Director Molly Sturges used a United States Artists fellowship she was awarded in 2009 to explore what connects us to one another and to the communities with whom we share the planet- with her goal of contributing to the conversation about climate change through artistic expression. The result is a musical that features a coming-of-age story about a boy and girl from opposite clans that come together to save the world from a terrible disaster. The story follows “the power of the rock [coal]” and how it transformed our society from “us belonging to the world” to “the world belonging to us."

The trailer is out and "invites us into a shared imaginative response to our current paradox.” COAL (Creative Organizing And Leadership) fellows will partner with local organizations in each city that hosts the musical--which will premiere in February 2014--to indentify projects that accomplish various goals:

• Catalyze critical partnerships to foster and sustain energy built from the project
• Engage the critical issues related to coal and energy
• Develop resource networks and materials for audiences and participants
• Personalize and localize elements of the project
• Introduce the project to their city/community
• Facilitate workshops
• Conduct storytelling events
• Create on-going action plans with partners

In addition to partnering with local organizations and collaborating on projects- COAL will connect with each city/community and invites them to respond to the musical through co-designed creative workshops. The creators provide community productions kits with the coal of reaching small, rural or divided communities – they can receive support, packets and optional training opportunities.

The musical and grassroots efforts are intended to reach an inter-generation audience with varied cross-cultural and economic divides, and differing perspectives – in hopes of uniting the nation through the story of climate change.

Photo sourced from COAL