The Song of the Reeds - Dramatising Conservation.

这个项目旨在利用我作为剧作家和研究人员的技能，通过戏剧化他们在解决物种损失和剧烈环境变化的前景方面的工作，改变英国艺术在保护中的作用。这将通过与英格兰东部的两个自然保护区的持续合作来实现：Wyndham Fen（国家信托基金）和Strumpshaw Fen（RSPB），这两个自然保护区都有类似的栖息地，但由具有不同历史和民族的截然不同的组织管理。 该项目的核心问题将是研究戏剧是否可以与保护对话，这些自治组织如何探索引人注目的新形式的公众参与，从而解决马克·科克的论战“我们的地方”（2018）中概述的保护范围内的“巨大鸿沟”，这可能会限制他们的工作，因为它变得至关重要。为了实现这一目标，我将通过开展一个示范性的研究过程，通过档案透镜，心理地理学透镜和人种学透镜，我检查这些不同的湿地，沼泽和芦苇床为基础的保护区的运作提供智力领导。调查结果将出现在三个创新的戏剧演示-第一个由我将召集的写作小组产生，第二个是一个论坛戏剧活动，研究保护区的前景，第三个是一个主要的新的特定地点的表演戏剧，与著名的现场戏剧公司Tangled Feet合作，将在每个保护区巡回演出，这本身将把剧团的工作扩展到新的地区和领域，并为剧本创作创造一种全新的形式和背景。这反过来又将为我撰写一部重要的新作《戏剧作品》提供信息，并导致一场反思戏剧如何为保护服务的研讨会。 在项目期间，我将进行戏剧干预，探索和扩展我自己的戏剧技巧和当前的剧本语言，以解决自然的四面楚歌状态，隐藏的人类保护工作以及我们目前面临的任务的严重性。这些表演将包括以社区为基础的项目，独特的公众参与活动以及与戏剧公司Tangled Feet合作的最终专业项目，所有这些都提供了戏剧如何在保护中使用的范例。这些表演将在住宅区的不同地点提供里程碑，面向公众，对所有人免费;他们将在保护区内进行，根据季节和主题在建筑结构内或外部进行。他们将利用保护区的过去，复活该地区生态和保护历史上至关重要、经常被忽视、甚至被遗忘的人物：亚瑟坦斯利、查尔斯罗斯柴尔德、玛丽埃塔·帕里斯等。他们将为当地人、志愿者、科学家和游客戏剧化地讲述保护历史上不为人知的故事，例如，当当地土地所有者抵制保护区的扩张时，随着Wyndham Vision的推出，出现了敌意。为此，我作为一名专注于冲突的政治剧作家的经验将是无价的。在这个项目结束时，我将与剑桥保护倡议合作举办一个关于“戏剧与保护”的研讨会，从而建立一个新的学术、艺术和公共网络;这将使从事保护工作的科学或面向公众的人与作家和艺术家聚集在一起，研究戏剧化保护困境的最佳实践。

SUMMARY This project seeks to use my skills as a playwright and researcher to transform the role of the arts in conservation within the UK, by dramatising their work in tackling species loss and the prospect of drastic environmental change to come. This will be achieved through sustained engagement with two nature reserves in Eastern England: Wicken Fen (National Trust) and Strumpshaw Fen (RSPB), both with comparable habitats but run by quite distinct organisations with different histories and ethoi. The central question of the project will be an examination of whether drama can speak to conservation, of how these autonomous organisations can explore striking new forms of public engagement and thereby address the 'great divide' within conservation as outlined in Mark Cocker's polemic 'Our Place' (2018) which risks limiting their work just as it becomes vital. To achieve this I will offer intellectual leadership by undertaking an exemplary research process whereby I examine the workings of these distinct wetland, fen and reed-bed based reserves through an archival lens, a psycho-geographic lens and an ethnographic lens. The findings will emerge in three innovative dramatic presentations - the first generated by a writing group I will convene, the second a forum theatre event examining the prospects for the reserves and the third a major new site-specific performance play created in partnership with celebrated site-based theatre company Tangled Feet which will tour each reserve, which in itself will extend the company's work into new regions and territories and create a wholly new form and context for playwriting. This in turn will inform my writing of a major new work theatrical work and lead to a symposium reflecting on how theatre might serve conservation. During the project I will stage theatrical interventions exploring and extending my own dramaturgy and the current language of playwriting to address the embattled state of nature, the hidden human work of conservation and the gravity of the task we currently face. These performances will include community-based projects, unique public engagement events and a final professional project in collaboration with theatre company Tangled Feet, all offering exemplars of how drama can be used within conservation. These performances will offer milestones at different points in the residencies and be public-facing and free for all; they will take place within the reserves, either within their built structures or outside according to season and theme. They will draw on the past of the reserves resurrecting crucial and often neglected, even forgotten figures in the history of ecology and conservation in the region: Arthur Tansley, Charles Rothschild, Marietta Pallis, amongst others. They will dramatize the untold story of the history of conservation by and for locals, volunteers, scientists and visitors, examining for instance the hostility that has emerged with the rolling out of the Wicken Vision as local landowners have resisted the expansion of the reserve. To this end my experience as a political playwright with a focus on conflict will be invaluable. At the close of this project I will hold a symposium on 'Theatre and Conservation' in partnership with Cambridge Conservation Initiative, thus leading on forging a new academic, artistic and public network; this will bring together people working in conservation in a scientific or public-facing role with writers and artists to examine best practice in dramatising the predicaments of conservation.