When did you first feel a connection to nature?
How does your love for nature manifest in your life?
When did you begin to realize that nature was at risk?
What do you wish people would understand about the environment?
What makes you despair with respect to climate change? What gives you hope?
What are the obstacles you face in thinking about or taking action on climate change?
Paths Less Traveled was an online play performed over Zoom during Lumière Cape Breton 2020. Audience members engaged in conversation before the show, exploring questions like “When did you first feel a close connection with nature?” and “When did you begin to realize that nature was at risk?” After the performance, audiences posted about the show and its themes on social media, participated in interviews, and contributed selfies in nature.
For Lumière Cape Breton 2021, we invite you to watch the recorded version of the performance, which took place on Sunday, September 26, 2020, below while you consider the questions posted above. Please note that the invitation to participate in the video was for the 2020 audience. To participate to the project this year, please contribute a selfie or an interview by emailing us at paths@cbu.ca or leaving us a message.
Curator’s Notes (Scott Sharplin)
To create this script, I interviewed four self-styled climate activists, including members of Extinction Rebellion, a worldwide action network committed to raising awareness of the growing climate crisis. The characters are fictionalized—names and details about their lives have been changed—but their words are their own.
I invite viewers to seek out points of connection. What do these four very different people have in common? What “radicalized” them? And what do they share with you? If they are fighting on your behalf, perhaps there is some way, however small, that you can join the fight.