Community Voices Take To The National Mall In Washington DC

Notch Theatre Company presents Wild Home: An American Odyssey, a community event and play reading based on real climate justice.

Wild Home, by Gwen Kingston, tells the histories of coal and oil land and the people who live on it. And on September 13th, 2023, the play will take to the National Mall in Washington, DC where community members from all over the country (Appalachia, Alaska, Colorado) will come together to share their experiences of climate injustice. The play is based on real stories and will be paired with conversation so that these rural community members can speak directly to their urban neighbors and policy makers in the heart of our nation's capitol. The event is FREE and open to the public (but RSVPs are required). In additional to a play reading featuring community members alongside professional actors from New York and Washington DC there will be food, music, and facilitated conversation about climate justice.

Wild Home

By: Gwen Kingston and Notch Theatre Company

Wednesday September 13th, 2023

Event begins at 5:30 with reading at 6:00 pm.

The National Mall

10th St, on the grassy knoll in front of the National History Museum

Washington, DC

Created by Notch Theatre Company and Jessica Kahkoska, Wild Home: An American Odyssey is a national theatre project that brings to the stage the fears, struggles, and experiences of rural communities in areas under serious threat from oil drilling and gas fracking. The program is designed so the plays can travel from rural areas to city centers, as a means of exploring and deepening conversation around climate change, land sovereignty and the industrialization of public lands at a grassroots level and on a national, policymaker scale. ​

In rural communities across the country, Notch Theatre Company has held public story-sharing events where community share their personal stories, Then, professional playwrights crafted plays based on that shared testimony, research, and community feedback. The plays were then performed by professional actors and local community members in outdoor spaces in each community. The plays are paired with facilitated dialogue about efforts to protect our lands from extractive industries. Because they are based on true stories, the plays are marked by an authenticity of character and voice, and a sometimes-disarming honesty. They are very real and very accessible, and have the rare power to touch people on a deeply personal level, galvanizing communities to take action.

Some of the program's Community Partners include SILA (Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic), the Center for Coalfield Justice, Clean Air Council, and Citizens for a Healthy Community among others.

"I'm not afraid of standing up to industry [ ...] But it's been a hundred years since 10,000 union miners took up arms against a corrupt corporation. Maybe this time we can fight with our words. Maybe not so many of us have to die this time. [...] When they call you a redneck, they think they're insulting you. But I think it's something to be proud of." -Wild Home by Gwen Kingston

Wild Home aims to magnify stories about American lands under threat and the people who depend on those areas, specifically at this crucial moment in time when the region faces continued oil and gas development and its damaging effects. The plays not only mobilize grassroots civic engagement in towns all over the nation, they also document each community's unique history and culture at a particularly urgent moment in that community's journey. The program strives to unite and create capacity between disparate communities as it partners with rural towns all across America.

Wild Home has been featured on HowlRound in their Theatre in the Age of Climate Change series, in The Grand Junction Sentinel, Elevation Outdoors, EIN News, Delta County Independent, 3030 Magazine, by Colorado Creative Industries, presented at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival, at the Appalachia Studies conference in West Virginia, at Arctic Fest in Fairbanks, Alaska, and at the Tagiugmi Music + Health Festival in Utqiagvik, Alaska.

Wild Home is made possible by the generosity of Amy Aquino and Drew McCoy, and through grants from the Commonsense Fund, the Network of Ensemble Theaters' (NET/TEN) supported by lead funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment For The Arts, and the Distracted Globe Fund. To learn more, get involved, support the project, or bring Wild Home to your theatre, visit our website: www.notchtheatre.org.

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