by Abby Wester ’22
Environmental art took to the theater on Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 7 and 8, in Chapin Auditorium. Project: Theatre, in collaboration with Sunrise Movement South Hadley, presented “The Student Body: Climate Action Play Showcase.” The showcase drew an audience from across the campus community, including students and professors, to soak in four student-written climate change-themed plays.
Project: Theatre is a student organization dedicated to various forms of theater on campus. One of their responsibilities is supporting a collection of student-directed shows called, “The Student Body.” Karla Esquivel ’22 and Faith Lee ’22 took advantage of this opportunity by proposing a show that featured short plays focusing on climate change, as Esquivel is one of three hub coordinators for Sunrise Movement South Hadley.
Lee says that she has had an interest in theater since high school. She first learned the power of storytelling by creating her own play in a high school theater class. “Conveying stories of different values, cultures and backgrounds is a way to unite people together,” Lee said.
The idea for the showcase came about while Esquivel and Lee took a playwriting class at Amherst College last semester.
“I guess you could just say it was fate that Faith and I both took this class,” Esquivel said, laughing. “[Our professor] asked one day if we went to a climate strike, and I told her that I was a Sunrise hub coordinator … so then she recommended that I look into this thing called ‘Climate Change Theater Action.’”
Climate Change Theater Action (CCTA) is a project that seeks to bring communities together to take climate action through theater. Esquivel was inspired by this organization, but rather than using CCTA’s plays, she wanted to use student work.
“I thought it would be a cool idea to get the student body involved because it’s a good opportunity to get their work out there,” she said.
Esquivel contacted Project: Theatre in November 2019 to set her plan into action. The organization asked Esquivel, who had no previous theater experience, to be a director. She turned to classmate Lee to be the co-director, due to her prior experience with creating and performing plays. In addition to their roles as directors, each director wrote a play to contribute to the showcase.
The showcase plays had themes ranging from philosophical to political. They left the viewers with questions about how to live a normal life in a changing climate, and how to hold those responsible for climate change accountable.
Both directors expressed how theater can be an effective medium to discuss climate change. “Climate change is an urgent existential issue on a global scale,” Lee said. “We thought it would be a great idea to utilize the medium of theatrical performances to address the issue.” She added how both the lower class and minorities are disproportionately burdened by climate change, which led the directors to search for a more diverse cast.
Esquivel said this showcase was important so that students could watch others talk about how climate change is affecting them. “Maybe not everybody’s best talent is doing political campaigns or canvassing. Maybe they want to participate and use their talents in other ways,” Esquivel said. “I think a play showcase is a way you can use your grief about the climate and turn it into something brighter, or at least something that causes more awareness.”