The Song of the Reeds - Dramatising Conservation.

这个项目寻求利用我作为剧作家和研究人员的技能来改变英国境内艺术在保护方面的角色，通过戏剧化他们在解决物种丧失和即将到来的剧烈环境变化的前景方面的工作。这将通过与英格兰东部的两个自然保护区持续合作来实现：威肯沼泽(国家信托)和斯特伦肖沼泽(RSPB)，这两个自然保护区都有类似的栖息地，但由不同历史和民族的截然不同的组织运营。该项目的中心问题将是审查戏剧是否能与保护对话，这些自治组织如何探索新的公共参与形式，从而解决马克·科克(Mark Cocker)争议性的《我们的地方》(Our Place)(2018)中概述的保护中的“巨大分歧”，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，我将通过开展一个模范的研究过程，通过档案镜头、心理地理镜头和民族志镜头来研究这些不同的湿地、沼泽和芦苇床保护区的运作，从而提供智力上的领导。调查结果将出现在三个创新的戏剧演示中-第一个是由我将召集的写作小组产生的，第二个是审查保护区前景的论坛剧院活动，第三个是与著名的场地戏剧公司Tangleed Foot合作创作的大型特定场地表演戏剧，它将在每个保护区巡回演出，这本身将把公司的工作扩展到新的地区和地区，并为戏剧创作创造一种全新的形式和背景。这反过来将为我撰写一部重要的新作品戏剧作品提供参考，并导致一次研讨会，反思戏剧如何为保护提供服务。在项目期间，我将上演戏剧干预，探索和扩展我自己的戏剧和当前戏剧写作的语言，以解决陷入困境的自然状态，隐藏的人类保护工作，以及我们目前面临的任务的严重性。这些表演将包括基于社区的项目、独特的公共参与活动以及与戏剧公司Tangleed Foot合作的最终专业项目，所有这些都提供了如何在保护中使用戏剧的典范。这些表演将在驻地的不同地点提供里程碑，面向公众，对所有人免费；演出将在保护区内举行，根据季节和主题在其已建结构内或外部举行。他们将利用保护区的过去，这些保护区在该地区的生态和保护史上复兴了关键的、经常被忽视的、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·帕利斯等。他们将戏剧化地讲述当地人、志愿者、科学家和游客保护历史的不为人知的故事，例如，考察随着威肯愿景的推出而出现的敌意，因为当地土地所有者抵制保护区的扩大。为此，我作为一名关注冲突的政治剧作家的经历将是无价的。在这个项目结束时，我将与剑桥保护倡议合作举办一次关于“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人与作家和艺术家一起，发挥科学或面向公众的作用，研究将保护困境戏剧化的最佳做法。

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.