Reserve (free) tickets to SAC-funded Now Is Still Here: Climate Change Theater Action at the Somerville Community Growing Center

[Thomas King]

Dear friends,

You are invited to Now Is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026, an outdoor performance presented free of charge at the Somerville Community Growing Center through a Somerville Arts Council grant. Reservations are recommended. Information follows,

Leading up to the performances, I'm hosting a zoom conversation, "Theater as Climate Action," with Chantal Bilodeau, Founding Artistic Director of Arts & Climate Initiative and co-founder of Climate Change Theatre Action. Please consider joining our conversation about the role of theater, and the arts more generally, in engaging with climate change and biodiversity loss. Information and a registration link follows as well.

Please help us spread the word. Thanks!

Tom King

Now is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026

Performances

Friday 29 May and Saturday 30 May at 6:30 p.m.; Sunday 31 May at 4:00 p.m.

Rain dates: Friday 5 June and Saturday 6 June at 6:30 p.m.

Venue

The Somerville Community Growing Center

22 Vinal Ave, Somerville, MA

Free of charge. Reservations recommended. Tickets through eventbrite [https://www.eventbrite.com/e/now-is-still-here-tickets-1983988645446].

Past decisions may feel like a burden. The future may be uncertain. But now is still here, as we gather in a community garden to attend to our human and more-than-human worlds. To practice small acts of care in our built and natural environments. To share joy. To take action toward our future thriving.

Join us for Now Is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026 at the Somerville Community Growing Center in the Union Square area. A festival of short plays commissioned from playwrights around the world and inviting audience members to take action, Climate Change Theatre Action asks, What future relations to our built and natural environments can we imagine and then begin building together? How can practices of care for all living beings help us imagine and build justice, inclusion, and belonging in our communities?

Imagining together a just future is the first step to building it together. 

Please bring a blanket or folding chair and enjoy sitting on our lawn. Jackets/layers recommended. Limited seating will be available for persons unable to sit on the ground or who use scooters and wheelchairs.

“Now is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026” is presented in partnership with the Artists' Theater of Boston (Anneke Reich, Artistic Director), the Racial Justice Collaborative (Diane Wong, founder and leader) and the Somerville Community Growing Center. This program is supported in part by a grant from the Somerville Arts Council, a local agency supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and by a Public Humanities/Community Engagement Grant from the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Climate Change Theatre Action (founding artistic director Chantal Bilodeau) is a biennial international festival produced in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (Canada/New York). 

About Artists’ Theatre of Boston

Challenging systemic injustices through the collaborative process of making theater, ATB (Anneke Reich, artistic dir.) has developed new works through close community partnerships and delved into complex topics through deep artistic collaboration. Subjects explored include gentrification (This Place/Displaced), possible futures and queerness (Break, Break), US history of war crimes & ecocide (Drunk Enough to Say I Love You?). ATB affirms the capacity of the arts to challenge oppression, provide resources for critical thinking and resilience, and enable transformation.

Parking and Accessibility

Please note that parking on Vinal Avenue is by permit only. The Growing Center is a short walk from Union Square, near the Somerville High School on Highland Avenue, and accessible via the Green Line and buses on Highland and Somerville Avenues.

                                                 

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Theater as Climate Action: A Conversation with Arts & Climate Initiative Artistic Director Chantal Bilodeau

Tuesday 19 May 2026, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m.

Via zoom

Free of charge

Please register to receive the zoom link. [https://brandeis.zoom.us/meeting/register/jRuc74HnSj2fPddk1z4wQA]

Meet Chantal Bilodeau, Founding Artistic Director of Arts & Climate Initiative and co-founder of Climate Change Theatre Action, in conversation with director and climate justice advocate Tom King and company members of Now Is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026. We’ll consider the role of theater and performance in fostering climate awareness and action, building social cohesion and resilience, and facilitating alliances across our often competing interests.

A global festival of short plays engaging with climate change and promoting transformative climate justice, Now Is Still Here: Climate Change Theatre Action 2026 at the Somerville Community Growing Center aims to create and sustain a more fully inclusive and open Somerville, recognizing that community engagement is a strong predictor of resilience in our ongoing climate crisis. 

A Conversation with Chantal Bilodeau is made possible by a Public Humanities/Community Engagement Grant from the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Climate Change Theatre Action (co-founding artistic director Chantal Bilodeau) is a biennial international festival produced in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (Canada/New York).