Secret of the Seasons
A climate change
“co-opera”
An Original Participatory Musical
By Dr. John Ungerleider
Featuring: Bill Conley, Mike Niekoski, Eben Viens, Ella Bogdonoff, Fabio Ayala, Ashley Storrow, Phoebe Connolly, Tracy Joosten
Consisting of original songs and reflective activities, Secret of the Seasons (SOS) is a 75-minute performance of a musical “co-opera” -- an interactive experience that stimulates audience members to address their relationship to global warming and climate change. The co-opera engages the audience with the external and internal challenges that global climate change is bringing to our lives, and the changes it is forcing upon society and cultural heritage.
EARTH DAY 2019 SHOW AT MARLBORO COLLEGE
The over-whelming reality of global warming understandably causes fear, denial, and paralysis. Music can help us manage psychological challenges to initiating individual and collective response. Rooted in Joanna Macy’s Despair and Empowerment work about the threat of nuclear war, SOS grew from a song written for the December 2009 Copenhagen climate conference. The title song opens with this poignant question about the impact of climate change on Vermont‘s landscape: “Will it still feel like my home, when the leaves don’t turn to red and gold, and the ice doesn’t cover the fishin’ hole?”
GOVERNOR’S INSTITUTE ON CURRENT ISSUES AND YOUTH ACTIVISM - LANDMARK COLLEGE - JULY, 2019
SOS has been performed around New England for:
Academic conferences (Tufts, Antioch)
International peacebuilders (CONTACT)
Religious leaders (NE regional religion & environment conferences)
Secondary & primary school students (Newton/Arlington, MA; VT Governor’s Institute on Current Issues & Youth Activism)
Transition Town groups around Vermont
Vermont Strolling of the Heifers
TO BRING SECRET OF THE SEASONS TO YOUR SCHOOL -
CONTACT: jhungerleider@gmail.com
The audience develops knowledge while engaging analytical, emotional, expressive, and collaborative capacities. Participants assess and share their awareness of climate change impacting our communities, reflect on what they cherish about the seasons as the foundation of culture, learn some climate science, and collectively analyze the psychological and political forces behind societal inaction. Finally, the audience explores potential personal and political actions to sustain hope and respond to this global threat.
Related reviews and press:
KSC welcomes ‘Secret of the Seasons’, The Equinox, March 2018.
Climate Change ‘Co-opera’ comes to the River Garden, The Commons, October, 2017.
