The Theatre School Hosts Climate Action Festival to Inspire Environmental Action

In continuation of the celebration of its Centennial year, The Theatre School at DePaul University has announced the launch of a Climate Action Festival, running Wednesday, May 14 through Sunday, May 18, 2025.

The festival aims to raise awareness about the urgent issue of climate change through thought-provoking theatrical performances, lectures, and discussions. The lineup of programming will include collaborations with Chicago Humanities, along with Theatre School staged readings and performances.

The centerpiece of the festival features a special lineup with Chicago Humanities on Saturday, May 17. This series of events hosted at The Theatre School seeks to spark conversation and connection around climate change and activism.

Towards a New World: Artists in Conversation on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at 1:00 PM

A panel discussion with four Chicago-based artists exploring the role of art and artists in confronting the current climate crisis. This panel conversation will discuss how art can not only help us share awareness of the climate crisis but, perhaps more importantly, help us envision a new climate future for all. Panelists include:

o Dr. Mika Tosca (she/her) is a trained climate scientist, educator, artist, activist, and humanist who imagines the ways that artists can collaborate with climate scientists to better communicate and conduct climate science research.

o Jim Duignan (he/him) is an artist and professor at DePaul University where he also serves as the Chair of Visual Art Education. In 1995, he formed the Stockyard Institute as a civic artist project in the Back of the Yards community of south Chicago, which was influenced by community artists, revolutionaries, local activities, and radical teachers. o Kristin Idaszak (she/they) is an internationally produced playwright, dramaturg, and producer whose recent work focuses on the intersection of climate change, gender, and queerness and is a professor at The Theatre School. o Cydney Lewis (she/her) is a multimedia artist focused on imagining multidimensional landscapes created from

everyday objects that reflect the world we live in, consume, and fill with things. Tickets are available on Chicago Humanities website.

Catherine Coleman Flowers: On Activism and Finding Hope on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at 4:00 PM Catherine Coleman Flowers, one of the leading environmental justice activists of our times, has dedicated her life to fighting for the most vulnerable communities who have been deprived of the basic civil right to a clean, safe, and sustainable environment. Drawing inspiration from her newest book, Holy Ground, Flowers illuminates the most pressing issues of the moment: climate justice, human rights, rural poverty, reproductive justice, and racialized disinvestment in the South. Join the 2025 TIME Earth Award recipient as she equips us with clarity, lights a way forward, and rouses us to action – for ourselves, our communities, and our planet. A book signing will follow this program. Tickets are available on Chicago Humanities website.

The Trials by Dawn King on Saturday, May 17, 2025 at 7:30 PM Join us for a staged reading of The Trials, a gripping and provocative play by award-winning playwright Dawn King, directed by Theatre School faculty, Patrice Egleston. Set in a near-future world ravaged by climate catastrophe, The Trials imagines a courtroom where the next generation holds today’s adults accountable for their role in environmental destruction. Did they recycle? Fly too often? Eat meat? In this high-stakes reckoning, the jurors — teenagers who have inherited a world in crisis — decide the fate of those who lived in excess. Timely, urgent, and unflinching, The Trials forces us to ask: what do we owe the future? Tickets are free and are available through The Theatre School website.

Additionally, The Theatre School is also hosting a performance run of The Contingency Plan: Resilience. Set in the UK in the near future, Resilience is the second in a pair of plays by Steve Waters. After flooding that destroyed Bristol, a desperate government wants drastic solutions to prevent the loss of the entire eastern coast. Resilience is also directed by Patrice Egleston, opening on Wednesday, May 14, running until Sunday, May 18. The performances are at 7:30 PM with a matinee performance at 2:00 PM on Sunday. Tickets are free and are available through The Theatre School website.

In conjunction with this performance, The Theatre School is also hosting a series of short 10-minute play readings which will be presented on an alternating schedule Wednesday, May 14 through Sunday, May 18.

Aspects of Intelligence by Sage Reid Priest (Theatre School BFA Acting ’26), directed by Dylan Young (Theatre School BFA Theatre Arts ’27) and Moon Zoo by Ellie Thoni, directed by Max Ching (Theatre School BFA Theatre Arts ’26) will be presented on Wednesday, May 14 at 6:30 PM and Saturday, May 17 at 1:00 PM.

Moon Snails by Cam Michles, directed by Sofia Olona (Theatre School BFA Theatre Arts ’27) and The Talking Point by Mathew Green, directed by Joseph Frantzen (Theatre School BFA Playwriting ’25) will be presented on Thursday, May 15 at 6:30 PM and Saturday, May 17 at 6:30 PM.

Why Broth-er by Chris Lawson (Theatre School BFA Playwriting ’25), directed by Mimi Newcomb (Theatre School BFA Theatre Arts ’26) and endlings by Julia Cerqueira, directed by Mads Wren (Theatre School BFA Theatre Technology ’28) will be presented on Friday, May 16 at 6:30 PM and Sunday, May 18 at 1:00 PM. Seating is limited. Tickets are free and are available through The Theatre School website.

All playwrights featured in the reading series are current university students chosen from a national contest which is supported, in part, by the Vincentian Endowment Fund of DePaul University. Established in 1992 through a gift from the Congregation of the Mission, the Vincentian Endowment Fund (VEF) was designed to enhance the Catholic, Vincentian Mission of DePaul University. The Division of Mission and Ministry annually provides DePaul students, staff, and faculty with the opportunity to apply for grant dollars awarded through VEF. VEF grants in the past have supported such projects as: faculty research, hosting conferences or events on campus, and social justice and community service initiatives in Chicago.

Patrice Egleston, the coordinator of the Climate Action New Play Festival, said: “The idea for this climate action festival was born in a meeting of incoming Theatre School students who were asked, ‘Who here is worried about the climate situation?’ When all raised their hand, the speaker said, ‘Use your storytelling to move people about this. One, it feels better to do something about a problem than just worry about it, and two, because taking action builds resilience in each of us and we need resilience.’ Every component of this festival is an action taken by a concerned student or faculty in order to use storytelling to move people towards taking greater climate action. Together, they form a communal response to our concerns about the future of this Earth. We are very excited to expand this conversation through partnership with the Chicago Humanities Festival.”

Alexandra Varriano (Theatre School MFA Acting ‘26) is the Assistant to the Festival Coordinator, Madison Wendel (Theatre School BFA Theatre Management ’27) is Production Coordinator, Kacey Lindeman (Theatre School BFA Theatre Arts ’25) is House Manager for the readings.

As a premiere training ground for the next generation of theatre artists, The Theatre School at DePaul University is committed to fostering creativity, community engagement, and social responsibility through the arts. This festival seeks to combine the transformative power of the arts with the urgency of climate action.

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