Ecotheater for the Global Village

By G. Thomson Fraser

Environmental Dramas featured in "EcoTheater for the Global Village"

"EcoTheater for the Global Village" features three plays that confront environmental issues from an adult as well as a childs perspective -G. Thomson Frasers, "Giants in the Wilderness," and two childrens theater dramas, MacKenzie Louise Coffmans, "Forest Hideout," and Rebekah Lovat Frasers "The Tree and the Village."

Harold Wood, education chairman for the environmentally-focused Sierra Club, was the inspiration behind the book. He contacted G. Thomson Fraser about her play, "Giants in the Wilderness and suggested that it be published, along with childrens dramas with an environmental theme.

"Giants in the Wilderness" features John Muir, the Scottish naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, and his role in the birth of the environmental movement in the late 19th century. "Wilderness" contains a Forestry Chautauqua Prologue and post-play Epilogue by Joseph K. Smith which can be used to open a discussion with the audience. The drama was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and matching funds from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Managements Conservation Trust Fund. "Wilderness" toured as part of the 1997 Centennial Celebration of the Massachusetts State Forest and Park System.

Drama critic Richard Duckett, writing for the Worcester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, characterized "Wilderness" as a history lesson. "By 1896, the destruction of Americas forest wilderness had become so rampant many people believed that unless something was done soon, there wouldnt be any wilderness left... Three naturalists - John Muir, Charles Sprague Sargent and Gifford Pinchot - had divergent opinions on the best way to save them."

MacKenzie Louise Coffmans childrens theater piece, "Forest Hideout" is the story of two children, a brother and sister, who take matters into their own hands to save the family farm. Coffman is a fifth grade student in Western Massachusetts. A televised production of her play is planned for the Summer 2009 with Coffman playing the role of Isabel.

Rebekah Lovat Frasers "The Tree and the Village" is an environmentally instructive fable, a mythological saga that engages the audience and is a visual feast for children of all ages. Lovat Fraser is a graduate in Film Studies from Yale University and mother of MacKenzie.

In the Preface to EcoTheater for the Global Village, G. Thomson Fraser observes, "We humans have taken center stage in a worldwide drama to preserve the planet that only the gods of antiquity might find amusing... Theater is now challenged to take up environmental global concerns, to serve as a tool for our continued survival."

Playwright G. Thomson Fraser is a professor, journalist, poet and novelist. Her nonfiction novel, "In the Claw of the Tiger," which is based on the true story of a survivor of the Bataan Death March and POW camps in the Philippines and Japan, was published in 2007. Fraser holds a BA in Theater and Communications and an MFA in Playwriting

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Oct 27, 2008
• ISBN: 9781469114804

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Copyright © 2008 by G. Thomson Fraser.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

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Contents

Preface

GIANTS IN

THE WILDERNESS

Acknowledgements

Giants in the Wilderness

Epilogue

Forest Hideout

The Tree and the Village

IMAGE%20001.tif

Alan Womer as John Muir

Photo Credit: G. Thomson Fraser

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1984 Massachusetts Acid Rain Awareness Week signing ceremony.

Massachusetts Governor Michael S. Dukakis (left) with co-sponsor Lt. Governor John F. Kerry (center), who became the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004, and Acid Rain Awareness Week organizer Genevieve C. Fraser a.k.a. G. Thomson Fraser (far right).

Photo Credit: Massachusetts State House Media Services

Preface

My first introduction to EcoTheater—theater that addresses environmental concerns—was as a theater major assigned to read Henrick Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, written in 1882. The protagonist, Dr. Stockman, is a popular resident of a small coastal town in Norway, until he makes an important discovery. The medicinal baths, invested in by the town to bring in tourism and prosperity, are contaminated. Waste water from the local tannery is polluting the very waters they are promoting. Of course, the good doctor must do something about it. It is his moral obligation. He fantasizes himself as a hero who will be lauded for his brilliant detective work, and the end result will be that something will be done! Instead, the town turns against him.

Little did I realize as I read the drama that not too many years later I would be confronted with similar dilemmas. First, there was the issue of acid rain destroying aquatic life locally, nationally, and internationally. Having been raised in the country on a small farm, I was motivated to organize Acid Rain Awareness Weeks which were backed by Governor Michael S. Dukakis who became the Democratic presidential nominee in 1988. These events contributed to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts passing some of the strictest legislation in the country to combat acid rain. Then, there was the issue of the experimental landfill in town designed to deal with leachate and other pollutants. It had succeeded somewhat, but on the whole, had failed. Then, the powers-that-be invited in a company proposing a trash-to-energy plant. But the coup-de-grace was a proposal by a multi-national corporation to build a coal fired power plant directly across the street from where we lived. Talk about karma!

