Australian
Youth Theatre Inspired by Council of All Beings 2010
from John Seed January 2011. Last month, while getting ready to facilitate a Council of All Beings in Denmark, West Australia, I had the good fortune to meet Stuart Ashbil, Stuart.Ashbil@det.wa.edu.au a teacher and "sustainability coordinator" from Bridgetown High School. He was there with some 16 year old students who had just performed a play that they had written called "Perup Survivors" which was inspired by the Council of All Beings. It is a wonderful piece of theatre which these students have already performed for 9 schools and a Teachers' College. Both the play and the method of producing it could easily be adapted by other schools in other bioregions.
STUART'S DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNCIL OF ALL BEINGS WHICH INSPIRED THIS PLAY
PERUP SUSTAINABILITY FIELD TRIP REPORT
PERFORMANCE PROPOSAL TO PERTH SCHOOLS
2 VIDEOS OF THIS PROJECT . THE 2ND INCLUDES COUNCIL OF ALL BEINGS FOOTAGE
Stuart Ashbil:
Perup Survivors script written by me to share a sense of our Perup Fieldtrip
magical exprience. The work was strongly informed by Helene Fisher (Council
Of All Beings), Marnie Orr (Bodyweather), Karen Heathey (Puppetry) and Samya
Jabbour(Deep ecology beings research). Samya`s research addressed principles
of deep ecology as living in some 17 species in the Perup region.I can share
this research with you.
Audience reaction ranged from polite and possible genuine concern to total disinterest.
Denial was common. And i would say our most empathetic audiences were youth
younger than 10. The adolescents seemed drugged upon their consumer comforts.
Teachers got it but seem non committal to being part of a solution. Business
as usual. And i wonder how we might more successfully reach the students?