A Sampling of Climate Change Theater

Original theatrical sketches from our recent performance at Fahs Theater in Princeton.

THE TENSE FAMILY

 

EARTH LOGIC IN SPACE

CLIMATE IN A MINUTE

CARBON DATING

SHAKESPEARE'S TITANIA

Scenes from Climate Cabaret

Leading up to our free performance at the Arts Council of Princeton, April 18, 7pm, here are some scenes from the show--photos from rehearsals, and a videotaped performance. Come check it out in beautiful Solley Theater!

Kitty Getlik plays a therapist in Turf Therapy, as one of her more difficult patients, a Suburban Lawn, works through its issues of chemical addiction and an irrational fear of weeds and bugs.

I don't know, this guy seemed pretty nice, but what's that exhaust pipe doing on his right arm? He said his name is Captain Hooked-On-Fossil-Fuels. Cheryl's thinking "Why do all these guys come with issues?"

Thanks to Dwaine Williamson for videotaping this performance of "CO2: We're an It," in which CO2, not wanting to be the bad guy, tells a packed room at the Trenton Library to "find energy above the ground and leave the carbon underground." (May need to crank the volume a bit. CO2 molecules tend to be soft spoken.)

Steve Hiltner and pianist Phil Orr bring an element of original Sustainable Jazz to Climate Cabaret performances.

CO2 Speaks Out About Itself and Earth's Fate

Early in our show, carbon dioxide, a.k.a. CO2, tells the audience in rhyme and reason about how it's really a good molecule that's being made to do bad things. Usually three of us do this sketch, one for each atom, but here it's done solo.

  

"GROW UP!" -- A Tiny Play About Vast, Empty Lawns

It's a real treat to see other acting troupes performing our scripts! Lawns are energy-intensive, little-used seas of exotic grass kept in a perpetually infantile state. They seem to make little sense, but they are everywhere. Here's a short play in which a real estate agent is showing his client a community called Quiet Acres, with "stately homes (the two seated actors) and vast, empty, green lawns (the two actors lying down in front)." The client's impressed until the lawns themselves start to bicker about who's greener than whom.

Thanks to director Steve Gaissert and actors Jan Applebaum, John Eldis, Frank Falisi, Rachel Friedman, Susan Gaissert, and Sarah Stryker, for a wonderful performance!

GROW UP!

By Stephen K. Hiltner, May, 2017

Two actors each represent a suburban lawn, lying on their backs on the stage, about five feet apart, feet towards audience. Immediately behind each is a house, represented by a chair. (OPTIONAL: A homeowner sits on each chair, stiff posture, looking blankly straight ahead.) The lawns tilt their heads up to argue with each other, but otherwise remain prostrate until the last line, when they both sit up and face the audience to utter their last line.

REAL ESTATE AGENT and CLIENT stroll in from side.

AGENT: (to CLIENT, gesturing clearly towards the homes and lawns) Here at Quiet Acres, you’ll find the neighbors are very proud of their stately homes and vast, empty, green lawns.

CLIENT: (impressed) I’d love to live here. It’s so refined, so peaceful, so controlled.

LAWN 1: (in the direction of CLIENT, who is looking elsewhere) I’m greener than her. (gestures towards other lawn)

CLIENT: (turning towards the talking lawn in surprise) What was that?

LAWN 1: I’m greener than her.

LAWN 2: No you’re not.

LAWN 1: Yes I am.

LAWN 2: No you’re not.

LAWN 1: Am so.

LAWN 2: Am not.

CLIENT: Hey, break it up. You both look great.

LAWN 2: (beat) She’s got weeds.

LAWN 1: No I don’t.

LAWN 2: Oh yeah? Well what’s that dandelion doing down there?

LAWN 1: You’re one to talk.

LAWN 2: How dare you?

LAWN 1: Look over there. (pointing to a weed on LAWN 2)

LAWN 2: Eck. Spray me!

LAWNS 1: Spray me first!

LAWN 2: Spray ME!

LAWNS 1: No, ME!

CLIENT: Stop it! (beat) Why don’t you … grow up?

