A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick

Dow / Live Earth Run For Water New York is April 18

REGISTER TODAY for Run for Water New York … Be part of an international Earth Week event in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park! 

See The Roots and John Legend performing in the Water Village!

Click here to register.

Opening Earth Week 2010, the Dow / LIVE EARTH Run for Water is a series of global run/walk events happening within a 24-hour period on April 18, 2010 to raise awareness about the shortage of safe drinking water in both developed and undeveloped countries. 

Register  and run (or walk) to help bring clean water to people around the world! A portion of your entry fee will go to Global Water Challenge, a coalition of leading organizations working together to save lives by providing clean drinking water and sanitation.

The event in BROOKLYN’S PROSPECT PARK is one the Featured U.S. Cities of the Global Run for Water and features a 6K RUN/WALK and a WATER VILLAGE at the finish line for all competitors.

Did you know … Women and girls in developing countries walk an average of 6 kilometers (about 3.5 miles) a day, carrying 40 pounds of water.

The finish line Water Village is a great family event with interactive water-related exhibits, displays, food/beverage vendors and a special guest artist on concert.

Register for the 6K run/walk today!  Every runner and every step counts.

FINAL WEEK of A COOL DIP discount, FREE event news

Hi, all!  A COOL DIP closes this Sunday, April 11th so if you haven't had a chance to catch it, now is the time.  

$30 tickets (reg. $50) are available for all remaining performances with code CDBL.  Order online HERE or call Ticket Central at (212) 279-4200 (Noon-8pm daily).  Subject to availability.

Our special event is this Sunday!  

Journalist and author Alex Prud’homme will be reading from and discussing his latest work Clean, Clear and Cold at 4:45pm on Sunday, April 11 in the Peter Jay Sharp Theater following the 2pm matinee performance of A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick.  Mr. Prud’homme will be joined by Kia Corthron and Linda Bartholomai from The Play Company.

Clean, Clear, and Cold tackles the challenges of fresh water today – from polluted tap water and the bottled water wars, to record floods and droughts – and presents some potential solutions.  The book also concerns the perilous state of the world’s fresh water, the people and forces that are defining how we use it, and why water will be the central issue facing the planet this century.

Alex Prud’homme’s work includes My Life in France, co-written with his Aunt Julia Child, about her coming of age in postwar Paris and Marseille.  He has also written The Cell Game, about the ImClone scandal, and Forewarned, with Michael Cherkasky, about terrorism.  His journalism has appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Talk, Time, and People.  He is a graduate of Middlebury College in Vermont.

This event is free and open to the public, as well as to those who choose to see the 2pm matinee performance.  In order to reserve a seat for the reading and discussion, please call Courtney Beam at (212) 564-1235 x3152 OR e-mail marketing@playwrightshorizons.org by 5:00pm this Friday and let us know how many tickets you would like.

Photo by Joan Marcus.

FUTURE HISTORY: Plastic Water Bottles

 

KQED, Northern California’s Public Broadcasting organization, presents a clever web video in which anthropologists from the distant future try to make sense of the irrational and excessive consumption of plastic bottles in the early 21^st century.

National Geographic publishes special issue, "Water: Our Thirsty World"

The April issue of National Geographic Magazine is all about water.  It’s called “Water: Our Thirsty World,” and inside, you’ll find a number of items directly pertaining to A COOL DIP... including photos of Ethiopia and Kibera, the Nairobi slum where Kia first conceived of the play, as well as an article on the depletion of the Jordan River and the Israeli/Palestinian water conflict.  There’s also plenty more, and tons of incredible pictures.  You can check it out here.

From the NY Times: "City Known for Its Water Turns to Tap to Cut Trash"

Thanks to Chay for his tip about this rather heartening, and slightly nauseating, bit of news from Venice, courtesy NY Times writer Elizabeth Rosenthal (originally published June 11, 2009):

In this hot and noble city, discarded water bottles float by gondolas on the edges of the canals and spill out of trash cans on the majestic Piazza San Marco. Because Venice has no roads, trash must be collected on foot at enormous expense. And while plastic bottles can in principle be recycled, the process still unleashes greenhouse gases.

