Plays For the Planet

Name: Plays For the Planet
Start: 2025-04-17T12:00:00-05:00
Location: 3301 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63103

Schedule

Thu, 17 Apr, 2025 at 12:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

3301 Washington Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63103 | St. Louis, MO

With growing concern for the crisis facing our local, national and international communities, Joan Lipkin and That Uppity Theatre Company in collaboration with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and the Arts & Climate Initiative will present a free one hour program of staged readings of short plays addressing this pivotal issue April 17, 2025. The first performance will be at noon at the High Low, 3301 Washington Ave, and the program will be repeated that evening at 7:30 PM at Metro Theatre, in their rehearsal space at 3311 Washington Ave.
This program will feature St. Louis based directors Sami Ginoplos, Bekah Harbison, and Joan Lipkin, and actors Tyson Cole, Kate Durbin, Steve Lewis, Tammy O’Donnell, Mitchell Manar, Don McClendon, Ann Truka, and Jodi Stockton.
For the noon performance, the doors open at 11:30 AM and early arrival is encouraged. Coffee and other beverages may be purchased at the adjacent Blueprint Café. Representatives from the MCE will be available for discussion afterwards.
The evening performance at Metro will be at 7:30 with the doors opening at 7 PM and MCE will be available then as well..
All of the plays to be presented have either been published by the Arts & Climate Initiative or commissioned by other theatre companies. The playwrights include Nicholas Billon, Chantal Bilodeau, Mindi Dickstein, Marcia Johnson, Joan Lipkin, Stephen Sewell, and Kevin Matthew Wong.
Some of the themes include the ethics of having children at this time, the impact of American fossil fuel use on other countries, the role of climate change protests in public settings, the question of climate reparations to other countries, the impact of plastic and waste, animal rights and habitat loss, and more.
"The Missouri Coalition for the Environment is excited to partner with That Uppity Theatre Company and the Arts & Climate Initiative on Plays for the Planet,” said Jared Opsal, Executive Director of MCE. “Art can inform us, connect us, and inspire us, and we believe these performances will prove to be a catalyst for more people to engage in actions that protect people and their environment in this critical time."
Internationally recognized for her theatre and advocacy work in LGBTQ+, disability, voting rights, and gender and racial justice, Joan Lipkin has been working in the area of climate change for a number of years. As a multi-discipline artist/ activist who focuses at the intersection of performance and civic engagement, she is known for her work in short plays, rapid response theatre and devising, is widely published and produced and the recipient of multiple awards.
Lipkin has produced programs of short climate change plays at many locations including the Ethical Society, St Louis University, art galleries in St Louis’s Central West End and at the BeGe Vege Festival in Belgrade, Serbia.

She has published two plays and an essay through Climate Change Theatre Action. Her first climate play commissioned for CCTA, “About that Chocolate Bar”, was published in Lighting the Way and has had an estimated 50 production throughout the US and abroad. During the pandemic, she created a prototype for students to study climate change and create theatrical responses virtually or in person.
This winter, she taught a three hour virtual master class for students and theatre makers on several continents on devising performance around climate change and the content will be included in an anthology forthcoming from Bloomsbury Press. Additionally, she has worked as a dramaturg about environmental racism.
“As dire as some of these issues may be, the beauty of the plays we have selected is that they are short, imaginative, creative, and often humorous, offering another entry point into thinking about climate change and environmental justice. After all, when was the last time you saw a play that featured a polar bear wanting to shop for food at a Costco?” said Lipkin.
This free public viewing is hopefully a preview of additional and fully staged performances in collaboration with the Missouri Botanical Garden, pending funding.
Chantal Bilodeau, the Artistic Director of the Arts & Climate Initiative, said. “Climate change is here to stay so not only do we have to address it, we also have to learn to live with it. Storytelling can be a powerful tool to help us understand what is at stake, remain courageous, and inspire us to take action in the short and long term. I’m incredibly grateful for the interest and commitment in St. Louis in putting climate change on stage and facilitating conversations with their community.”