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
