Nov. 27 public reading of my "climate" play

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Allen Fitz-Gerald

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Nov 18, 2016, 12:52:48 PM11/18/16
to Heather Sullivan-Catlin, NC350Alliance, Mary-Alice Shemo, 350 Burlington, North Country Climate Reality, Bill McKibben, May Boeve
Hi, Heather, et al: 

In view of the NC350 support for your proposal to do Prisoners of Hope at SUNY Potsdam's Earthday Festival next spring, it might help you prepare if some of you can attend the reading we're doing a week from Sunday. Here are the details:
 

On Sunday, Nov. 27, at 2:00 the Essex Theatre Company hosts a dramatic reading of Allen Fitz-Gerald's seriocomic play at the Whallonsburg Grange Hall, 5 miles south of the Essex ferry dock on NYS Route 22. A free event with refreshments.
"Prisoners of Hope" puts a very human face on the question of what to do about climate change. (ad...@thegrangehall.info or 518-963-4170)

And here is part of what the ETC director sent to local papers to promote the event:
 
This is a seriocomic play about a family divided. As her family’s ocean estate is getting eroded by storms and the rising sea level, Aurora inspires her father to create a philanthropy that will join the war to stop global warming, which drives their family into a more personal war. The five characters from three generations include Aurie’s adopted black son. The characters in the play are: Roger Harrison, 69, an Anglo-American philanthropist, read by Dr. Claude Roland from Saranac Lake; Nan, his scrappy American wife, 66, read by Monique Weston Clague, a human rights activist; Aurie, their conflicted daughter, 42, an environmentalist, read by Martha Swan from John Brown Lives!; Todd, their other son, a politician, 44, TBA; and Nelson, Aurie’s adopted black son, 21, read by Jabari Matthew, a senior at Middlebury College. Kathy Poppino, ETC President, is “guide” for the reading.

As Trump's plans "to completely gut the US commitment to keeping the Earth habitable" (skepticalscience.com, 17 November),  my advocate in New Jersey said we need to form a road-show company to take this play everywhere: to churches and colleges, firehouses and granges, community and nonprofit theaters. Because in the words of the great Kevin Spacey, "You can sometimes accomplish things culturally that you can't accomplish politically." This is one of those times.

In solidarity with all Earthlings,

Allen
 

 


Heather Sullivan-Catlin

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Nov 20, 2016, 12:34:33 PM11/20/16
to Allen Fitz-Gerald, NC350Alliance, Mary-Alice Shemo, 350 Burlington, North Country Climate Reality, Bill McKibben, May Boeve

Thank you, Allen.

I agree and especially love the Kevin Spacey quote.  Unfortunately I cannot make it next Sunday as I will be traveling back from family Thanksgiving visiting.  I wish you great success with the reading.  I expect to hear in the next few weeks about the grant for LoKo fest.  

In the event that we do not get the grant, I would still like to work to put on a reading here in the Potsdam area.  Let's consider it Plan B.

I will keep you posted.

Best,

Heather


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Heather Sullivan-Catlin, Ph.D.

Director, Environmental Studies

Professor, Dept. of Sociology & Criminal Justice

SUNY Potsdam /  sull...@potsdam.edu /   315-267-2570

Pronouns: she/her/hers


“If we remember those times and places - and there are so many - where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act...and we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.”   -Howard Zinn





From: Allen Fitz-Gerald <fitz...@charter.net>
Sent: Friday, November 18, 2016 12:52 PM
To: Heather Sullivan-Catlin; NC350Alliance
Cc: Mary-Alice Shemo; Daniel Helmer; 350 Burlington; North Country Climate Reality; Bill McKibben; May Boeve
Subject: Nov. 27 public reading of my "climate" play
 
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