GREENFIELD — The LAVA Center at 324 Main St. will present a mixed-media program of short videos and play readings on Saturday, Dec. 14, at 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Masks are required at the 2 p.m. show and optional at the 5 p.m. performance.
In conjunction with The LAVA Center’s current Humanities Gallery display, JJ White’s “World on Fire” that lifts up the work of climate activist Greta Thunberg, the center will reprise eight short plays in video and staged readings. These plays were produced in local venues and online from 2018 to 2023. The plays come from Climate Change Theatre Action, a worldwide festival of short plays about the climate crisis presented biennially to coincide with the United Nations COP meetings, as well as from The LAVA Center’s locally produced climate change theater initiatives. The production represents a fraction of the 140 short climate-themed plays that The LAVA Center has brought to Greenfield-area audiences.
The playwrights whose work will be shared are as diverse as the play topics and characters, hailing from Ireland, Rhode Island, Canada, New York City, Jordan, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. They are: Elaine Ávila (“The Rookery,” 2019), Nic Billon (“The Polar Bears,” 2023), Philip Braithwaite (“Ice Flow,” 2019), Kay Bullard (“Under the Weather,” 2020), Colette Cullen (“Everyone’s Sorry,” 2020), Lana I. Nasser (“The Butterfly that Persisted,” 2019), Elyne Quan (“Pond Life,” 2018) and Caridad Svich (“A Letter from the Ocean,” 2019).
A talk-back following the presentation will focus on sharing news updates and personal priorities for taking action on climate change in the year ahead.
The program is made possible by funding from Greening Greenfield and Mass Humanities.
