This piece is part of an exhibit called “The Role of the Artist,” which will be displayed in Times Square in conjunction with the United Nations Summit of the Future taking place in NY City in September 2024. My image, titled “Staging the Anthropocene,” was inspired by the work of Climate Change Theatre Action and is meant to suggest that theatre has an important role to play in offering – even under the most devastating conditions -- a communal space where the realities of the climate crisis can be investigated. In crafting this image, I imagined a lush, red theatrical curtain strung up among the trees of a burnt-out forest where smoke from a recent wildfire still hangs heavy in the air. At the same time, the open curtain creates a space that invites new imaginings, scripts that – in being acted out – might embody our hard-earned, most courageous dreams. It’s a space that embraces even the wild improbability of a lone tulip springing up from the charred forest floor, like our hearts' desires, to have its say. Listen! The earth is speaking!