Ecotheater for the Global Village

Environmental Dramas featured in "EcoTheater for the Global Village"

"EcoTheater for the Global Village" features three plays that confront environmental issues from an adult as well as a childs perspective -G. Thomson Frasers, "Giants in the Wilderness," and two childrens theater dramas, MacKenzie Louise Coffmans, "Forest Hideout," and Rebekah Lovat Frasers "The Tree and the Village."

Harold Wood, education chairman for the environmentally-focused Sierra Club, was the inspiration behind the book. He contacted G. Thomson Fraser about her play, "Giants in the Wilderness and suggested that it be published, along with childrens dramas with an environmental theme.

"Giants in the Wilderness" features John Muir, the Scottish naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club, and his role in the birth of the environmental movement in the late 19th century. "Wilderness" contains a Forestry Chautauqua Prologue and post-play Epilogue by Joseph K. Smith which can be used to open a discussion with the audience. The drama was funded by a grant from the Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities, a state program of the National Endowment for the Humanities, and matching funds from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Managements Conservation Trust Fund. "Wilderness" toured as part of the 1997 Centennial Celebration of the Massachusetts State Forest and Park System.

Drama critic Richard Duckett, writing for the Worcester (MA) Telegram and Gazette, characterized "Wilderness" as a history lesson. "By 1896, the destruction of Americas forest wilderness had become so rampant many people believed that unless something was done soon, there wouldnt be any wilderness left... Three naturalists - John Muir, Charles Sprague Sargent and Gifford Pinchot - had divergent opinions on the best way to save them."

MacKenzie Louise Coffmans childrens theater piece, "Forest Hideout" is the story of two children, a brother and sister, who take matters into their own hands to save the family farm. Coffman is a fifth grade student in Western Massachusetts. A televised production of her play is planned for the Summer 2009 with Coffman playing the role of Isabel.

Rebekah Lovat Frasers "The Tree and the Village" is an environmentally instructive fable, a mythological saga that engages the audience and is a visual feast for children of all ages. Lovat Fraser is a graduate in Film Studies from Yale University and mother of MacKenzie.

In the Preface to EcoTheater for the Global Village, G. Thomson Fraser observes, "We humans have taken center stage in a worldwide drama to preserve the planet that only the gods of antiquity might find amusing... Theater is now challenged to take up environmental global concerns, to serve as a tool for our continued survival."

Playwright G. Thomson Fraser is a professor, journalist, poet and novelist. Her nonfiction novel, "In the Claw of the Tiger," which is based on the true story of a survivor of the Bataan Death March and POW camps in the Philippines and Japan, was published in 2007. Fraser holds a BA in Theater and Communications and an MFA in Playwriting

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