Climate Change Theatre Action 2021

Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 Directed by Elaine Ávila ABBOTSFORD, B.C. UFV Theatre presents the first production of its 2021-2022 theatre season, Climate Change Theatre Action 2021, directed by visiting guest artist Elaine Ávila. Climate Change Theatre Action 2021 is a globally distributed theatre festival, now in its fourth iteration, made up of 51 short plays by world-renowned playwrights and creators from every continent on earth, to encourage conversation, community, and action around the climate crisis. This festival is presented in conjunction with the biannual United Nation Climate Change Talks, held this year in Glasgow (COP 26). UFV Theatre is excited to create theatrical videos of ten of these short and engaging plays, launching a restart to creating, rehearsing, and designing theatre live and in person. Students are utilizing a wide variety of tools available at UFV to create the videos, including editing software, green screen technology, costume, make up, sets, lighting, video design, indoor and outdoor shoots, and Adobe animation software. The plays range from an exploration of the personal costs of turning Canada into an ecological preserve 150 years in the future, to the comic perspective of a baby salmon in our waterways in B.C., to an in depth look at what “consultation” between government and First Nations truly means, from the perspective of a Palawa author. Director Elaine Ávila shares, “I am enormously grateful to UFV SoCA for programming and participating in this year’s Climate Change Theatre Action, an initiative I co-founded six years ago which now reaches 40,000 participants, worldwide. Students at UFV are learning about international performance and innovative initiatives to face the climate crisis.” The authors of the plays are Métis, Algonquin, Oji-Cree, Azorean Portuguese, Ugandan, Canadian, South Asian, Mohegan, Aboriginal Australian from the Palawa people of Tasmania, and Turtle Mountain Chippewan. The plays chosen for this production are: Initiation by Angella Emurwon; The Consultation by Dylan Van Den Berg; Mossom Creek by Elaine A´vila; My Apology by Keith Barker; When by Wren Brian, Mizhakwad (The Sky is Clear) by Dylan Thomas Elwood; FRIENDS FOR LIFE By Himali Kothari; Green New Steal by Corey Payette; Ranger by Yvette Nolan; and What We Give Back by Madeline Sayet. CCTA 2021 features UFV Theatre student ensemble actors Sarah Byers, Emmanuel Arpoviroro, and Jennifer Steadman. Student production designers include Brooklyn Doornbos (hair and makeup) and Makayla Pollock (lights and costumes). Backstage student crew include Stefan Boekhorst (sound/set), Joshua Franklin (lights/props), Trevor Marsh (sound/voice) and Aimée Payeur (set/props). Students are mentored by part-time faculty member and UFV alumni Matthew Piton, wardrobe manager Heather Robertson, theatre technician Mark Sutherland, and media arts assistant professor William Maher. Performances will be held via zoom and tickets are free; however, audience members are encouraged to make a donation to the UFV Indigenous Student Emergency Fund when they reserve tickets, and we encourage audience members to educate themselves about the ongoing legacy of residential schools and the relationship between climate change and the intergenerational effects of colonization. Donating to the UFV Indigenous Student Emergency Fund is one small action we can take to begin to reckon with the enormity of colonial practices and to become better stewards of this place, and by helping Indigenous students at UFV meet their educational goals, audience members can take a positive step towards Indigenizing and reconciliation. Video Performances: November 25 and 26 at 7pm, and November 27 at 2pm, via Zoom. Post Performance Talkbacks will occur after every show, which promise to enhance audience members’ understanding of the performance. Bookings can be made through Eventbrite https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/185954955277 Ticket registration ends 2 hours before performance start times. Email theatre@ufv.ca for questions. For more information about UFV Theatre productions go to ufv.ca/plays