Earth, Water, Poison, Hope: California in 2023
Principal Investigator:
- Katherine Brokaw
Graduate Fellow Team Members:
- Mariam Ohanlelham
- Savion Ellis
- Samatha Tucker
- Shaira Vargas
Community Partners:
- Yosemite Park rangers, farm workers, community organizers, business owners, and other Central Valley and Sierra foothill residents.
Project Summary:
The project’s objectives were: 1) to produce an original work of theatre about environmental injustices in the Central Valley, 2) to conduct oral history interviews with people from the Central Valley in order to generate material for the play, and 3) to photograph ecological changes caused by climate change. Katherine Brokaw and her team of graduate students conducted interviews reaching from Bakersfield to Modesto, collecting the stories of the people within the Central Valley affected by extreme heat, fire, flooding, pesticides, unjust zoning laws, air pollution, valley fever, and environmental racism. They also collaborated with Ranger Scott Gediman of Yosemite National Park, interviewing several park rangers and photographing areas damaged by climate change in Yosemite. The project culminated in a play production that was performed at UC Merced and Playhouse Merced. The creation of the production itself involved graduate students, undergraduate students, and community members.
Project Outcomes:
YouTube Video
Performances
- Cortez, Bella, Kat Corti, Anaeh Graham, Savion Ellis, Juan Luzuriaga, Sabreena Niles, Miguel Partida Cisneros, Sidney Suarez Gordon, Juan Torres, along with all members of ENG 167/GASP, and 103Q/IH 205. Earth, Water, Poison, Hope: California in 2023. Directed by Katherine Steele Brokaw, Juan Luzuriaga, Miguel Partida Cisneros, Sidney Suarez Gordon, and Juan Torres, University of California Merced, December 9, 2023.
- Cortez, Bella, Kat Corti, Anaeh Graham, Savion Ellis, Juan Luzuriaga, Sabreena Niles, Miguel Partida Cisneros, Sidney Suarez Gordon, Juan Torres, along with all members of ENG 167/GASP, and 103Q/IH 205. Earth, Water, Poison, Hope: California in 2023. Directed by Katherine Steele Brokaw, Juan Luzuriaga, Miguel Partida Cisneros, Sidney Suarez Gordon, and Juan Torres. Earth, Water, Poison, Hope: California in 2023, Playhouse Merced, December 10, 2023.
Archive
- Forthcoming Calisphere archive
Publications
- Brokaw, Katherine. “Care, Community, and Environmental Justice: Shakespearean Eco-Theater,” in Teaching Shakespeare in Tempestuous Times: Titanic Optimism, edited by Sharon O’Dair, Timothy Francisco, and Craig Dionne. Arden Bloomsbury (forthcoming).
Presentations
- Brokaw, Katherine. “Shakespeare in Community,” International Shakespeare Conference, Shakespeare Institute, Stratford-on-Avon, UK, July 2024.
- Brokaw, Katherine. “Shakespeare in Community,” University of Texas, February 2025.
Cast Photo
