Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Skit Teach-In

Susan Anderson's picture

Our group used a skit to demonstrate ideas about how we, as a society, can change the environment.  We collaborated on two ideas, one of which you saw in class.  Here is a script of our second skit.

I (Susan) am the leader of a protest against deforrestation.  Behind me are several of our classmates, representing other protesters from the same organization.  Sara is a woman who is chopping down trees on her property.  Rochelle is Mother Nature, who is ambling about coughing because Mother nature is sick.  

Susan:  Hello ma'am.  We are from the Americans for the Preservation of Forrests Association.  We would like to protest your chopping down of this forrest.

Sara(in a Southern accent):  This is my property I can do whatever I want to it!

Susan:  But you see, you are affecting more people than just yourself by destroying this tree.

Sara: No one lives within a mile of me!  I am affecting no one.

Susan: Ah, but you see, by killing more things than you need to, you are making Mother Nature sick (gestures to Rochelle).  Mother Nature is already sick as it is, but if you continue to chop down trees you will make her even more sick.  If she gets too sick, then she will destroy us all with extreme weather.

Sara: Ah, piss off.  I'm going inside my house and getting nice and warm. (Sara goes into her house, the group of protestors goes away dejectedly). Oh, it's so nice in this house!

Rochelle: (Running across the stage waving her arms) Mudslide!!!

Susan: (To Sara) I warned you! 

Fin.

So, this skit provides a contrast to the skit about the government.  While in the government skit humanity changed the environment, it seemed a little totalitarian.  In this one, no one is forcing us to change and there were no fines, but because no one was forcing us to change people decided not to change.

Groups:

Comments

Rochelle W.'s picture

I also wish we had had time

I also wish we had had time in class to do the second skit, it would have provided a good contrast. When we got together to think about how we wanted to do our presentation we came up with different reactions that people in the future would have to the environmental problems that were still present. When we presented them we did not want to make the reactions seem obviously good or bad, so that the class could have a discussion without our bisas. In the skit we did in class both the government and the person using nuclear power to power their appliances had good reasons for doing so. I think the class was able to have a discussion where they kept both sides equally in mind.

Barbara's picture

I loved your performance so

I loved your performance so much today! I wish we had time for you to act this one as well... Reading your script, I just realized that "the Americans for the Preservation of Forrests Association" is delegating "Mother Nature"; so is the "government" in the other one. Just wondering if that is justified at all... I feel like what we did in class is to help people act ecologically out of their own will, but if people do not have access to such a program/do not accept this idea, regulation would be the easiest way out for the whole community. I appreciate that you brought up this topic for us to think at the end of the semester. I can see that government regulation may be a step to reach out to a larger group of people and acutally do some good to nature.