In each case, I was able to do something—though it took years to work through each issue. I was appointed to the Conservation Commission by the board of selectmen. The ConCom investigated proposals great and small and could create stipulations. Later, I created the town’s Landfill Study Committee which filed a report detailing environmental violations as well as the landfill company’s refusal to pay the town a just stipend. (It helps to have leverage.) But being elected to the Board of Health was the most effective. There you have the power to say, No!!

Each challenge presented its own battle and demanded different strategies. Most of the challenges got ugly, but I was not in Dr. Stockman’s position. I was not alone. Gradually, there had been an evolution in public awareness. Compatriots were found willing to fight the good fight. And by a remarkable twist of fate, the acid rain legislation I had promoted years earlier turned out to be key to defeating one of the largest corporations in the world. In the process, the public came to recognize the benefit of environmental safeguards. And then I moved out of town.

Years later, I handled public relations at Mount Wachusett Community College in Gardner, MA and founded The Drama Circle, dedicated to the development of original works for the stage and screen. I also served as the liaison for the college’s Forest and Wood Products Institute. It was through this association that I met Dr. Charles (Hank) Foster, adjunct research fellow and lecturer at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, a former Massachusetts state forester, secretary of environmental affairs, and dean of the Yale University School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

In October 1997, Dr. Foster invited me to attend a meeting of a group of humanists, authors, theater professionals, forest experts, and representatives of the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Management who were tasked with promoting the development of a Forest Chautauqua, in conjunction with the Centennial celebration of the Massachusetts State Forest and Parks System. Historically, the Chautauqua has been used as a form of adult education organized around a theme. It was decided that a dramatic presentation featuring Charles Sprague Sargent, Gifford Pinchot, and the well-known conservationist John Muir would be the perfect vehicle for presenting three viewpoints on land use management from the late nineteenth century that are still prevalent today—from the scientific, forest management, and the environmental purist perspectives.

Advisors for the project included Sargent and Muir biographer Stephen Fox; Pinchot biographer Char Miller; Vincent Dowling, professional actor/director, founder of the miniature Theater of Chester, and former artistic director of Ireland’s Abbey Theater; Gary Hines, who portrays Pinchot at the Grey Towers National Historic Site in Pennsylvania; and William King, a director of the New England Forestry Foundation.

The intent of a Chautauqua is to provoke discussion. The resulting play—the history drama, Giants in the Wilderness, succeeded in doing just that. At the staged reading, prior to going on tour, I had to remind one member of the audience who had a heated discussion with the actor playing the founder of the USDA Forest Service, Gifford Pinchot, that though his ideas were significant, the character he was addressing was an actor involved in make believe! I then opened the discussion to the audience who had their own opinions.

Following the tour, I was contacted by Lewis W. Heniford, author of the three-volume, 1/2/3/4 for the Show: A Guide to Small-Cast One-Act Plays, with a request to include a synopsis of Giants on his website, Small-Cast One-Act Guide Online. It was here that Harold Wood found it. Along with chairing the Sierra Club John Muir Education Committee, Wood is the developer of the award-winning, John Muir Exhibit, a website devoted to the life and legacy of Sierra Club founder, John Muir. After reviewing the script, he requested that I publish it but also include environmental themed theater selections for children too. The result is EcoTheater for the Global Village, which includes my Giants in the Wilderness, Rebekah Lovat Fraser’s The Tree and the Village, and MacKenzie Louise Coffman’s Forest Hideout.

Yes, I enlisted family to assist. My daughter, Rebekah, who doubles as a screenwriter and journalist found it an easy stretch to write her first play. Her child, my granddaughter, MacKenzie and I worked on the second project together. First, we scouted the area to look at forests, flooded streams, and overflows that could easily become contaminated. We spoke of city and town infrastructure needed to survive in modern civilization and examined development sites where farm and field were being converted to roads and houses, and areas scarred by man’s intrusions. MacKenzie came up with the theme (kids trying to save the family farm) and most of the dialogue. I was her dutiful scribe converting it into a playwriting format. It was a thrill to work with my grandchild. Giants is dedicated to MacKenzie. I was in the hospital waiting for Rebekah to give birth as I worked on the play. MacKenzie was born