Italians are the leading consumers of bottled water in the world, drinking more than 40 gallons per person annually. But as their environmental consciousness deepens, officials here are avidly promoting what was previously unthinkable: that Italians should drink tap water.

Check out the rest here.  Read more about Acqua Veritas here.

Kia's in TIME OUT! New article hits stands this week

Jocelyn Prince's interview with Kia is now up on Time Out's website and in the pages of the magazine!  Here's a brief excerpt:

“America is not saving me, I am here to save America,” says Abebe, an Ethiopian student preacher turned ecologist who’s the protagonist of Kia Corthron’s new play, A Cool Dip in the Barren Saharan Crick, currently at Playwrights Horizons. Corthron, a writer known for tackling tough issues (environmental racism in Splash Hatch on the E Going Down, police brutality in Force Continuum), asks her audiences to stop sipping bottled water long enough to consider the consequences of their beverage choice.

To read more, click here.  (Editor's note:  at the end of the article, Ms. Prince advocates bringing your own bottled water.  To this we say, bring your own BOTTLE, and we will fill it for you!) 

Photo by Aaron Epstein. 

The Story of Bottled Water: Fear, Manufactured Demand and a $10,000 Sandwich

Also from yesterday's Huffington Post, Annie Leonard's article about her 7-minute animated film, "The Story of Bottled Water."  Here's an excerpt.

Imagine I was trying to sell you a sandwich. It's shrink wrapped in plastic that may leach toxic chemicals, but don't worry about that. Mine's still healthier than a sandwich you could make at home, what with all those impurities in your fridge. Now, I've got no proof of that, and actually, some people have tested my sandwiches and found that sometimes they have more bad stuff in them than the ones from your own kitchen. But never mind that. Mine's more convenient. Tastes better too. I swear.

So here you go: one plastic-wrapped, waste-producing sandwich that isn't any healthier and doesn't taste any better than the one from your own kitchen. That'll be $10,000, please.

Read the rest of Annie's article, and see the short film, here.  Annie Leonard's"Story of Stuff" website is here.

Water and "The News Hour"

“The News Hour” on PBS is producing a series on water problems around the world, the first installment of which premiered this past Sunday, March 21.  The first segment takes a look at a village in rural Ethiopia benefiting from a new well system, but also makes clear how far Ethiopia is from providing such resources to all of its rural population.  “The News Hour” report also mentions that the April issue of National Geographic will be devoted to water issues around the world.  Check out the first installment of the “News Hour” report here.

Observing World Water Day

Here's an excerpt from Mandy Moore's article in today's Huffington Post regarding World Water Day:

As we drink water straight from the faucet, it's hard to believe that one in six people around the world lack clean drinking water, and every 15 seconds another child dies because of it.

Today, Tuesday, March 23rd, I'm in D.C. representing the global health organization PSI for a series of activities in observance of World Water Day. I am briefing members of Congress on my experience in Southern Sudan, joining what will hopefully be the world's longest toilet queue to bring awareness to the need for improved hygiene and sanitation in developing countries around the world, and I will pass out copies of National Geographic magazine's April issue, which is dedicated entirely to water, to lawmakers in hopes of educating them on these critical but solvable issues.

Read the rest of Mandy's article here.  Read more about World Water Day here.  And note the familiar graphic at the top of the page!

New Podcast! PH's Courtney Beam meets A COOL DIP's Tay, Joshua King

In the fifth installment of our ON THE HORIZON series, Playwrights Horizons Marketing Resident Courtney Beam talks theater, music, and Legos with A COOL DIP's Tay, and 9 year-old harmonica player extraordinaire, Joshua King.  Click link below to listen. (7:20).

Josh King Final