Vancouver-based theatre company gives climate crisis a starring role, wins $3K in inaugural awards
CTV
The Only Animal Theatre Society has received two inaugural awards this month – the Rewilding Arts Prize from the David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine, as well as the Green Award from the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres – in recognition of the company’s efforts to strengthen the bond between humans and nature through art.
A Vancouver-based theatre company is in the national spotlight for using art as a tool for climate action.
The Only Animal Theatre Society has received two inaugural awards this month – the Rewilding Arts Prize from the David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine, as well as the Green Award from the Professional Association of Canadian Theatres – in recognition of the company’s efforts to strengthen the bond between humans and nature through art.
While the company has existed for 17 years, founder Kendra Fanconi believes there’s more cultural appetite than ever for art that invites audiences to help make the world a better place.
“So many people are suffering from climate anxiety and climate grief and it doesn't really help to read more articles and get more terrified – people freeze up,” Fanconi told CTV News.
“I think what can help is what art does, which is to take people together collectively on a journey to new places, to transformation. I think that art – and theatre, particularly – has so many delights that we can offer. We have humour, beauty and magic, and we can bring those things to this very difficult, heavy story that we’re living through to help us process and understand a new orientation to it,” she said.
More than 550 artists applied for the 2022 Rewilding Arts Prize, but only six were selected.
The Only Animal is one of two B.C. artists that made the cut, and each will be awarded $2,000 and be profiled in Rewilding Magazine.
