How theater can teach kids about climate change

NEW YORK — Willow is a city kid who loves her neighborhood’s tiny “pocket” park, especially the giant tree, Oakie, whose branches stretch across it. 

But she has a problem: The park is slated for redevelopment. And her friends and fellow park visitors — Rio, Kai, Ashe and Frankie — all have different ideas for what the park should become. Willow wants it restored to a nature-filled haven, while Rio hopes for a splash pad, Ashe a basketball court, Kai a vegetable garden and Frankie a quiet spot for accessing free Wi-Fi.

In a theater near Times Square one Sunday earlier this year, my 4-year-old and I watched the young people argue, strategize and reflect, with help from a friendly parakeet who nudges them to work together to save the park. They were characters in “The Pocket Park Kids,” a play for children that uses the idea of restoring a city park in disrepair as an allegory for reversing environmental degradation. 

The play got me thinking about how the arts, and theater in particular, can introduce kids as young as preschool to the climate crisis and ways to alleviate it. Anika Larsen, an actress and the play’s co-creator, told me she sees theater as particularly effective at helping people process tough topics without dwelling in despair. 

“Artists have always been at the forefront of every movement because we’re able to talk about things in ways that are uplifting and activating and inspiring, as opposed to demoralizing and begetting feelings of helplessness and hopelessness,” she said. Of climate change, she added, “None of us really want to hear about it. It feels too overwhelming, it feels too scary.” 

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Larsen, who was nominated for a Tony for her role in “Beautiful: The Carole King Musical,” said she was inspired to develop a climate-themed play after reading “yet another terrifying article about the climate crisis” and moving through feelings of panic and anger. A friend, Andrea Varga, a professor and sustainability faculty fellow at the State University of New York at New Paltz, told her she could have the biggest impact if she looked locally — which in Larsen’s case was Broadway.  

Varga also introduced her to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, which became the frame for Larsen’s play. Each character and their vision for the park represents a goal or several (Kai, who worries about his grandfather’s health and wants nutritious food, represents zero hunger, while Rio, a proud Pisces, represents water and sanitation, as well as life below water). 

“As a framework for understanding the problems of the world, I think it is elegant,” said Larsen of the global goals. “It’s also a really helpful jumping-off point for taking action, because you identify what are the global goals that matter to you and how you can act within those goals.” 

But the play itself does not mention them. “I didn’t want it to be just overt teaching. I wanted it to be an entertaining and well-structured play,” said Larsen. Instead, the actors break character at the end of the production and engage the audience in a discussion about sustainability. Kids in the audience raised their hands and chimed in about ideas for helping save the planet, including composting and using the subway.

Roughly 800 public school students attended the play through a partnership between New York City schools and the New York City Children’s Theater, which put on the production. Lauren Madden, a professor of elementary science education at The College of New Jersey, said that educators can experiment with ways to engage the youngest students in climate action.  

“While there are certainly challenges — teachers’ time and resources are always stretched — integrating theater, even in small ways, can support climate education,” she told me in an email. Madden said she’s seen educators use short plays or skits as conversation starters around climate issues, and some schools partner with artists and theaters to supplement their curricula.  

Related: ‘Why is the sky fuzzy?’: Climate change lessons need to start as early as preschool

Larsen infused her production with other sustainability lessons too. A board member of the Broadway Green Alliance, which promotes environmentally friendly practices in theater productions, she relied on reused materials for sets, props, puppets and more — “as much Broadway trash as we could,” she said. Newspapers thrown onto the stage during the performance were salvaged from “Back to the Future,” cardboard used on the set and for props was from “Hadestown,” and — spoiler alert — the flowers that help beautify and restore the park were fashioned origami-style from discarded Playbills. 

“Once you think of it not as a constraint but as sort of a game,” finding creative ways to reuse materials becomes fun, said Larsen. Ian Garrett, the production’s lighting director who leads the nonprofit Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, initiated a carbon emissions audit of the show. And this spring, “The Pocket Park Kids” offset its emissions by a giveaway of more than 100 trees in New York City. 

Now, Larsen is hoping to bring the play to other communities in different parts of the country and world. She’s also thinking about possibilities for telling the story in other media — a book, TV, perhaps a movie.

“I think the key to solving the climate crisis is feeling good while we do it, and I do feel there can be joy in being problem solvers and change-makers,” she said. Or, as the parakeet in the play puts it, “Action is the antidote to despair.” 

The play, and more specifically the parakeet puppets, made an impression in my household. A few weeks after seeing the performance, my daughter said to me unprompted: “I really liked that puppet show.” Asked about what she learned from it, she said, “You need to keep the flowers healthy” and “the trees with no garbage.” 

Contact editor Caroline Preston at 212-870-8965, via Signal at CarolineP.83 or on email at [email protected]. 

This story about climate change and theater was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter on climate and education.