Susan McCully — Acting Out for Climate Solutions

The Center for Innovation, Research, and Creativity in the Arts (CIRCA) presents an event featuring Susan McCully, “Acting Out for Climate Solutions,” which will include a dramatic reading of Merlin, a new play by McCully.

In the middle of an extreme weather event, Merlin, a magical Jack Russell/Schnauzer, faces an existential crisis. The sixth great extinction trembles all around as he struggles with the epiphany “Dogs are the white women of the animal kingdom, and he feels helpless.” As he breaks his leash and runs toward the rising waters, he undergoes biological and spiritual transformations that teach him about change, survival and the great mutual aid of being.

Join us for a dramatic reading of Merlin, a play that uses “solution-based” storytelling that features positive climate science and mutual aid activism. The performance will be followed by a roundtable discussion with playwright Susan McCully; Michele Minnick, founder of Vital Matters, a laboratory for cross-disciplinary events, artistic projects, and educational programs; Lauren Jonas, Ph.D. candidate and research assistant at Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology; and Dawn Biehler, UMBC associate professor of Geography and Environmental Systems. Eve Muson, chair of the UMBC Department of Theatre, will direct this staged reading.

Susan McCully is a queer feminist theatre-maker, playwright, and associate professor at UMBC. Over the past thirty years, her professional endeavors have centered on advocating for intersectional feminist and queer theatre through her playwriting, performing, teaching, and by creating opportunities for others as a producer and dramaturg. McCully’s commitment to feminist and queer narratives is evident in her body of work. She served as the artistic director and dramaturg for the GirlParts Festival of New Plays at UMBC from 2005 to 2012. Her plays, including Inexcusable Fantasies, Kerrmoor, and All She Must Possess, have been showcased at various venues, such as the Prague and New York Fringe Festivals, the Women’s Voices Theater Festival, and RepStage. In recent years, McCully has focused on integrating climate justice themes into her theatrical work. She directed “Green Theatre Revolution,” a festival of new plays and devised works addressing climate justice, presented at UMBC in May 2024. Merlin was inspired by her time as the 2023 CIRCA-IMET Artist in Residence at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology.

Admission is free, and a reception will follow. Please RSVP to reserve a space.

Please visit here for Black Box Theatre directions and parking information.

This event is part of the Climate Change is Here series supported by the Office of the Dean of the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.

Image: Susan McCully with the ‘original’ Merlin.