Theatres of Compost: Performance and Ecology for the Anthropocene

Theatres of Compost places ecology at the center of performance scholarship and criticism, and it positions performance as a key cultural process for bringing about a more just and sustainable future.

Examining a unique archive of agricultural performances—plays, theatre collectives, and activist rituals that engage questions of how humans use the land and produce food—this book lays out a framework for how theatre and performance contribute to a cultural shift toward ecological awareness. Theatre of compost is performance that directly engages ideologies of exploitation, mass production, and accumulation. Instead of discarding the forms, themes, methodologies, and histories that have perpetuated ecological destruction, the case studies in this book show that what has come before can be composted: broken down and reconstituted as the fertile foundation for a more livable life in the Anthropocene. Theatres of Compost will appeal to the new but quickly growing subfield of performance and ecology. As the climate and ecological crises worsen, more scholars and students in theatre and performance will be searching for ways to make their work meaningful and relevant.

This book will be a helpful resource for graduate-level courses in performance studies, performance and ecology, and the environmental humanities.

1146933014
Theatres of Compost: Performance and Ecology for the Anthropocene

Theatres of Compost places ecology at the center of performance scholarship and criticism, and it positions performance as a key cultural process for bringing about a more just and sustainable future.

Examining a unique archive of agricultural performances—plays, theatre collectives, and activist rituals that engage questions of how humans use the land and produce food—this book lays out a framework for how theatre and performance contribute to a cultural shift toward ecological awareness. Theatre of compost is performance that directly engages ideologies of exploitation, mass production, and accumulation. Instead of discarding the forms, themes, methodologies, and histories that have perpetuated ecological destruction, the case studies in this book show that what has come before can be composted: broken down and reconstituted as the fertile foundation for a more livable life in the Anthropocene. Theatres of Compost will appeal to the new but quickly growing subfield of performance and ecology. As the climate and ecological crises worsen, more scholars and students in theatre and performance will be searching for ways to make their work meaningful and relevant.

This book will be a helpful resource for graduate-level courses in performance studies, performance and ecology, and the environmental humanities.

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Theatres of Compost: Performance and Ecology for the Anthropocene

Theatres of Compost: Performance and Ecology for the Anthropocene

by Abby Schroering
Theatres of Compost: Performance and Ecology for the Anthropocene

Theatres of Compost: Performance and Ecology for the Anthropocene

by Abby Schroering

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$56.99 

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Overview

Theatres of Compost places ecology at the center of performance scholarship and criticism, and it positions performance as a key cultural process for bringing about a more just and sustainable future.

Examining a unique archive of agricultural performances—plays, theatre collectives, and activist rituals that engage questions of how humans use the land and produce food—this book lays out a framework for how theatre and performance contribute to a cultural shift toward ecological awareness. Theatre of compost is performance that directly engages ideologies of exploitation, mass production, and accumulation. Instead of discarding the forms, themes, methodologies, and histories that have perpetuated ecological destruction, the case studies in this book show that what has come before can be composted: broken down and reconstituted as the fertile foundation for a more livable life in the Anthropocene. Theatres of Compost will appeal to the new but quickly growing subfield of performance and ecology. As the climate and ecological crises worsen, more scholars and students in theatre and performance will be searching for ways to make their work meaningful and relevant.

This book will be a helpful resource for graduate-level courses in performance studies, performance and ecology, and the environmental humanities.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781040388358
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 06/30/2025
Series: Routledge Studies in Theatre, Ecology, and Performance
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 194
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Abby Schroering (she/her) earned a doctorate in Theatre and Performance from Columbia University in the City of New York. Her writingcan be found in Modern Drama, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, American Theatre Magazine, Public Books, and elsewhere.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Theatres of Compost
1. “some of the food is twigs”: A Compost Dramaturgy
2: In Lak Ech: Compost Performance in the Chicano Movement
3: Wild Home: Notes on Wild Theatre
4: Seeds of Resistance: Toward an Interspecies Collectivity
Epilogue: Performance All the Way Down

Index

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