RESEARCH
What can we learn?
Rural communities are already seeing the impact of climate change around the world. As part of each show, we asked audiences about their connection to nature, their worries about climate change, and what can make these things hard to talk about.
We also surveyed audiences and performers about their comfort levels discussing the climate crisis, and their feeling of being able to make a difference. And, we interviewed performers about the experience of making and touring this unique improvised theatre show.
Our aim was to understand how rural communities think about these issues, and whether co-creating a show would affect the self-efficacy of the audience and/or the performers.
OUR FINDINGS
These are the main takeaways from our published research so far:
IMPROV AS CO-CREATION
Improvised theatre is a form of co-creation between audiences and performers/scientists, which provides valuable perspective on societal challenges like the climate crisis.
COMMUNITY AGENCY
People who attended our shows and workshops reported increased self-efficacy around the climate crisis: they felt more comfortable talking about it and more confident that their actions mattered.
ARTISTIC IMPACT
Improvisers who joined us on tour also demonstrated increased self-efficacy around the climate crisis, and increased pro-environmental behaviours in their own lives. Through interactions with scientists, they became science communicators who connected with communities through performance.
Where can I read more?
We have published two open-access research articles on this work in the Journal of Science Communication:
Improvised theatre for public engagement with the climate crisis in rural Irish communities
Agents of (comedic) change: co-creation through improv to develop environmental science agency
You can also learn more about ROAM, the rural consultation project that preceded We Built This City on Rock and Coal, below. And you can read more about Caomhnú, a citizen storytelling project that ran concurrently with our shows, elsewhere on this site.
ROAM:
Talking to communities about nature and climate action
GET INVOLVED
If you are interested in learning more about our research, please contact Dr Jessamyn Fairfield: jessamyn.fairfield@universityofgalway.ie