St. Mary's College Hosts Earthchild Production

Theatre for youth at Saint Mary’s College is back! After a forced hiatus over the past two years, the Performing Arts Department at Saint Mary’s is excited to announce that we will resume our annual January Term productions for young audiences in 2023. Over the past 20 years, more than 60,000 students have attended our productions in Lefevre Theatre, and we are eager to renew our relationships with East Bay schools, teachers, and children in the coming months. Our January 2023 production will premiere an original script, Earthchild and the Waking Up: An Eco-Drama for Young Audiences. The play tells the story of a young girl who receives a message from the trees – “Help us!” - and sets out on a mythic journey to the Center of Power to relay it. Along the way she makes friends, overcomes obstacles, meets animal allies, is healed by the Mother Tree, has insights about humanity’s interdependence with nature, and ultimately passes on her message to the Bigwigs at the Center of Power. Will it be enough? Will her words fall on deaf ears? Come and find out! Earthchild and the Waking Up will include puppetry, song, music, audience participation, and inventive staging that breaks down the boundaries between the stage and the auditorium. The show’s running time will be a brisk 50 minutes, leaving time for a post-show enrichment activity: a 10-minute environmental literacy workshop led by the Saint Mary’s students involved in the production. The workshop’s key theme will be the web of inter-being that connects humans with the rest of nature. This theme will be illustrated with concrete examples, interactive exercises, and references to the Earthchild production. For more information on the production or the environmental literacy workshops, please contact director Daniel Larlham, at [email protected].