{"id":1923,"date":"2017-10-19T08:44:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T19:44:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/?p=1923"},"modified":"2017-10-19T08:51:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T19:51:40","slug":"penguins-on-stage-and-street-in-climate-change-action-massey-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/2017\/10\/19\/penguins-on-stage-and-street-in-climate-change-action-massey-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Penguins on stage and street in climate change action – Massey University"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Donning<\/a>

Donning Catherine Bagnall’s costumes for the ‘Becoming Penguin’ walk are fourth year fashion students Jacob Coutie, Jordie Agnew and Hannah Tate.<\/p><\/div>\n

Using theatre to turn people into penguins is a symbolic way to highlight some of the planet\u2019s most vulnerable species in this year\u2019s global Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action events in Wellington.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Co-organiser Massey University\u2019s Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley says a number of Massey staff and students will become \u201chuman penguins\u201d on stage and in the streets of Wellington this Labour Weekend. They are showcasing how artists and performers can respond to environmental and social issues \u2013 in this case, the serious threat of global warming to the existence of Antarctica\u2019s penguin populations.<\/p>\n

Her new play,\u00a0The Penguins<\/em>, is being performed in 14 locations worldwide from Paris to Shanghai and the United States, as well as at Massey\u2019s Wellington campus on Labour Day (October 23). It is one of nine short plays on climate change featured at this year\u2019s Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action event at Massey \u2013 part of a six-week global movement to highlight climate change issues through performance.<\/p>\n

In a thematic prelude, participants will take to the streets of central Wellington in the \u201cBecoming Penguin\u201d performance walk, starting at\u00a0the Cenotaph at\u00a0Parliament at 1pm and heading to Massey University. Participants (everyone welcome) are invited to join the walk wearing whatever black and white items they have in their wardrobe that lend a penguin \u201clook\u201d.<\/p>\n

Creator of \u201cBecoming Penguin\u201d, Massey lecturer in the School of Design | Ng\u0101 Pae M\u0101hutonga, Catherine Bagnall, is an artist whose work focuses on the edges of fashion studies and its intersection with performance practices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the context of questions about humanity\u2019s relationship to the planetary ecosystem and how we categorise \u2018other\u2019 species, \u2018Becoming Penguin\u2019 explores ideas about the end of the Anthropocene and the beginning of the post-human world,\u201d Ms Bagnall says.<\/p>\n

The walk, she says, is to \u201csymbolise support for all the communities taking personal responsibility for climate action at a local level, when governments won\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

World premieres staged<\/h3>\n

Following the \u201cBecoming Penguin\u201d walk, a cast of 23 \u2013 including well-known Wellington professional actors alongside Massey students and staff \u2013 will stage\u00a0nine\u00a0climate action plays by writers of Jamaican, Portuguese, Native American, Australian, New Zealand, Samoan, Canadian and US descent at\u00a0the campus Theatre Laboratory from 2pm.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe programme includes two world premieres \u2013 a short play by Samoan writer\/director Ian Les\u0101 about Pacific Island climate change issues, and one by Kat Laveaux, a playwright from the Lakota tribe in the United States, who visited Massey University earlier this year as part of the National Expedition and Internship Programme, and became keen to participate in Climate Change Theatre Action,\u201d says Dr Tilley.<\/p>\n

Also featuring is work by another School of English and Media Studies playwright, Philip Braithwaite, whose short play \u201cSwing Among the Stars\u201d, about colonising Mars, is scheduled for nine Climate Change Theatre Action performances globally.<\/p>\n

In her play, Dr Tilley explores human behaviour and attitudes from another species\u2019 perspective (one in which the males \u2018stay home\u2019 and look after the young) to provide an innovative and often hilarious framework into which serious ideas can be woven.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s also a way of giving people hope. Penguins have been around for 60 million years, whereas humans have been on the planet for about two million years,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it\u2019s important not to hit people in the face with a message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Art and creativity on social issues<\/h3>\n

Dr Tilley, a lecturer in theatre studies in the School of English and Media Studies \u2013 including the Creativity in the Community paper (in which students apply skills in theatre, performance, film-making, creative writing, media practice or mixed media to developing a creative response to a social issue or community need) \u2013 is the author of several award-winning plays on climate change and social issues, and producer of the biennial Aotearoa Climate Change Theatre Action events, launched in 2015.<\/p>\n

She says the process of creating and performing theatre about a difficult and daunting topic can be empowering for participants and audiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople get bombarded with information about climate change and the doom-filled scenarios \u2013 the result is that people become complacent and switch off,\u201d she says. \u201cThe performances in\u00a0Still Waving\u00a0will entertain, console and confront you with works that are humorous and intense, problem-illuminating and solution-focused, powerful, sometimes funny, sometimes catastrophic, often moving and inspirational.\u201d<\/p>\n

All proceeds from the Still Waving event go to youth-led climate action group Generation Zero, which is campaigning for a zero carbon New Zealand economy.<\/p>\n

For more information, check out the\u00a0Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action Facebook page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source: Penguins on stage and street in climate change action – Massey University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Using theatre to turn people into penguins is a symbolic way to highlight some of the planet\u2019s most vulnerable species in this year\u2019s global Still Waving: Climate Change Theatre Action events in Wellington. Co-organiser Massey University\u2019s Associate Professor Elspeth Tilley says a number of Massey staff and students will become \u201chuman penguins\u201d on stage and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101,1,13,66],"tags":[158,184,85,63,185,60],"class_list":["post-1923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-events","category-expressive-arts-subject","category-theatre","category-wellington-campus-campus","tag-climate-change","tag-climate-change-theatre-action","tag-creative-activism","tag-expressive-arts","tag-still-waving","tag-tilley"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1923"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1929,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923\/revisions\/1929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.massey.ac.nz\/expressivearts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}