Bloomington Playwrights Project fosters green movement and social awareness

For the Bloomington Playwrights Project, fostering the green movement and other prominent social issues motivated a series of plays known collectively as AwareFest.
AwareFest, which began Oct. 1 and will run through Oct. 16 at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, was the creation of the BPP’s producing artistic director Chad Rabinovitz.

Rabinovitz said the idea for a socially conscious play compilation came to him more than a year ago and was designed to raise awareness about subjects of public importance.

This year’s theme, “A Green World,” focuses on carbon footprints, water conservation, sustainable development and other green living topics.

“This is solely to bring awareness to social issues,” Rabinovitz said. “We aren’t here to say, ‘This is what you should do with your life.’ We’re not trying to preach.”
Rabinovitz said his ultimate goal was to bring together local organizations that are as passionate about current social issues as he is.

“We are promoting buying local,” he said. “And we have the Humane Society coming in soon. We’re giving them a space to promote their items and businesses.”

AwareFest features a series of eight original 10-minute plays by local and renowned playwrights. The plays will be performed weekly from 8 to 9:30 p.m.

“Each one of the playwrights wrote a play specifically for us,” Rabinovitz said. “I did readings, directed some plays, dealt with agents and made connections to get people excited about this.”

“Everyone Knows,” a play about the horrors of chicken farming, was written by Craig Wright, producer of the television show “Lost” and an Emmy nominee for his work on HBO’s “Six Feet Under.”

Israel Horovitz, a well-known off-Broadway playwright, also contributed an original work titled “Dream House,” a play about a family wrestling with the idea of selling their sustainable home.

“Dream House” actress Shannon Walsh said she heard about AwareFest from Rabinovitz and couldn’t refuse to be a part of it.

“I love the aspect of completely original works,” she said. “There’s something about being the first to perform something.”

Walsh added that the project opened her eyes to her own environmental footprint.
“I’m crazy about turning lights off now,” she said.

Walsh said she didn’t know very much about green living before she began work on the project, adding that some people are intimidated by the unknown.

Actor Thomas Thompson said he has done a lot of shows with social impact in the past, such as “Hair,” “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Cadillac.”

He will be performing in “The Rocks” by Erdin Schultz-Bever and “Six Lights” by Joseph S. Walker during AwareFest.

“I try to make the audience identify with me, and hopefully then they can take something away from the experience,” he said.

Thompson said AwareFest incorporates more multimedia and technology into its performances, but he feels these things enhance the overall message of actively protecting the environment.

“We as actors already do many of these things that we present in the show,” Thompson said. “But the project brings even more awareness to the idea of green living.”

Rabinovitz said he is already planning his second AwareFest project, which will likely take place this time next year.

“We’ve been talking about a War and Peace theme,” he said. “We want to try to partner with the themesters of IU somehow. We will try to change the topic of social importance every year.”