FOOTPRINTS OF THE POLAR BEAR & OTHER ECO-CENTRIC PLAYS Announced At American Theatre of Actors

"Footprints of the Polar Bear and Other Eco-Centric Plays," an evening of five one-act plays by playwright Phil Paradis will be produced at the American Theatre of Actors, 314 West 54th Street, Fourth Floor, New York, NY 10019.

The event is co-produced by ATA's legendary Artistic Director James Jennings and stage and film director Laurie Rae Waugh.

The ten performances are November 13-16 and November 20-23 at 8:00 p.m. with matinees on November 17 & 24 at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 at the door and online at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/4423551 .

Playwright Phil Paradis has created five green plays that focus on how we must change our behaviors that negatively impact our planet's ability to sustain life. Paradis's plays point out that business run amok and an economic system based on the profit motive have resulted in excessive greenhouse gas emissions and widespread environmental degradation as witnessed in pollution, contaminated water, floods, super storms, wildfires, rising seas, and melting icecaps.

Says Mr. Paradis, "The plays hopefully raise awareness of the dire situation humanity is faced with and which it has created and which has been getting much worse since the beginning of the Industrial Age. With progress and industrialization has come mass exploitation of the rainforests and the oceans and habitable land everywhere, as well as pollution, and destruction of natural resources for short-term gains. We need to change our ways of thinking and behaving."

Laurie Rae Waugh directs the featured drama Footprints of the Polar Bear which portrays an alcoholic homeless Gulf War vet obsessed with environmental degradation and politics, and who identifies with polar bears, retreats to a lofty perch on a New York City bridge as a heroic Emergency Medical Technician is dispatched to save him.

Chris Godrich directs God Is A Ford Man, a dramatic monologue by a good ol' boy who expresses his views on politics, global warming, climate change, and God's creation as he explains why God wrought sinkhole destruction upon the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Monica Blaze Leavitt directs the satiric newscast and dark comedy Breaking Gulf News where sparks fly when a network news anchor and a Coastguard spokesman try to hold the CEO of a big oil company accountable after "the cleanup" of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Art Bernal directs The Perfect Place, a touching drama about grandfather who tries to instill in his grandson respectful use of natural resources and awareness of our place and co-dependence on others and upon our planet.

Jessica Jennings directs the futuristic dark comedy Natural Rarities Up For Bid, set at Sotheby's Auction House in London in 2184 AD after the ice has melted. To feed the millions of displaced refugees of submerged coastal cities, a benefit auction is underway to raise funds to develop food from petroleum!

Ms. Waugh has been a theatre artist in New York since 1980. She has awards (including several Dalrymple Awards) for premieres of the plays Mirrors, A Spanish Harlem Story, and Code Name Daniel. She was also nominated for an Award for Outstanding Direction of Ellen And Troy And Eloise at The Midtown International Theatre Festival.

As a playwright Mr. Paradis is best known for his full-length play with song Soldier's Christmas (about the Christmas Truce of 1914), his solo play Evening with Stephen Crane, and Love Knots: Five One-Acts. His plays have appeared at ATA, Manhattan Rep, Producer's Club, Midtown International Festival, fringe festivals in Hollywood and Cincinnati; Northern Kentucky University, and Cincinnati LAB Theatre. A published playwright and poet, Paradis is a member of the Dramatists Guild.

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