After reading Axel Schweiger’s article on rising sea levels, I was inspired and curious to dive deeper into my roots. I noticed that Schweiger is a researcher and activist at the University of Washington, my hometown and local university. I decided to investigate other local leaders’ approaches and actions to the climate change crisis. And this is where I discovered another young, powerful, and female leader taking a stance on this issue right at home in Seattle! Jamie Margolin, a 16 year old activist, founded her very own movement called Zero Hour. Based on the idea that there are “zero hours” left to stall on this issue, Margolin put together a group of other young people that would go on to lead marches through D.C., protest through the Seattle streets by Amazon and other massive corporations, and make real changes on this issue. “Frustrated by the inaction of elected officials and the fact that youth voices were almost always ignored in the conversation around climate change and the profound impact that it would have on young people, Jamie started gathering several of her friends in the summer of 2017 to start organizing something big, something hard to ignore!”
Not only did the intention of Jamie’s actions motivate me, but the specificity of them did as well. She formed sister groups to engage in conversation and protest. She prioritized her role as a young female and prioritized hearing the voices of other young females in response to climate change. In addition to participating in Youth Climate Lobby Day and The Youth Climate March, on July 20, 2018, Margolin protested in DC by throwing a Youth Climate Art Festival. She stresses the importance of building communities in the face of adversity because “community is the best antidote to hopelessness”. In a current climate that is full of hopelessness, we must fill our communities with art in order to bring hope and to bring real change.
This led to another article I read this week and my next idea moving towards my midterm: how art can really, truly, and EFFICIENTLY, bring real change. I read an essay by Carolyn Reeves, an actress and activist with the Howlround Theatre Commons. She conducted an experiment on the performing arts role in climate change engagement. With a background in medicinal art, Reeves approaches this issue as a public health crisis, calling for immediate action and response. However, her response is not one of hopelessness or angst, but one of hope and enlightenment. She writes, “like many of us, I’ve spent a lot of time feeling disturbed, depressed, and defeated as the climate crisis grows. I’ve done a lot of soul searching to understand how I can transform my despair into something meaningful. Having long been fascinated and compelled by the power of art to command attention and inspire people to care about things, I wanted to study how this power could be wielded to encourage people to care about and act upon climate change. As a graduate student, I attempted to do just that. Ironically, the most significant thing I learned is that the true power of art isn’t something that one “wields” at all.”
Reeves main findings on climate change had me shocked and had me ready to take action of my own. Looking to literature and conducting interviews with other theatre makers or creatives, Reeves found that:
- Climate change is perceived as a distant, impersonal threat.
- Climate change information is too abstract/complex to easily comprehend.
- The issue of climate change is presented through a frame that is perceived as dissonant with an individual’s identity.
- Climate change engagement is not supported by social norms.
Reeves then took these findings and formed a hypothesis about the role emotion and theatre can play in changing this narrative. She maintains that “Emotion plays a major role in the development of risk perception about climate change, and theatrical content about the issue can bring it to life in an emotionally evocative way. If theatregoers feel the risks and implications of climate change by becoming engrossed in a gripping narrative or experiencing empathy for a relatable character, they may develop a higher risk perception and become more engaged overall.”
In conclusion, Reeves makes work that demands the empathy and attention of the audience. When this work surrounds this issue of climate change, and targets the individual, the impact can be life altering and change making.
However, Reeves also determined that “in order for theatre to have the greatest possible impact in terms of promoting climate change engagement, it must remain interpretive and avoid being prescriptive. Audiences are resistant to content that urges them to think, feel, or behave in a specific way. Most participants didn’t want to define objectives for their work other than to inspire some form of critical thinking in audiences. It was mentioned that “using” theatre as a tool for behavior change is antithetical to the fundamental essence of art. Attempts to engineer the audience’s interpretation of artistic content can present an interference that diminishes pleasure, discourages critical thinking, and minimizes the very power that makes theatre engaging to begin with. When I asked about measuring and evaluating the impact that a piece of theatre has on an audience, one participant responded: “That would be like making out and being asked to take a survey afterwards.”
So this finding leaves me alone to my own thinking. How can I use my art to change people’s minds but still keep my art, art? How do I leave my piece open to interpretation but create a piece with the intention to make change? Like Reeves mentions in her research on theatre making, “We do not try to convey messages, because that will not get you art. That gets you an advertising campaign.” Another said: “I don’t think anybody wants to go to a play where you’re going to be told how you need to feel. For one thing, it’s insulting because it assumes that you’re not thinking the right thing to start.”
My goal moving forward and in working on my midterm is to create a piece of theatre that can uphold both interpretation and intention. Not to forget, Reeves is another young woman involved in shaping this narrative through theatre! “The key to maximizing the engaging power of the arts is to trust the artists and the art itself!” I now hope to use my own voice, power, and practice to engage in this issue.
The Green Beans 
