Earthy: An Ecosex Bootcamp (A Theater Piece)
Center for Sex & Culture, San Francisco, CA
June 13-23, 2013
Inspired by our punk friends in Spain, this theater piece was focused on radical, militant environmental activism and infused with more of an edgy esthetic than the show before it, Dirty Sexecology. Patty Gallagher directed us again. Earthy was framed as a queer bootcamp-with us leading a rotating bevy of ecosexy, hardcore boot camp counselors made up of some actors, a few of Beth’s students, friends, friends of friends, and amateurs who answered our call for collaborators.
Earthy premiered in Queer Cultural Center’s National Queer Arts Festival, and was presented at the Center for Sex & Culture. The premise of Earthy was that we were fun loving, queer punk Earth lovers in the fight against Global Energy Corp. The costume maker for Shakespeare Santa Cruz, Christina Dinkle, was between shows, so we hired her to design some costumes. We gathered a group of about 15 performers to be a part of the show, we rehearsed a couple days with them, and ran eight shows over two weeks (June 13—23, 2013).
We know we are not actors, nor do we want to be. Pretending to get arrested for doing a sleeping dragon protest where protestors lock themselves to a strategically placed barrel of cement felt disingenuous to us. Staging an arrest did demonstrate to audiences what environmental activists actually go through, but it felt like we were doing fake environmental activism. We were acting out our fantasy of being brave activists without really risking anything. Besides, getting arrested is not really our calling. We also realized that a show about being outdoors, and helping the environment that requires a lot of electricity for theater lighting was counterproductive. We no longer wanted to act like we were outdoors—we wanted to be outdoors. We decided to quit using projectors, sound systems, and electric lights in our theatrical performances from that point forward. What better way to walk our talk than to actually talk and walk in the great outdoors? We stopped performing Earthy in order to do our Ecosex Walking Tour.
Conway Hall, London, England, July 23, 2013
Just after a week-long Ecosex Workshop and an Ecosex Symposium in Colchester England, we took a train to London and did the European premiere of Earthy for one performance only. Some of the participants from the workshop, most of whom were artists and dancers, performed with us after just a couple of hours of rehearsal. It was wild, crazy, and total chaos, and also lots of fun.
Some blurbage from the show invitation…
The Conway Collective in association with Conway Hall presents Earthy; An Ecosex Bootcamp. When Beth and Annie learn about the environmental crises, they see red and go green! They come out as “ecosexuals,” act up, get dirty, do a bondage inspired protest, marry the Earth, and make eco-activism a little more sexy, fun and diverse. Wear your boots!!
PERFORMERS: Kesley Cage, Morticia Catherine, Gabriela Daris, Grace Gelder, Adriana Pegorer, Maria Prieto, Catherine Newell-Piper, Caroline Waters, Roxanne Werter, Helena Wilson
Produced by Luke Dixon and the Theatre Nomad Team
Directed by Patty Gallagher
