Changing Climates Festival is back for 2022! Team Sprung are looking forward to a brilliant week, working over 400 young people in Coventry. Read below to discover the full programme and to get involved.
Daytime Workshops Programme
We are excited to provide students with an engaging daytime programme of workshops – with the chance to get involved in plenty of climate-themed theatre and fun! On the programme this is year is Moth Physical Theatre, who will create puppets out of rubbish and recycling. This is followed by the internationally renowned Complicité and an exclusive preview of their dance film Can I Live?. Finally, students experience a Highly Sprung Masterclass – providing access to high quality physical theatre training ahead of their evening performance.
Evening Programme of Performance
Each evening features a public programme of intriguing, environmentally themed performances from local schools, inspired by a range of themes, stories and activists.
Green by Wilnecote School, working with Associate Artist Sarah Rabone
The big city. Workers without names producing plastic day after day, stuck in the repetition of factory life. Everything is the same, there is no need to change. Until Green appears. Green is different, she doesn’t come from around here. Green has an idea that could transform the city and its dependence on plastic, but will they listen to a voice that doesn’t sound like theirs?
The Village, the Children, the Trees and the Flood by Bilton School, working with Associate Artist Sarah Rabone
A community living in the forest goes about their daily rituals. They chop down the trees, they use what they want, they waste what isn’t needed. They are happy with their traditions. The children of the village start to realise the impact of their behaviour on their environment and see a future where the damage is irreversible. The elders of the village will not listen, until a great flood starts rising. Could this be what they need to make a change?
Wangari Maathai by Barrs Hill, working with Associate Artists Colleen Hedley and Jade Hicks
Wangari Maathai was a Kenyan social, environmental and political activist, who brought together thousands of women to create what we know as the Green Belt Movement. She is thought to be responsible for the planting of 52million trees and spent her life inspiring women around her to stand up and make a change. This is her story.
The Promise by Lyng Hall, working Associate Artist Jade Hicks
Telling the story of The Promise by Nicola Davies, this show explores a slowly imploding city which refinds the joy of greenery brought on by a young child and a promise.
Are You Listening? by Foxford School, working with Associate Artist Emily Robertson
Inspired by The Rabbits by Shaun Tan, Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate’s and the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Motley’s Cop26 speeches. Are You Listening explores the disproportionate impact of climate change on historically colonised countries, and the inability of the West to listen to the real-time danger the people of those countries are facing.
Moonfish by Whitley Academy, working with Associate Artist Emily Robertson
Based on Shaun Tan’s Tales of the Inner City, Moonfish considers the impact of environmental issues on animals and the helplessness of their fate, caused by humans. The play looks to a future where the consequences of human greed and capitalism have forever changed the natural world, but humans have not changed in their destruction.
Dreaming Graffiti, working with Associate Artist Stefania Catarinella
When war, economic, political and social crises take away people’s rights and voices, what are we left with? Through her graffiti, artist Shamsia Hassani fights for women’s rights, for peace, and freedom of expression. She’s a hero for today’s Afghan women all around the world. Actions speak louder than words, but art is even more powerful and breaks through any wall. “Art changes people’s minds and people change the world” (Shamsia Hassani).
Headline Show: Silence Amplified from Sprung Advance
Each evening concludes with a headline show from our acclaimed youth group Sprung Advance. Silence Amplified is a thought-provoking piece of theatre that explores the right to freedom of speech, and what happens when that right is taken away.