100 Plays to Save the World - by Elizabeth Freestone & Jeanie O'Hare (Paperback)

About the Book

"A guide to one hundred plays drawn from around the world, written by one hundred different playwrights, addressing the most urgent and important issue of our time: the climate crisis. The plays discussed in this guide span a wide variety of styles, genres, and cast sizes-all speaking to an aspect of the climate emergency. Encompassing both famous plays and lesser-known works, the selections include recent writing that explicitly wrestles with these issues, as well as classic texts in which these resonances now ring out clearly. Each play is explored in a concise essay illuminating key themes and highlighting its contribution to our understanding of climate issues, with sections including Resources, Energy, Migration, Responsibility, Fightback, and Hope. 100 Plays to Save the World is a book to provoke as well as inspire-to start conversations, to inform debate, to challenge our thinking, and to be a launch pad for future productions. It is an empowering resource for theatre directors, producers, teachers, youth leaders, and writers looking for plays that speak to our present moment. Above all, it is a call to arms: to step up, think big, and unleash theatre's power to imagine a better future into existence. The book includes a foreword by Daze Aghaji, a leading youth climate justice activist"--

Book Synopsis

This book is a guide to one hundred plays addressing the most urgent and important issue of our time: the climate crisis

100 Plays to Save the World is a book to provoke as well as inspire-to start conversations, inform debate, challenge our thinking, and be a launchpad for future productions. Above all, it is a call to arms--to step up, think big, and unleash theatre's power to imagine a better future into being.

Each play is explored with an essay illuminating key themes in climate issues: Resources, Energy, Migration, Responsibility, Fightback, and Hope.

100 Plays to Save the World is an empowering resource for theatre directors, producers, teachers, youth leaders, and writers looking for plays that speak to our present moment.

Review Quotes

"This book is a kind of miracle, a thrilling compendium of plays that speak to the enormous environmental crisis of our time. Freestone and O'Hare have exquisite taste and brilliant analysis, illuminating plays I've never heard of, as well as plays I thought I knew. 100 Plays to Save the World should be required reading for everyone who believes in the power of theatre to move the world; I will certainly never plan a season again without referring to it." -Oskar Eustis, Artistic Director, The Public Theater

"This book is dynamite. Through lively play analysis and accessible environmental know-how, it will galvanise theatre-makers to step up and artists to be heard. Theatre must play its part in the climate fight and this book shows us how." --Kwame Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director, Young Vic Theatre

"An invaluable guide that deals with the environmental crisis head-on." --Broadway World

"An unexpected pleasure... The writing is always cogent but urgent... The list of playwrights is both dazzling and diverse... In addition to finding introductions to unknown plays and reminders of some classics, readers will also learn a great deal about the climate crisis, often viewed from unexpected perspectives... a chilling read that is nevertheless both worthy and worthwhile. It is one of those books that should be put on the desks of government ministers around the world." --British Theatre Guide

"A fascinating, brutally honest collection of essays demonstrating the power theatre has to predict, dissect and shout about the climate emergency... this book could easily be dry, but it is anything but. It is an engaging and stimulating delve into the breadth of incredible playwriting out there that can contribute to the fight of activists around the world." --Everything Theatre

About the Author

Elizabeth Freestone is a theatre director, creative consultant, and environmentalist. She has directed plays for Royal Shakespeare Company, Manchester Royal Exchange, Citizens Theatre Glasgow, Young Vic, and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory.

Jeanie O'Hare is a short-story writer, playwright, and project consultant for theatre and film. She has worked for Royal Court Theatre, Royal Shakespeare Company, Druid Theatre, and was Chair of Playwriting at Yale School of Drama. She was also the Director of New Work Development at The Public Theater in New York.