GREEN NEW THEATRE SYMPOSIUM at The VORTEX

ABOUT THE SYMPOSIUM

The Green New Theatre Symposium, September 14-17, 2023, centers environmental justice over four days of performances, panels, walks, and gardening. The event takes inspiration from the Greek origins of the word symposium: a convivial party with music, dance, poetry, and conversation in a free interchange of ideas.

At the Green New Theatre Symposium at The VORTEX, artists, scholars, students, and activists will join together to build networks of collaboration, exchange ideas, and work to align practices to face climate crisis in Central Texas. Theatre artists will offer perspectives on intersectional environmental justice issues that are crucial to transforming our industrial society to a life-sustaining civilization where everyone thrives.

The Green New Theatre Symposium engages in environmental justice, exploring the intersectionality of systemic racism, gender inequity, migration, de-colonization, and corporate greed.

EVENTS

The Green New Theatre Symposium includes the following:

• Opening ceremony by the Indigenous Cultures Institute, with Maria Rocha and Dr. Mario Garza

• Urban walking tour with Emma Robertson, Stacy K. Sowards, Cathryn Ploegn, and Cedar Stevens

• Vegan brunch provided by Vegan Nom, Sunday September 17 at noon

• Preview of Cabarét, by Proyecto Teatro

• Preview of MotherTree, conceived and directed by Bonnie Cullum, choreography by Toni Bravo, writing by Sarah Saltwick, dramaturgy by Caili Crow

• Panelists and speakers: Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens, Khristián Mendéz Aguirre, Miriam Conner, Caili Crow, Cathryn Ploehn, Alex Beasley

• MCs: Eva Margarita, India Willmott, Jasmine Games

• Performances:

  • Entierro, by Eva Margarita

  • Splosh!, by Greer Sykes

  • Oil Heads on Parade, by Whitney Mosery

  • Entangled Moments, by Nic Bennett

  • HER, by Nia Perez Herrera

  • Eco-sexual Jazz Cabaret, by Jade Fusco

  • Mother Earth, performed by Donna Norman

  • Dark Motherhood, by Ella Kent

• Interactive workshops:

  • Being a Bee, by Luke Dixon

  • Green Cube, by Alex Cogburn

• Scratch chapel: open mic performance forum on Saturday at 10:30 p.m., where anyone may sign up to perform short new green theatre pieces, hosted by Greer Sikes

• Puppet disruptions by Glass Half Full Theatre: human-sized walking puppets throughout the Symposium

• Film screenings:

  • Yana Wana’s Legend of the Bluebonnet, by María F. Rocha and Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, music and Lyrics by Héctor Martinez Morales

  • A:X (The Tonkawa Word for Water), by Ben Livingston with live music by Bob Hoffner

  • 23 one-minute, eco-erotic films curated by Annie Sprinkle and Elizabeth Stephens

• Readings of New Plays: 

  • Summer Underground, by Marissa Castañón-Hernandez, directed by Blaise Ricin

  • Walden (remixed), by KJ Sanchez, directed by Caley Chase.  

  • Papako: The Journey, a play for young audiences by Maria F. Rocha, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce, and Genevieve Schroeder-Arce

  • Arbolito, by Raul Garza, directed by Jerry Ruiz.   

  • Climate Change Theatre Action: September 17 kickoff of international readings of short new plays

• 10-Minute Plays:

  • Magical Fungi in Time Square, by Chantal Bilodeau, directed by Heather Barfield

  • Kids For Saving the Earth Club #121, by Gab Reisman, directed by Ken Webster/Hyde Park

  • The Polar Bears, by Nicholas Billon, directed by Kate Meehan

  • This Play Is Written In Mushroom, by Haeweon Yi, directed by Eva Margarita

  • Tree People, by Heidi Kraay, directed by Lilli Percifield

  • Transmission, by Kevin Matthew Wong, directed by Kate Meehan

  • This Play, by Kendra Fanconi, directed by Patti Neff Tiven

  • Cassandra Drowning, by Nathan Joe, directed by Jasmine Games

  • 50 Ways to End Mother Earth—In Under Five Minutes!, by Kirby Vicente, directed by Jasmine Games

Every Symposium participant will receive a plant to take home and nurture.

Daily schedule forthcoming.