Why I decided to do a MA in Engaged Ecology at 53 years of age?

by Laura Pasetti

Since I started my career as an actress I felt that theatre for me was much more than a job or a profession; 30 years ago I had to choose to do Foundation Year Programme (at the time, the so called two-year programme to become a member of Findhorn Foundation or pursue my acting career, I chose my career and made it my Foundation Year Programme. The learning process lasted much longer than two years and then it became a service. For 30 years I composed my “prayers” and recited them on stage, I used a different word to express the meaning of my acting, but this is what it was, what it still is. I don’t act so much anymore, I prefer to direct and write plays, but theatre is indeed my prayer.

What I enjoy the most is being a pedagogue, or a midwife if you prefer this term. I love helping people give birth to their talent, to their creative essence, to their artistic soul. I believe that art is the manifestation of the soul and that it is also through art that we can remember our wholeness, our beauty and our belonging.

When humankind celebrated their belonging to Gaia by representing their story in the circle, they reminded each other who they were and affirmed their presence as vital parts of the ecosystem where they lived. Now we treat the trees and the rocks as separate from us, but they are a manifestation of our wholeness. We belong to each other, we mirror each other.

Theatre increases the consciousness of the wholeness.

I call what I do ECOTHEATRE; it doesn’t mean necessarily performing outdoors or just educating people about climate crisis.

Ecotheatre for me means performing wholeness with all its facets, performing WITH or FOR the trees and not using the trees as a backdrop. It means representing the Anthropocene so that we can embrace all of the contradictions and then, only then, begin a new story. It means making performances into ceremonies and calling the spectators to be WITNESSES because witnesses can’t avoid to take responsibility. It means finding unity in diversity and empowering diversity in unity by telling stories of humans to other humans; without having to please them at all cost but with the aim to give them a key to find their truth.

This is who I am: a passionate ecotheatre pedagogue and midwife.

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