plays: one-acts
It Starts With Me
(5 min.) Any number of women
Inspired by Greta Thunberg, Katharine Hayhoe, Wangari Maathai, Alexandria Villaseñor, Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit, Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Christiana Figueres, and countless more women who are fighting for us all.
It Starts With Me is a battle cry for women of all ages, sizes, and colors.
Productions
This play was written for Climate Change Theatre Action 2019. It has been performed in over 60 venues in the US, Austria, Canada, Germany, India, Kenya, Lithuania, New Zealand, Philippines, Serbia, United Arab Emirates, UK, and Ukraine.
It Starts With Me is published in the anthology Lighting the Way: An Anthology of Short Plays About the Climate Crisis.
Shetal Shah, Jane Bruce, Lizzy Lincoln
The Arts & Climate Initiative at Caveat, New York, NY
© Yadin Goldman
Whale Song
(15 min.) 1W
A woman has run away, or, as she puts it, “migrated,” from her abusive husband named Harvey. Following a somewhat cryptic advice from her father – “When in doubt, go North.” – she picked Alaska as her destination. Now in Helsinki, she warns us about all the Harveys of this world and encourages us to follow in the footsteps of the whale from 50 million years ago.
Productions
This play was written for Women of the Arctic, a side event of UArctic Congress 2018. It was presented in Helsinki, Finland on September 6, 2018.
Watch the trailer for the entire event here.
Whale Song was expanded into a full-length play titled No More Harveys and is published in the same book.
Julie Jesneck
The Arts & Climate Initiative in Helsinki, Finland
© Nancy Forde
Homo Sapiens
(5 min.) 2 actors, any gender
Inspired by Elizabeth Kolbert's The Sixth Extinction.
Did homo sapiens cause their own demise? Or did they evolve into the next species?
Productions
This play was written for Climate Change Theatre Action 2017. It has been performed in over 100 venues in the US, Argentina, Canada, China, France, New Zealand, Peru, Romania, UK, and United Arab Emirates.
As part of the performance, actors are asked to take a photo of themselves with the homo sapiens in the theatre. On the right are homo sapiens from some of the past performances.
Homo Sapiens is published in the anthology Where Is the Hope? An Anthology of Short Climate Change Plays.
Mother
(5 min.) 1W
A mother tries to heal her relationship with her offspring.
Productions
This play was written for Climate Change Theatre Action 2015. It has been performed in 27 venues in the US, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, England, Italy, Norway, Lithuania, Saint Lucia and the United Arab Emirates. It is available for download and can be performed royalty-free.
Esther Sophia Artner
The Box Collective in Brooklyn, NY
© Julia Deffet
Green Dating
(10 min.) 1W, 1M
A teenage girl, with very specific ideas about what she wants in a man, makes it clear she won't settle for someone who doesn't meet her environmental standards.
Productions
Manhattan Theatre Source, Best of Estro Festival, 2017
Curtin University (Australia), 2014
Manhattan Theatre Source Estrogenius Festival, 2011
The Movement Theatre Company Go Green Tour, Western Connecticut State University, 2011
Green Dating is published in Smith & Kraus's The Best Ten-Minute Plays 2012 and in Playwrights Canada Press' Long Story Short: An Anthology of (Mostly) Ten-Minute Plays, 2016.