Review: PLAYS FOR THE PLANET Takes on Climate Concerns with Nine Short Plays

The Missouri Coalition for the Environment and That Uppity Theatre Company collaborated to produce PLAYS FOR THE PLANET, a program of 9 short vignettes to increase awareness about current climate issues. The hour-long program was directed by That Uppity Theatre Company’s Joan Lipkin and St. Louis based directors Sami Ginoplos and Bekah Harbison.  

PLAYS FOR THE PLANET takes on multiple topics including conservation, littering, global warming, food supply in the wild, activism, and dating people with differing political views. The vignettes successfully used humor and dramatic conflict to increase the audience’s climate stream of consciousness, while also taking on several other non-climate social issues. 

The production, billed as a staged reading, featured actors working from scripts but giving fully blocked, emotive performances. The company of talented actors included Tyson Cole, Kate Durbin, Steve Lewis, Mitchell Manar, Don McClendon, Tammy O’Donnell, Jody Stockton, and Ann Truka.  

Lipkin penned 3 of the nine plays including “A&B’s Excellent Spring Break Adventure,” “About That Chocolate Bar,” and “That Painting at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.” Her shorts, especially “A&B’s...” challenged the audience to let their conscious be their guide when it comes to the climate crisis. Lipkin’s writing and the 6 other pieces by Chantal Bilodeau, Mindi Dickstein, Marcia Johnson, Nicholas Billions, Stephen Sewell, and Kevin Matthew Wong increased knowledge to inspire activism.  

Bilodeau’s short play “Homosapiens,” directed by Joan Lipkin, was a droll look at an extinct generation of humans. The humorous twist in the script had the actors looking upon the audience as an artifact in a museum several decades into the future. Lipkin’s playful direction milked Bilodeau’s creative script for hearty laughs. "Homosapiens” set the stage for an hour of entertaining and thought-provoking theater.  

In addition to “Homosapiens,” “Single Use,” “The Reason,” and Lipkin’s 3 plays all showed promise to be expanded as part of fully staged future performances. These 6 plays benefited from the engaging performances of Don McClendon, Tyson Cole, and Ann Truka. McClendon was particularly amusing and evocative in his 3 roles, and Cole and Truka had phenomenal chemistry as a couple on an awkward first-date in “Single Use.” 

Condensing the program to 3 or 4 of the best received plays with script expansion and fully realized performances would create a provocative evening of stimulating theater. Today’s full-capacity matinee was attended by dozens of staunch environmental activists who responded to the short plays with palpable emotion. The real opportunity for the Missouri Coalition for the Environment and The Uppity Theatre Company is to fill an auditorium with a diverse audience whose beliefs about climate change would be challenged by their art.   

There were two staged readings of PLAYS FOR THE PLANET at Noon and 7:30 PM on Thursday, April 17, 2025. The Noon presentation was at High-Low Coffee House and the evening presentation is being held at Metro Theater, both on Washington Avenue in Grand Center. Plans are underway to explore fully staged performances. The company is interested in community, civic groups, and cultural institutions. .  

PHOTOS COURTESY OF That Uppity Theatre Company