What is Ecodramaturgy?

Ecodramaturgy is theatre practice that attends to our ecological relations and responsibilities, and puts those relationships at the center of the work. Ecodramaturgy’s three main threads are 1) theatre history and criticism that examines the implicit environmental message of any play or production 2) theatre-making that puts an ecological sensibility at the center, and 3) walking our talk by being conscious of our ecological footprint as a material craft. Here are some of the early pieces I published about this emerging field: “Beyond Bambi: Toward a Dangerous Ecocriticism,” “Kneading Marie Clements’ Burning Vision,” and “Greening the Theatre: Taking Ecocriticism from Page to Stage.”

Ecodramaturgy continues to be a many-handed project and I invite you to read and share my articles, and to pursue the many others with whom I share this emergent field, including, Wendy Arons, Una Chaudhuri, Downing Cless, Nelson Gray, Courtney Ryan, Sarah Standing, Lisa Woynarski, Chantal Bilodeau, Ian Garrett, and others. Check out their work!

The EMOS Ecodrama Playwrights Festival is perhaps one of the most visible efforts in ecodramaturgy. In 2004, Larry Fried and I founded the EMOS to encourage and nurture dramatists, directors and designers in the field of ecodramaturgy. Since then, EMOS has been produced every two to three years hosted by a variety of institutions including, Carnegie Mellon University, University of Nevada-Reno, University of Alaska Anchorage, and Emory University. If you or your institution would like to host a future EMOS Festival, please reach out to me or go to the EMOS website.