ClimateChangeTheatR Launches On TikTok And Instagram

Launching 2023, @climatechangetheatR brings the joy of puppets and music to the very immediate and serious topic of climate change. Filmmaker Nancy Cohen-koan and Composer Dave Ogrin, with the support of New Zealand based Social Media Manager and Climate Activist Timi Barabas, illuminate the growing problems of peril to our planet through the performances of singing, homemade puppets. Tongue-in-cheek and often ironic, these quick TikTok and Instagram vignettes illustrate the growing issues on our planet and offer solutions on how to deal with them.

After seeing Adam McKay's movie Going Up, storyteller Cohen-koan admired the comedic way that McKay portrayed the deadly serious subject. "It's an important message and we wanted to find a fresh way to convey it", says Cohen-koan "so we created ClimateChangeTheatR. From Moses and Pharoah arguing over pestilence to Barbie and Ken hitching to save gas, these stories will sing their way into your heart while opening up your mind to becoming Greener. The catchy theme song, F..ing Climate Change, is simply the best way to express feelings about this potentially earth shattering dilemma."

Nancy Cohen-koan (My Dinner With Abbie and other film fame) and Dave Ogrin (well known for the galactic musical, Wild Women of Planet Wongo) bring melody, wit and visual excess to their audience. The videos help raise awareness through whimsy and fun while offering up viable solutions to each problem. Additionally, each segment has connections to activist organizations that are working towards a safer world.

In a time of covid, when live stage productions came to a halt, musical theatre veteran Ogrin sought other avenues. "We realized that TikTok and Instagram were now the best places to showcase new theatre to an expanding audience and what better message than Climate Change.", says Ogrin. "Nancy and I had worked on live stage pieces with actors in the past, but through TikTok and Instagram, we can reach a much wider audience. We made the whole thing with no budget, shot on an iphone, and performed it all ourselves. Nobody else is offering playful Climate Change messages like ours as far as we have seen."

ClimateChangeTheatR is available on TikTok and Instagram @climatechangetheatR

Please follow us and support our work.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/climatechangetheatr/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@climatechangetheatr

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/87467922

Dave Ogrin

​(​Music, Lyrics​, Video) in his pre-theatre days, Dave​ ​worked as a producer, writer, musician and engineer with such talent as The Beastie Boys, Paul Simon, Public Enemy, and Run DMC. Since then, Dave composed music and lyrics for the 60's sci-fi spoof WILD WOMEN OF PLANET WONGO (New York Musical Theatre Festival, Red Barn Theatre/Key West, Brooklyn Fireproof/Bushwick, Chopin Theatre/Chicago), the rock n roll women-in-prison send-up ​HELL HOLE HONEYS (Eugene O'Neill Music Theater Conference, TRU New Voices Award, Alleyway Theatre/Buffalo NY), the rock opera spy thriller MATA HARI (University of Western Michigan), ​THE LEGEND OF Julie Taymor (Fringe Festival NYC) and THE GOOD LIFE (The Latest Draft podcast). Dave was selected to participate in the Raw Impressions Musical Theatre Marathon at the Flea Theatre and in the New Dramatists Composer/Librettist Studio, both in New York City. Dave is a Dramatist Guild member. More at daveogrin.com.

NANCY COHEN-KOAN

(Puppets, Lyrics, Video) in her pre end of the world days, Nancy has been an actor, voice artist, visual artist and director. Her most recent film Woodstock: A Snapshot in Time has won several festival awards including best doc at the New York Psychedelic Film Fest. Cow Girl Way, her anti-gun music video was selected for the Golden Giraffe Int'l film fest. The award-winning film My Dinner With Abbie aired on PBS and she has made documentaries (Which Witch? and Malcolm McLaren -Not 4 Sale), for UK's Ch.4.Her film Knot Marriage won in the short, short film category at the Tribeca Film Festival and she was invited to the First Berlin Talent Campus at the Berlinale. She won for Incandescent in the Hundred Words or Fewer Essay Contest as well as in the New York Public Library I have a Dream Essay Contest for Asleep. Currently she is in post-production on Something About John(Lennon) and helping her dog Darling finish her first chapbook. She is a member of NYWIFT and IAWRT secretary. Her blog is NotJustAboutSex https://lambstarpie.wixsite.com/lambstarpie

TIMI BARABAS

(Social Media Manager) Timi is a youth projects and events manager with over 5 years experience in the fields. She is the Founder and Executive Director of Rise For Lives (https://www.riseforlives.org/), a global youth-led peace organization. In 2019 Timi was one of 10 high school students from around New Zealand to be personally invited to a round table discussion with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres and New Zealand Government Ministers, including the Minister of Climate Change. She is also the founder and coordinator of Climate Live Aotearoa NZ (and New Zealand rep for Climate Live) and the former international Funding/Finances and Staff Manager at Climate Live International (https://climatelive.org/) where she was in charge of managing large funding and staff members nationally and internationally. She was one of the three key coordinators of Climate Live 2021, a global climate change awareness event which took place in October 2021 in 20 countries and had 12,000 people in attendance in Sweden only. It received over 30M views online in 2021 and was featured in over 800 media including in BBC, Sky News, Music News, EuroNews, CNN and Fox News, The Times, Reuters etc.

More at https://www.linkedin.com/in/timi-barabas-40b857192/