committed to climate action and environmental justice. Participants will ask questions, share resources, and take collective action, both within the theatre sector and our broader world. The Community will center the leadership and needs of frontline communities, especially Native/Indigenous and other BIPOC communities. View the ongoing Padlet capturing all shared resources from CAMM calls here.

PAST CAMM CALLS:

Thursday, September 9 @ 1-2pm ET - view recording here
Thursday, October 14 @ 1pm ET - view recording here
Monday, November 15 @ 1pm ET - no recording available
Thursday, January 13, 2022 @ 1pm ET - view (partial) recording here
Thursday, February 10, 2022 @ 1pm ET - view recording here
Monday, March 21, 2022 @ 1pm ET - view recording here
Thursday, April 14, 2022 @ 1pm ET - view recording here
Tuesday, May 24, 2022 @ 2pm ET - view recording here

UPCOMING CAMM CALLS
Tuesday, June 28, 2022 @ 2pm ET - Register here

CLIMATE ACTION & ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE RESOURCES
To add a resource to this list, please email Devon Berkshire at dberkshire@tcg.org. 

From our partners at Groundwater Arts:

Green New Theater
Divest to Invest
Climate Justice Alliance
Movement Generation's Just Transition Zine
Another Gulf is Possible
No Dream Deferred

From our partners at Broadway Green Alliance:

BGA Sustainable Solutions for Reopening Theatre Toolkit
BGA Green Resource Library
Julie's Bicycle
The Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Equitable and Just National Climate Platform
Sustainable Production Toolkit

Climate-related theatre-making:

Climate Change Theatre Action
The Arctic Cycle
Superhero Clubhouse
Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series on HowlRound
Theatre & Climate Change special 2020 issue from American Theatre Magazine