An event on playwriting and the climate crisis, co-organised with Ruth Gilligan (University of Birmingham), with contributions from Paul Fahy, Clare Patey, Adam Ledger, Mairead Ni Chroinin, April de Angelis, Dawn King, Lynne Parker, Jeanie O’Hare, Maureen Kennelly. Thomas Conway, Elizabeth Freestone, Robert Butler, and Carys Coburn.

Registration is free but has to be done in advance, and spaces are limited (details below).

Ecological Playwriting and Theatre-Making in Ireland and the UK: Collaborative Approaches to the Environmental Crisis
18 September 2026 from 09.30 to 14.30
O'Donoghue Centre for Drama, Theatre and Performance, University of Galway

This one-day seminar is jointly organised by Patrick Lonergan (Professor of Drama and Theatre Studies, University of Galway) and Ruth Gilligan (Professor of Creative Writing, University of Birmingham). It brings together researchers, playwrights, producers, editors, and representatives of cultural organisations to explore how the environmental crisis is changing the ways in which theatre is written, researched, produced, commissioned and experienced. Among the questions we aim to explore are:

• How have individual theatre-makers, producers, artists and/or researchers changed their ways of working as a response to the environmental crisis? What have been the impacts of those changes?
• How can partnerships and/or collaborations create new opportunities for environmentally responsive theatre-making and research?
• The creative industries and creative arts research are frequently drawn into environmental projects only as a device for engaging with the public and/or communicating scientific findings. While such work is important, how can we better explain and assert the distinctive contributions that creative practice and creative research have to offer to environmental thinking?
• What new forms of collaboration, commissioning, research and production might be developed between Ireland and the UK in response to the environmental crisis?

Format
Each session has four speakers. Rather than formal presentations, each participant will make a short contribution of approximately five minutes, focusing on a particular change in their practice, research, or approach to theatre-making in response to the environmental crisis. We will then broaden the conversation through discussion among participants, followed by approximately 10 minutes of audience Q&A.

Audience
The event is open to students, academic researchers, theatre practitioners and producers, arts workers and policy-makers, and anyone working on sustainability, climate action, or related areas. There is no fee to attend but as places are limited, advance registration is required – email patrick.lonergan@universityofgalway.ie to reserve your place.