“All the world's a stage." -- William Shakespeare

It's been 2 weeks since I wrote a blog. Why? Because the lead up to the off-off-Broadway world premiere of How on Earth? LIVE! was a doozy, and then the earliest I got to bed the 9 nights of Climate Week NYC 2025 was 2am! I haven't done that since my days of working music festivals. So thank you for your grace as I tune back in to our weekly meet ups and share a bit about all that happened. Let's start with the premiere...

Acknowledge Earth Is Our Home

I haven't teched a show in a long time -- since at least before covid. And even before that I was doing projects that were plug and play like Science on Tap or big inaugural placemaking events like Live Culture Coast.

A long time since you write out cues, plug mp3s into Qlab, and match moments with blocking.

Yet, the moment I stepped into the theater with my suitcase full of goodies, I knew what to do. This 150 seat blackbox immediately felt like home.

The vocabulary was there. The order of importance was clear. The schedule was etched in my mind.

Did it have it's bumps and bruises? Of course! It wouldn't be a true tech if there wasn't. Even with only 7 hours to go from hello to show, we did it! And hearing the cast (in which 5 out of 6 had never done such a thing) marvel at how it all came together in front of their eyes, I had moments to pause, smile, and enjoy the world we were building for one night.

I've often thought how "world building" connected my many different pursuits. Whether a full blown set emerging from walls and rafters or mini villages forming in forests, we built temporary worlds to experience something different for a time -- which hopefully induced a type of transformation for all involved and the ripple of their influence.

I even found myself talking about the power of world building for the rest of Climate Week NYC -- especially to the more Molecule and Network types. Often using sci-fi as the example (because, well, know your audience!)

After all, due to the systems we have in the developed nations, we've built a world separate from nature. Now is the time to rebuild with Earth as our Home.

Discover Your Earth Archetype

Archetypes are by definition broad categories intended to encompass a distinct yet wide ranging set of skills, perspectives, and resources.

Putting the world premiere of "How on Earth? LIVE!" together required me to wear many different hats under the Metaphor Earth Archetype.

Creator. Producer. Director. Sound Designer. Set/Slide Designer. Scriptwriter. Stage Manager. Coach. Performer. All at once.

And in many ways these different variations dip into the other types. I certainly tested everything, connected dots, bridged gaps, imagined things, and breathed deep -- all the actions of each Earth Archetype.

But at the end of the day, we set out to bring imagination to life. To show a spectrum of solutions live onstage. To make ideas sticky through laughter and story.

So yes, all these hats stretched me to infinity and beyond. Yet, as I finally feel asleep that night sometime after 2am, I smiled that we had created something that up until that night, most others couldn't see.

An staged, improv version of a climate reality tv show!

Work Together in Community

I was very grateful that our protagonist Kenice Mobley in this first episode knew how to hold a room. I could trust her to show up big, brave, and unpredictable. To follow the flow of the story with biting commentary.

Because part of what I learned on this journey is a key insight I'm carrying into my plan for future LIVEs and even the casting process for the full tv production.

Even though each one of the experts that inhabited the Earth Archetypes raised their hand to be in such an experience, none of them had done so before. So even though I knew to give them guidelines and templates for creating the 2 main onstage moments I needed them to own, I was not quite prepared for the amount of back and forth scripting we would do.

And as changes were coming in until the day of, I realized an important value add of bringing "How on Earth? LIVE!" to climate communities. Professional Development.

We all know climate needs a better story. This info based diagram filled method for the past 50 years has not cut it. And yet, the people with the knowledge need the gifts of the storytellers to help them craft something sticky, reel worthy, and fun.

So when we come together to put on an episode, I'm also bringing this guidance to the cast.

And as I extrapolate on this, I realized that the way I was already structuring the audition process for the 5 main tv show hosts -- full of experiences, interactions, and trainings -- will ultimately be helpful to all 50 finalists. Not just the 5 that get picked.

So I'm excited to bring on partners with this new a-ha!

Wanna not only catalyze your climate community but also supporting your experts?

Wanna team up to put on an amazing casting/training week in April?

Reach out and let's talk!