The Climate Change Theatre Action was founded in 2015 by Elaine Ávila, Chantal Bilodeau, Roberta Levitow, and Caridad Svich. They are based in every inhabited continent with representative playwrights. They have commissioned 50 5-minute plays related to the topic of climate change and climate justice. Their aim is to influence change and spread awareness about the importance and effects of climate change. They want people to be motivated by their plays to try and make a difference in the world. They wish to achieve this by writing plays to perform visually the negative effects of climate change and why we should try and stop it.
Processes of flash drama include a script meant to be acted out between 10 seconds to 10 minutes in length. This type of theatre has many different forms. Generally each of these forms includes many common elements such as limited characters, location, and technical design. This form of play is commonly used by schools and/or community groups. The set is almost always minimal or non-existent due to the fact that the play is so short that location would be too complicated. The concepts introduced by this genre are conflict, growth, development and humor. The technique of a flash drama is a short script acted out quickly by multiple actors with very limited props. These kinds of plays are used to show a quick story.
The first play I will critique is called Appealing by Paula Cizmar. The purpose of this play is for two reporters/photographers who are supposed to be taking appealing pictures for the media but in reality, attention should be on the devastation and ruined pictures, instead of the falsely beautiful ones. They argue about what they should show the public.
The playwright dramatizes the issue of fake news in climate change. This play shows that most companies try and make it seem like the whole world is just sunshine and rainbows when it is really not. It is destructed and disgusting all because of humans polluting. The different elements used are speech, persuasion and conflict. To evaluate these skills I will start by saying that this play is very well structured and seems as if it would be quite moving. The playwright was able to achieve the goal of the play quite well as the words and arguments were very smartly crafted and told a good point.
To summarize, this play was quite interesting and really made me think about the effects of climate change.
By Elspeth Tilley, e.tilley@massey.ac.nz Sometimes my students tell me climate change seems too big, too global, too monolithic to do anything about. I wanted ‘Lin and Ash’ to give them a place to start, grounded in ideas of the power of allyship – or what something akin to allyship might mean in the climate action context. I also think what Rob Greenfield did was pretty cool, so I’m hoping to get a whole bunch of us wearing our trash (or going zero waste so that we don’t have to wear our trash!) during (and beyond) CCTA 2019. I’m working with a zero waste events advisor to develop a protocol for our own CCTA production, too, so if anyone wants a copy, just email me.
The second play I will critique is called Lin and Ash. The point of this play is about two college students, one of which is trying to do her homework as the other one shows up in trash and tries to influence other into doing the same thing to reduce. Eventually the one doing homework gets too irritated by passers-by that she joins her friend in the trash challenge.
The playwright dramatizes the issue by making one of the characters very eco conscious. She is wearing all of her waste for the month. This results in her smelling pretty bad. She continues to wear her trash throughout the lay. The way this issue is dramatized is that it involves her friend and people passing by who litter as the girl doing the challenge comes up and gets angry at them. The different elements involved are conflict, reaction, and confidence. Skills involved include emotion, arguments and confusion. These skills are well used because they are represented pretty well by the actors. The techniques used are dispute and representation of an issue. These techniques are necessary to the play in the way that they really complete the whole play. The creator was able to achieve the purpose of the play by using all the necessary steps. The actors, if their job is done right can really show how important it is to use less garbage.
To conclude, this play was very interesting and really got me thinking about climate change. I would recommend this play.
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Very good first paragraph in which you clearly state what CCTA is, how it began and what the aims of the organisation are.
You mention the main techniques and process of flash drama.
However, this first part of the essay is too short. You do not reach the minimum requirements in terms of page length. You will need to expand what you write. Some suggestions:
– write more about CCTA – explain how the plays are open to organisations around the world to perform; that this is a truly global movement; that our school took part. What might be the positive effects of CCTA?
– write more about techniques and processes of flash drama and relate this to specific examples in some of the plays we have looked at.
The critiques:
You write quite well about both plays, but once again, more detail needed. What you write is too short. Some suggestions:
Appealing – tell us something about the author
– this play is especially relevant to this unit as it deals with the key concept ‘aesthetics’ . You must mention this and try to analyse deeper. Do aesthetically beautiful pictures of the effects of climate change really move and audience to take action or do they just sell newspapers? How do we react to ugly, grim pictures of human impact on the environment?
– you mention some of the techniques used but you need to give specific examples from the play and analyse how these techniques are used
– more evaluation. Does the play work? What are some strong and weak points? In what ways was the play interesting and in what ways did it make you think about climate change?
Lin and Ash
– Change the sentence beginning: ‘By Elspeth Tilley, e.tilley@massey.ac.nz Sometimes my students ….’ You need to start by naming the play, then the author, omit her email address and introduce the quotation that she makes by making it plain this is what she has said/written about how she came to write the play. Use quotation marks “….”
– tels us something more about the author.
– – you mention some of the techniques used but you need to give specific examples from the play and analyse how these techniques are used
– more evaluation. Does the play work? What are some strong and weak points? In what ways was the play interesting and in what ways did it make you think about climate change
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