Theater Emory and The Playwriting Center of Theater Emory present the Earth Matters on Stage (EMOS) 2022 Ecodrama Playwrights Festival, a new play competition seeking out work related to environmental issues. The festival will run Oct. 27—Nov. 6, presenting a fully-staged performance of the winning play, “Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying” by Jessica Huang. It will also host staged readings of the runner-up, “An American Animal”by Katherine Gwynn, and honorable mention, “Bloom Bloom Pow” by Genevieve Simon.
Earth Matters on Stage, founded in 2004 by Larry Fried and Theresa May, encourages new plays addressing ecological issues and environmental crises. In the words of May, “EMOS is a consortium of artists, educators, activists and scholars who believe that theater and the performing arts must respond to the environmental crisis. EMOS calls forth and fosters new dramatic work and performances that help us re-imagine our human place in a more-than-human world. At the heart of EMOS is the Ecodrama New Play Contest, which calls playwrights and theater makers to engage in the global and local ecological issues that face societies across cultures.”
Theater Emory originally planned to produce the festival in fall 2021 after learning of it from Lydia Fort, assistant professor in theater studies and director of the Playwriting Center of Theater Emory. After postponing due to COVID-19, Theater Emory committed to hosting the Festival in 2022 as a part of its first full season since the beginning of the pandemic.
A reading committee consisting of theater professionals and Emory University students helped evaluate and select plays. May explains, “EMOS looks for plays that enliven and transform our experience of the world around us, that inspire us to listen better, and instill a deeper or more complex sense of our ecological communities.”
Performances of “Transmissions in Advance of the Second Great Dying,” will run from Oct. 27 through Nov. 6. The play, whose set is made from reclaimed materials and plastics, will receive a full production in the Mary Gray Monroe Theater directed by Melissa Foulger, artistic director at DramaTech Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at https://tickets.arts.emory.edu/events.
A staged reading of “An American Animal” will be presented in the Theater Lab at Schwartz Center for Performing Arts on Nov. 5 at 2 p.m., directed by Addae Moon, associate artistic director of Theatrical Outfit. Finally, a staged reading of “Bloom Bloom Pow” will be Nov. 6 at 2 p.m. in the Theater Lab, directed by Emory alumna Wanyu Yang 20C.
Both staged readings are free and open to the public, but seat reservations are encouraged. Please click here for more details on all three performances.
Earth Matters on Stage/EMOS, founded in 2004 by Larry Fried and Theresa May to forward plays on ecological themes. EMOS is hosted on a rotating basis around North America. See www.earthmattersonstage.org for more information.