Monday, January 6, 2014

What I'm Learningn About Theatre and Playwriting from Farming (part 2)


The folks at HowlRound have just published part 2 of a 3-part blog series I've written on what my last two years farming (at Pen and Pepper) farm have been teaching me about my life in theater.

You can read the opening below, and then click through to read the rest on HowlRound.

Climate and soil matters. If you think global warming is a hoax, talk to a vegetable farmer pulling his hair out after yet another fucking record heat wave. Or when the entire basil crop dies off from basil downy mildew, a fungal problem that’s migrated up to New England from Florida over the past few years, thanks to conditions provided by global warming. All farmers pay attention to the weather, the smart farmers try to understand the climate, too.

In theater, it’s easy to mistake weather for climate. If I have a string of productions, I suddenly think the world has turned around and good things are happening all over. Or the converse—I don’t have a production for a few years, and I’m certain no one goes to plays anymore and no one wants to produce new work anymore and theater has become an artistic wasteland. Knowing the difference between weather and climate matters.
read the rest on HowlRound.


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