(immediately LAWNS 1 and 2 react by sitting up, facing audience, feet still stretched out in front. AGENT (and HOMEOWNERS, if any) shows a sudden burst of vehemence.)

AGENT, (HOMEOWNERS), LAWNS 1 and 2: Never!!! (LAWNS 1 and 2 immediately return to lying flat on floor. Agent regains pleasant demeanor.)

END OF SCENE

Leaf Rap: The OK Leaf Corral

Many people feel a strong impulse to blow their leaves out into the street in the fall, creating a sense of catharsis, but also a big public mess. Here's a call to all, to ride herd on them-there leaves, but in the opposite direction, to giddyap and get 'em on back, to the OK Leaf Corral.

The script can be found at this link.

Climate Theater: Complaint Training

Friday the 13th in March, 2015 was one wild and crazy night at the Princeton Public Library as the Climate Cabaret launched, if not into space, at least into the space better known as the Community Room. Seven actors, a Princeton High School a cappella group, a jazz pianist, and three singers bearing an uncanny resemblance to Doris Day filled the full house with wonder, joy and laughter--perhaps not the sort of response you'd expect from material dealing with climate change, but there it was.

For those who missed it, the event was not lost in space, but recorded by The Little Camera That Could, tucked off to the side. Some of the sketches are posted here, at ClimateCabaret.com, so that they're accessible to Earthlings everywhere.

The evening began with a piece called Complaint Training, in which The Three Grouseketeers seek to fill any void there might be in instruction to the human race on how to rant higher, rant lower, rant louder, rant longerrrrrr.

Reposted from SustainableJazz.com.

Contributing to The One-Minute Play Festival

In 2014 and 2015, I was asked to contribute plays to New Jersey's annual One-Minute Play Festival. Six different directors, each with six actors, converge to bring fifty plays to life with just seconds inbetween.

An online video documents the January 19, 2014 performance at Passage Theatre in Trenton. The show's intro starts at minute 12:10 on the video. My two plays are at 40:40 (When Time Went On Forever) with actors Steve Caputi and Susan Gaissert, directed by Steve Gaissert, and at 58:00 (Stronger Than the Storm?) with actors Amy Crossman and Scott Brieden, directed by Artem Yatsunov. Other plays before and after the "Stronger than the storm?" also explore NJ's response to Hurricane Sandy, including a piece by Clare Drobot that asks the question, "How can you be stronger than an inanimate force of nature?"

The 2015 festival doesn't appear to have been archived online, but was performed May 3 and 4 at Luna Stage in West Orange, NJ. My two pieces, "One Day Stand" (about planting a raingarden) and "The Economy Gets Hers", were directed by Steve Gaissert.

According to the 1MPF's website, "The One-­Minute Play Festival (#1MPF) is a NYC-­‐based theatre company, founded by producing artistic director Dominic D’Andrea, and is America’s largest and longest running short form theatre company. #1MPF is a barometer project, which investigates the zeitgeist of different communities through dialogue and consensus building sessions and a performance of many moments."

Twenty cities now have One-Minute play festivals, with each one drawing from its own region's playwrights, directors and actors.

Climate Theater: The New, Improved Mr. Sustainable

"As long as we must choose between present comfort and future climate, there can be no joy!" So declares Mr. Sustainable, as he searches for a way to feel good while doing good. In this before and after, can new advances in ultra light winter wear and "fresh perspectives on intergenerational relationships" help Mr. Sustainable and his spouse end a long, tense period of thermostat wars? Actors are Steve Hiltner, Basha Parmet and Cheryl Jones. Performed in wintry March, 2015, at the Princeton Public Library as part of the Princeton Environmental Film Festival.

Reposted from SustainableJazz.com.

Climate Theater: Breaking Up With Your Car

"It's guys like me driving cars like you that are messing things up forever," says Johnny, as he struggles to come to terms with his car's addiction problem. Will he run off with that "anorexic chick with the two skinny wheels", or will he and his car find a way to work things out? This performance was part of the March 13, 2015 premier of the Climate Cabaret at the Princeton Public Library, written by Steve Hiltner and sponsored by the Princeton Environmental Film Festival. Actors: Basha Parmet and Steve Hiltner.       

Reposted from SustainableJazz.com.