Writing for a Greener World | Inspiring Sustainable Action
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What can you do to reduce your gas bill?
Wear thicker jumpers? Buy a good pair of merino wool socks? Or how about a cashmere beanie? Hot water bottle? Snuggle up in bed all day? Preferably with a cat? Why not dress like a cabbage? Only turn the heating on when it’s necessary. Or maybe you shouldn’t turn it on at all.
Green policies and taxes do not increase energy bills. It’s increasing because the global price of fossil fuels has boomed. And it will have an impact on everyone. Because all of our problems are interconnected. There is, however, some good news. The solutions are as well.
In our next workshop, we will be writing about energy bills. Sign up for the workshop on our website if you haven’t already.
It’s true that the text is, in a sense, incomplete until the actors bring it to life on a stage and introduce it to the audience. We presented a collection of our plays at the Kreuzberger HofFestSpiele in June and were very pleased with the reaction we got. The short pieces written in our workshops were not about numbers, facts, or how the world is horribly going to end soon due to the way we consume and choose to live. We mostly focused on personal stories and preferred a humorous tone over a pessimistic one. It’s good to remember how we used to live sustainably back in the days when we were kids. How we used to wear and share our clothes; how we used to mend our belongings before throwing them away and buying a new one; or how our relationship was with nature.
We will continue to write about climate change until the end of the year, and we hope to have more opportunities to share our plays with more people. We are open to collaborations with theatres, schools and or environmental organizations. The challenges we face need collaboration and collective action. We are all part of this story, and if it isn’t going well, we must begin rewriting it.
At the beginning of every year, my heart fills with excitement and fear. How many new people will join? Will they like this year’s programme? Will the workshops motivate them to write more? Most importantly will they get excited? I like it when people get excited. When they feel what they write matters, what they share has meaning for someone else.
We have completed half of this year’s workshops. We are non-stop writing about environmental issues. We go back in time, and remember how we used to consume and live when we were kids. What has changed? It’s quite scary to see how fast and easily we accepted and adapted to a consumerism-driven economic system. We’ve written a lot of pieces so far, and more will be added to this collective piece by the end of the year.
Three fantastic actors will read the piece. Bronwen Pattison, Cecilia Gigliotti, and Joshua Spriggs are wonderful additions to our team. We had our first rehearsal today, and they brought the entire text to life with just the first reading. I consider myself extremely fortunate and grateful to have met and to be working with such talented actors.
