about the farmland in Eastern Oregon and
Washington, so the play feels like it’s set in
our backyard — a large, open, dangerous
backyard.
Swanson says she didn’t know anything
about Eastern Washington when she started
reading the book. “I have a fascination
with farms, our relationship to land and to
the food that we grow,” she said in a phone
interview from her home in Austin, Texas.
“The play’s really about a mistake that was
made, that we’re working out together.”
Both Lewis and Swanson say their plays
weren’t written with any environmental
didacticism in mind. The environment
“wasn’t my agenda,” Swanson said. “I fell
in love with the people, with the families,
and I had strong connections to the idea of
home, the place that people run to and run
away from.”
Lewis,
whose
biology-minded
characters know whereof they speak
about extinction, said, “I think [Song’s]
ecological concerns are talking mostly
about our interconnectedness as human
beings, how we are to each other, how
much we depend on each other.” Song
director Theresa Dudeck, a Ph.D. student
at the UO, said that the messages of the
play connect personal loss to the larger
world. “Losing someone we love is as fi nal
and as defi nite as losing a species,” she
said, and Song “interweaves it so that it’s
not didactic.”
Dudeck also talked about the river
theme that ended up being part of the scene
design. Scenic designer Jarvis Jahner said
that creating a design that took into account
the needs of both plays — and of the many
other events that take place during the
conference in the Hope Theatre space —
was a bit of a challenge. And, of course, the
design needed to acknowledge the purpose
of the festival and symposium, which
Theresa May talks about as something
that can help infl uence theater practice in
a more green or environmentally aware
direction.
“We talked about how both shows
contain fl ashbacks and are evoking
memories,” Jahner said. “We used that
idea of memory to create set pieces that
are reused materials; no new wood was
purchased for this play.” The set, which
gestures quite clearly at the style of artist
Louise Nevelson, contains all kinds of
broken furniture pieces from the UO’s
scene shop.
Jahner said that working on the set for
these shows has already infl uenced his
thinking about design for other shows.
“You know, we could build a huge set
made of rainforest wood, or we could take
a minimalistic approach, get creative with
the scenery,” he said.
The casts contain familiar faces like
Mary Buss, who starred in the Lord
Leebrick’s Rabbit Hole earlier this season,
Ellen Chace and William (Bill) Campbell,
along with students and other community
members. Song of Extinction opens Friday,
May 22, and plays twice more during the
festival. Atomic Farmgirl opens Saturday,
May 23, and also plays twice more,
closing out the festival with a matinee on
Sunday, May 31. The playwrights will be
at talkbacks after the productions during
the fi rst weekends, and there are also
DARRELL KUNITOMI AND LORI YEGHIAYAN IN
SONG OF EXTINCTION ONSTAGE IN L.A.
talkback sessions scheduled for the other
performances.
Of course, the plays are only a part of
the larger festival. Theresa May laughed
when she thought about when the next
Earth Matters fest might take place. “There
probably won’t be a symposium!” she
said — the symposium contains almost
everything, everyone and every topic
that can be related to critical thought and
action on ecologically aware theater. On
Friday, May 29, a day of discussions and
performances centering on indigenous
peoples incorporates a panel on the future
of the Klamath watershed, following a play
reading of the Klamath Theatre Project’s
Salmon Is Everything. For high school
students, a two-hour panel about greening
high school theaters runs on the night of
Wednesday, May 27.
Then there are the tall trees of the
conference. Keynote speaker Una
Chaudhuri, an NYU prof who writes about
human relationships with animals, shares
the spotlight (though not the stage) with
performance artist Rachel Rosenthal, whose
face graces our cover and whose legendary
status can hardly be described (learn more
at www.rachelrosenthal.org). José Cruz
González, an award-winning playwright
and director, leads a playwriting workshop
and readings from that workshop. Oregon
Shakespeare Festival Artistic Director Bill
Rauch joins artistic directors from Seattle
and Portland, with the Lord Leebrick’s
Craig Willis representing Eugene as they
discuss the theater of place.
During the ecodrama festival, currents
of despair, grief, healing and hope combine
PLAYWRIGHT AND DIRECTOR JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
LEADS A PLAYWRITING WORKSHOP
with a push to think critically about what,
exactly, theater means and how it can effect
change, refl ect on our history and connect
us to each other. “The theater has been
behind in this effort,” May said. Now, she’s
trying to jump-start a national conversation
on theater and the environment, all from
the environs of the new Miller Theatre
Complex. It begins here.
ew
For more information about schedule and tickets, visit
www.uoregon.edu/~ecodrama or call 346-4363. A full
pass for the festival runs $75 for nonstudents and $45
for students, and some individual workshops, perfor-
mances and panels have single tickets for sale. Watch
for interviews with various artists and reviews of the
plays online at blogs.eugeneweekly.com, and follow us
on Twitter at twitter.com/eugeneweekly for up-to-the-
minute info.
ATOMIC FARMGIRL PLAYWRIGHT
C. DENBY SWANSON
SONG OF EXTINCTION PLAYWRIGHT EM LEWIS
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