Theatre and Performance Studies News

Dr. Susan Haedicke collaborated with Baz Kershaw and Earthrise Repair Shop to conceive and construct Prairie Meanders at the Conrad Environmental Research Area on the prairie in Grinnell, Iowa, in September 2016. This project was a large-scale version of earlier ‘meadow meanders’ created by Kershaw that explore human ‘econnectivity’ to the earth through performance ecologies, conservation and regeneration. Prairie Meanders constructed two meanders, one a quarter of a mile long; the other over two-thirds of a mile. These maze-like pathways mimic major ecological processes of Earth. Once the pattern is established, a walker meanders along the path and viscerally experiences a global ecology on a local, human-sized scale. Combining land art, nature trail, gallery display and immersive performance, the meanders produced dynamic experiences of 'glocal' ecosystem processes as they created environmental puzzles exploring the ecologies of interacting climates, landscapes and species.