Nic Bennett, Venese Alcantar, Tulasi Ravindran, Vanna Chen, River Terrell, Kathryn Dawson
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Many youth experience distress around the climate crisis. However, mainstream environmental messages ignore youth concerns, blame individuals, and suggest techno-fixes rather than addressing root causes. Young people need a way to productively process and collectively engage with their complex feelings about the climate crisis. During the spring of 2023, a group of university students facilitated a Research-based Theatre project to explore their relationship to climate and environmental justice as part of a biannual performance festival of student new work. Specifically, we used Theatre of the Oppressed techniques to slow down and embody participants’ struggles with environmental action. We argue that this process allowed participants to explore how and why they made sense of mainstream environmental messaging about the climate crisis. This paper offers a case study exploring how the interwoven themes of power, positionality, and agency emerged through embodied investigations during the early development of our Research-based Theatre performance. The paper concludes by discussing how Research-based Theatre can embrace a post-activist lens that supports the complexity of sense-making and troubles the over-emphasis on solution as the only response to environmental/climate crisis. Further, we argue for the kin-making possibilities that crisis can teach us when engaged through embodied exploration.
许多青年都经历过气候危机带来的困扰。然而,主流环境信息忽视了青年的关切,指责个人,提出技术解决方案,而不是从根本上解决问题。年轻人需要一种方法来有效地处理和集体参与他们对气候危机的复杂感受。2023 年春季,一群大学生发起了一个基于研究的戏剧项目,探索他们与气候和环境正义之间的关系,作为一年两次的学生新作品表演节的一部分。具体来说,我们使用了 "被压迫者剧场"(Theatre of the Oppressed)技术,放慢并体现了参与者在环保行动中的挣扎。我们认为,这一过程使参与者能够探索他们如何以及为什么能够理解有关气候危机的主流环境信息。本文提供了一个案例研究,探讨在我们基于研究的戏剧表演的早期发展过程中,如何通过体现性调查出现权力、地位和代理等相互交织的主题。最后,本文讨论了研究型戏剧如何采用后行动主义视角,以支持感性认识的复杂性,并对过分强调解决方案是应对环境/气候危机的唯一对策提出质疑。此外,我们还论证了危机在通过身体探索参与时可以教给我们的亲情创造可能性。