Carol Brammer (founder and director of Clifton Performance Theatre and Liberty Exhibition Hall) and Kate Nicole Hoffman (postdoc at the UC Center for Public Engagement with Science (PEWS)) have recently been awarded an ArtsWave grant to develop and implement a project that transforms stories about Cincinnati’s environmental history and landscape into a theatrical showcase.
This collaboration between the Clifton Community Players and PEWS will engage highschoolers in an innovative form of environmental education and engagement through theatre. Using a form of documentary theatre called the Verbatim technique, students at the School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) will be guided through the process of bringing Cincinnati’s environmental history to life. In performing this history through the interpretation and embodiment of local environmental stories, these students will strengthen their artistic skills while using knowledge of Cincinnati’s past to reflect on their place in the city’s environmental future.
To gather local stories, students will interview community members with relevant lived experience. Interviews will then be transformed into monologues through a form of documentary theatre called the Verbatim technique, in which stories are, as much as possible, faithfully captured in the voice and physicality of the storyteller. This technique not only provides an exciting challenge for theatre students, but also highlights the voices of local experts. Monologues will be performed back to back in a showcase performance, and will be accompanied by a “factual narrator” who will provide a short description of the historical facts for context before each story.
The showcase will be performed three times: for teachers and highschoolers at the SCPA, for faculty and college students at the University of Cincinnati, and for the public at the Liberty Exhibition Hall. The shows will include a “talk-back” portion, where audience members are invited to engage with the actors and storytellers in conversation about Cincinnati’s environmental history and future.
Call for Stories
The Clifton Community Players and the UC Center for Public Engagement with Science (PEWS) are looking for stories and storytellers related to Greater Cincinnati’s environmental history. Chosen storytellers will receive a stipend of $100, in gratitude for their time and expertise.
We are particularly interested in storytellers with personal experience relating to some aspect of Cincinnati’s environmental history or landscape, broadly construed. Stories may include formative memories of certain Cincinnati plants, animals, or landscapes, experiences with pollution and environmental disaster (the Cincinnati Barrel Company fire, the effects of petroleum soot from polluting tire companies, etc.), or the transformation of environmental landmarks and spaces (Fernald Park, Mill Creek, the Ohio River, the Cincinnati Parks system, etc.) Stories should be roughly 5-7 minutes long when told out loud. We are interested in storytellers of all ages and from all walks of life.
Students and teachers will work together to transform these stories into a theatrical performance through a specific form of documentary theatre called the Verbatim technique. Storytellers can choose to have their names shared or remain anonymous for these performances.
Please use the following form to submit an idea for a story to be featured for this project. The form asks for some general information, including your contact information so that we can follow up to learn more about you and your story and answer any questions you may have. This conversation can be held by Zoom or over the phone. Chosen storytellers will then be interviewed by 1-2 students (accompanied by facilitators), have their story recorded (only for use by students and facilitators), and ultimately have their stories featured in upcoming performances. All stories may be featured in an anthology or otherwise shared out with the community, with the storytellers’ permission.
Please feel free to reach out to engagingscience@uc.edu with any questions!