A new podcast by Carmen Aguirre

Produced by Electric Company Theatre

Presented as part of Climate Change and Other Small Talk in association with Why Not Thatre

World Premiere: Feb 4-Feb 15, 2020 - The Playhouse Theatre, MST Territories/Vancouver

Presented as part of Climate Change and Other Small Talk — a theatrical podcast series created by Sunny Drake and produced in association with Why Not Theatre and 9 companies around the world. With our partners, The Cultch, the entire podcast series is hosted on RePlay Series online.

With a satirical tone, Core Artist Carmen Aguirre’s episode Rolling Hills, Green Pastures, will probe the US Army’s “going green” initiatives. Esperanza Soto welcomes new recruits to a U.S. drone centre. Run entirely on wind energy, the centre is part of the U.S. Army’s Green Military Movement. One of the drone operators is a climate refugee from Vancouver. What choices will they make when climate refugees attempt to cross the border from Mexico?

Carmen and Justin Podur met on May 29, 2023, at the Cultch to speak about a number of topics around Climate and how we can make changes.  The video of that talk will be available on our Youtube page soon.

Environmental academic and writer Justin Podur

Justin Podur runs the podcast and blog, the Anti-Empire Project, presenting historical and political analysis from an anti-colonial perspective. He is the author of several books and teaches at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

Justin Podur is the author (with Joe Emersberger) of Extraordinary Threat: The US Empire, the Media, and 20 Years of Coup Attempts in Venezuela (Monthly Review 2021), of America’s Wars on Democracy in Rwanda and DR Congo (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) and Haiti’s New Dictatorship (Pluto Press 2012). He has contributed chapters to Empire’s Ally: Canada and the War in Afghanistan (University of Toronto Press 2013) and Real Utopia (AK Press 2008). He is an Associate Professor at York University’s Faculty of Environmental and Urban Change.

In fiction, Justin is the author of three novels: The Path of the Unarmed (self-published on Wattpad 2020), Siegebreakers (Roseway 2019) and The Demands of the Dead (self-published 2014).

A fellow of the Independent Media Institute’s Globetrotter project, he has previously reported from India (Kashmir, Chhattisgarh), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico (Chiapas), and Israel/Palestine for ZNet, TeleSUR, rabble.ca, Ricochet, and other publications.

Learning about how to survive the apocalypse has never been so fun!

Partners in our Community

The Wilderness Committee is people-powered wilderness preservation for a wild future. Founded in 1980 as a registered non-profit society and federal charity, 60,000 supporters, volunteers, and activists from coast to coast to coast work together to preserve wilderness, protect wildlife, defend parks, safeguard public resources and fight for a stable and healthy climate. Our head office is in Vancouver, with field offices in Victoria, Winnipeg and Toronto.

DogwoodBC – Named after B.C.’s provincial flower, Dogwood is a people-powered organization driven by a shared love of place. We bring together people across the political spectrum to work on the urgent challenges facing our home. Our staff work in places across B.C., anchoring volunteer organizing teams in dozens of key ridings. The goal is to build a grassroots base of engaged citizens ready to take action outside of the existing political party system.

The series, Climate Change and Other Small Talk is:

Created by SUNNY DRAKE

Produced by SUNNY DRAKE PRODUCTIONS in association with WHY NOT THEATRE

Lead Producers: FANNY MARTIN and NAJLA NUBYANLUV

Concept Dramaturg: KEVIN MATTHEW WONG

Impact Producer & Climate Dramaturg: CHAPRECE HENRY 

Communications Producer: DANIELA GERSTMANN 

Central Audio Producers: HEATHER BROWN and RICHARD FEREN

Series funders: Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Toronto Arts Council

See the website for full credits – it truly does take a village to raise a podcast

THE WRITERS AND COMPANIES 

Tara Beagan – Downstage Theatre

Mohkínsstsisi/Calgary, Canada

Tara is an all-round theatre champion – playwright, actor, director – who won the top playwriting prize in Canada.

Krishnee Bhotooa – Caudan Arts

Port Louis, Mauritius

Krishnee is the coolest teacher who fell into the magic of theatre and now leads a double life: teacher by day, playwright by night.

Pyemwa Deshi – Thespian Muse

Lagos, Nigeria

Pyemwa is equally at ease writing for TV, running schools, launching women-led social enterprises and dealing with international banking! Listen HERE

Sunny Drake – Soulpepper and Why Not Theatre

Tkaronto/Toronto, Canada

Sunny’s theatre works have been presented in over 60 cities across the world. And a few basements, backyards, a merry-go-round and a bathtub. Listen HERE

Bruce Gibbons Fell – Crocodilo Triste

Viña del Mar, Chile

Bruce is a queer award-winning playwright who infuses pop culture and politics into his work.

Shauntay Grant – Zuppa

Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Canada

Shauntay is a playwright, poet and children’s book author whose award-winning work is grounded in Black Nova Scotia.

Ram Ganesh Kamatham – QTP

Mumbai, India

Ram is a powerhouse who seamlessly hops from journalism to policy think-tanks to anthropology to playwriting. Like a secret agent. Listen HERE

Marie Munkara – Darwin Community Arts

Lands of the Larrakia People/ Darwin, Australia

Marie is a novel writer with a famously sharp wit. We are lucky to have her turn her talent to this audio creation. Listen HERE

Special thanks to BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver Cultural Services, Canada Council for the Arts, Monarch Studios, and Progress Lab 1422.

---