Feeling overwhelmed by the looming threat of climate change? We’ve got you! Sunny Drake's Climate Change and Other Small Talk is a theatrical podcast that is here to hold your hand through the scary stuff and entertain you at the same time. Made by 9 creative teams around the world, these podcast episodes have got it all: from the witty to the wacky, and the serious to the silly. It’s guaranteed to be fun and ignite your inner climate warrior all while offering global perspectives on the climate crisis. There will be weird sound effects. An angry panda running a submarine. And a 500-year-old tree that… well we can’t give the rest away. Launching Earth Day - April 22nd - subscribe below to the newsletter or wherever you get your podcasts, so you never miss an episode. Learning about how to survive the apocalypse has never been so fun.
Downstage is excited to be one of 9 international companies collaborating with Sunny Drake to create Climate Change and Other Small Talk. We had the change to produce Tara Beagan’s new audio play, Rider or Die, as part of this international project!
Ride or Die ~ Though Win and his Grams are growing weary of life in a temporary camp, they never tire of each others' jokes. In a world of floods and fires, they are family, and Win will get his Grams to her lucky spot at bingo through hell and highwater.
Tara Beagan is a proud Ntlaka’pamux and Irish "Canadian" halfbreed. She is cofounder/director of ARTICLE 11 with Andy Moro and based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary.) Beagan served as Artistic Director of Native Earth Performing Arts from February 2011 to December 2013. Beagan has been in residence at Cahoots Theatre, NEPA, the National Arts Centre, Berton House, and most recently Prairie Theatre Exchange. Seven of her 35 plays are published. Two plays have received Toronto’s Dora Award nominations, one win. In 2020, Honour Beat won the Gwen Pharis Ringwood Award for Drama. Recent writing includes Rise, Red River for PTE (premiering in 2024), and Nice White Lady for Necessary Angel. A11’s feature film Reckoning will premiere in 2023. Beagan is a Dora and Betty nominated actor, and recently appeared in Theatre Calgary's Little Women as well as Vertigo's The Extractionist. Her play The Ministry of Grace is playing in Mohkinstsis at The Grand through Making Treaty 7 in April 2023. Along with protégé Joelle Peters, Beagan is the 2020 laureate of the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre.
Written by: Tara Beagan
Directed by: Patrick Beagan
Starring:
Dustin Frank as Win
Tracey Nepinak as Mums
Michelle Thrush as Michelle
Sound design and music composition by: Maddie Bautista
Recording engineer and Dialogue Editor: Brian Bergum
Episode Produced by: Downstage Theatre with support from Sunny Drake Productions
Artistic Director for Downstage: Clare Preuss
Managing Director for Downstage and Episode Producer: Danielle Whyte
Associate Producer for Downstage: Bianca Miranda
Community Programs Director for Downstage: Elsha Yeyesuswork
Production Manager and Technical Director for Downstage: Adam Kostiuk
Special Thanks: Lacey Hill for the use of her song “Love Wins”
Ride or Die is one play in the series Climate Change and Other Small Talk created by Sunny Drake & produced in association with Why Not Theatre and 9 companies around the world.