Heather Woodbury looks into the camera, eyes wide,  licking a mini globe in an ice cream cone.

Antigone Poster.

SEASON 25 | OCTOBER 2012

As the Globe Warms
a new American soap opera in six parts

Written and Performed by Heather Woodbury
Directed by Michael Yawney
Presented by the VORTEX

 

Spalding Gray Award winner Heather Woodbury’s astonishing new one-woman, million-species, comic epic that explores what it is like to survive in America today, on a planet edging toward climate crisis.

As the Globe Warms follows Lorelei Ray, the home-schooled daughter of a Pentecostal preacher who finds herself mysteriously “speaking in the tongues” of endangered animals and sharing these possessions on-line with a growing following of Evangelical youth. When handsome herpetologist Reed Ferris arrives in her small town, determined to try to save the local “Butterscotch frog” from extinction, an unlikely friendship forms, creating far-reaching consequences for the people and creatures of Vane Springs, Nevada. In the mix are Tea Party zealots, closeted gay evangelicals, a working class family on the brink of extinction, and eyewitness reports from whales, polar bears, bees, bats and frogs.

As the Globe Warms fearlessly tackles the social complexities of climate crisis with humor while generating unexpected empathies: between rural and urban populations, atheists and devout Christians, the “world wide web” and world wide web of life.

PRODUCTION TEAM

Directed by Michael Yawney, Lighting Design by Gary Lund.

ABOUT HEATHER WOODBURY

The VORTEX first presented her 8-act solo play What Ever: An American Odyssey nearly 15 years ago. Originally performed weekly in the back of a New York City bar, What Ever became a breakaway hit in Austin and went on to tour widely from Chicago’s Steppenwolf to London’s Royal Festival Hall. It was broadcast as a radio-play hosted by Ira Glass and received numerous awards including the Austin Critics’ Table Award for Outstanding Touring show. She has returned repeatedly to The VORTEX to perform for her one-woman feats for a growing “cult of hard-core devotees” (Austin Chronicle, 1997).

This American Life’s Ira Glass calls Woodbury’s previous novel-length play "one of the greatest works you've never heard of" and Austin filmmaker Richard Linklater likens her multiple-character solo-performance sagas to "living inside a novel."

Woodbury’s novel-length plays have been published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux and Semiotext(e). Her 8-part solo play What Ever, originally performed in the back of a New York City bar in the East Village, toured widely from Chicago’s Steppenwolf to London’s Royal Festival Hall and was broadcast as a radio-play, hosted by Ira Glass. Her ensemble play Tale of 2 Cities: An American Joyride won an OBIE for performance; She has been awarded an NEA for Playwriting and was the first recipient of the Spalding Gray Award for “fearless theatrical innovators.” Other awards include the C.O.L.A. (City of LA) Award and LA Weekly’s Best Solo of the Year (1997).