Brackendale follows two bald eagles as they circle a garbage dump looking for food and discussing the effects of climate change.

Play Title: Brackendale

Author: Elaine Ávila

Publisher: Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts

Anthology: This play is part of a collection entitled, Where is the Hope? Edited by Chantal Bilodeau

Genre: Drama

Primary Discipline: Environmental

Secondary Discipline: Climate Change

Scientists: N/A

Source Texts: N/A

Character Breakdown: 2 characters of unspecified gender, age, or ethnicity.

Ótima (A Bald Eagle) and Péssima (A Bald Eagle)

Setting: Burns Bog, British Columbia, Canada

Time Period: Near Future

Synopsis of Play: This play follows two bald eagles as they circle a garbage dump looking for food and discussing the effects of climate change. Ótima represents the optimist view of climate change, believing that humans are taking the right steps to combat this major issue. Péssima on the other hand, argues that humans have created irreversible damage in terms of climate change and ecosystem destruction. These two birds watch as children get off buses at the dump just to watch them fly. The birds claim that the dump is the only place they can be seen because it is the only place that still has scraps of food. The play closes with Ỏtima believing that humans have saved eagles lives once by banning DDT, and they will surely save them again.

First Performance Date: This short play was originally performed at the “Climate Change Theatre Action” event in 2017.

First Producer: Climate Change Theatre Action 2017

Performance History: Performed at the Brackendale Eagle Festival Community on January 14, 2018. Also performed at various institutions such as, Georgetown University in 2018. This play was performed around the world as a part of the Climate Change Theatre Action 2017.

Biography of Author: “Elaine Ảvila is a Canadian/U.S. writer of Azorean Portuguese descent. Her plays have been produced in Panama City, Sintra, Pico, Costa Rica, London, New York, Los Angeles, Edmonton, Vancouver, Victoria and include Jane Austen, Action Figure (Winner, Best New Play, Festival de Los Cocos, Panama City), Lieutenant Nun (Winner, Best New Play, Victoria Critics Circle), Burn Gloom (Awarded Canada Council Millennium Grant), Kitimat (Mellon Environmental Arts Commission), Quality: the Shoe Play (Winner, New Works for Young Women, Tulsa University), Café a Brasileira (Disquiet Dzanc Books International Literary Program’s First short Play Award). She is distinguished as a descendentes notaveis (Notable Descendent) for her theatre work by the Government of the Azores, Portugal” [Taken from Where is the Hope? By Chantal Bilodeau].

Links:

https://artistsandclimatechange.com/2017/10/09/launching-into-climate-action/

 

Entered By: Jake Caracciolo