As the Globe Warms

a new American soap opera in six parts

an exclusive work-in-progress
performed by award-winning “stand-up novelist” Heather Woodbury

directed by Michael Yawney

Endangered frogs, whirling dervishes, desperate scientists, and Evangelicals gone wild--all the inhabitants of Vane Springs, Nevada, live out the soap opera of everyday life through the extraordinary headlines of our times. This astonishing, comic epic explores what it is like to survive in America today, on a planet edging toward climate crisis.

Presented in six evenings that can be enjoyed separately, but together form a complex, funny, and moving continuing saga.


Heather Woodbury is a theater artist known for sprawling solo and ensemble works that combine the immediacy of performance art with the scope of a novel.
Her latest work, As the Globe Warms follows handsome herpetologist Reed Ferris who arrives in the small town of Vane Springs, Nevada, determined to try to save a unique species, the Butterscotch frog, from extinction. At the local coffee outlet, he meets Lorelei Ray, the home-schooled daughter of a Pentecostal preacher who has lately found herself mysteriously “speaking in the tongues” of endangered animals and sharing these possessions online with a growing following of Evangelical youth. An unlikely friendship forms and this has far-reaching consequences for the two of them, their families, and the people and creatures Vane Springs. In the mix are Tea Party zealots, closeted gay evangelicals, a working class family itself on the brink of extinction and eyewitness reports from whales, polar bears, bees, bats and frogs.
Woodbury wrote As the Globe Warms in 33 weekly installments in 2010 and 2011 performing for a live audience in Los Angeles, while simultaneously posting these installments online for video subscribers. During this breakneck developmental marathon, Option Magazine wrote "The best new TV series might be a live, solo performance piece in a grungy part of Los Angeles." Now distilled into six evening-length parts with the help of Miami director Michael Yawney, this solo serial will have a preview run in Florida International University’s Alternative Theatre Festival this July in Miami, Florida before its premiere at The Vortex Repertory in Austin, Texas in October.

A segment of As the Globe Warms will appear in the new anthology Animal Acts edited by Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes to be published by University of Michigan Press.

This American Life’s Ira Glass calls Woodbury’s previous novel-length play "one of the greatest works you've never heard of" and filmmaker Richard Linklater likens her multiple-character solo-performance sagas to "living inside a novel." Performance artist Laurie Anderson even calls her an "incredible, one-woman Dickens."

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.”

A segment of As the Globe Warms will appear in the new anthology Animal Acts edited by Una Chaudhuri and Holly Hughes to be published by University of Michigan Press.

This American Life’s Ira Glass calls Woodbury’s previous novel-length play "one of the greatest works you've never heard of" and filmmaker Richard Linklater likens her multiple-character solo-performance sagas to "living inside a novel." Performance artist Laurie Anderson even calls her an "incredible, one-woman Dickens."

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.”


Heather Woodbury’s As The Globe Warms- a one-of-a-kind solo performance narrative, begins its journey this July at Florida International University’s Alternative Theater Festival. Part 1, Friday, July 6th, Part 2, Saturday, July 7th Part 3, Friday, July 13th Part 4, Saturday, July 14th Part 5. Friday, July 20th Part 6, Saturday, July 21st Wertheim Performing Arts Center, Blackbox Theatre, Florida International University 11200 S.W. 8th Street Miami, FL 33199. Tickets: FREE (donations accepted) Time: Approx. 2 hours



Short video clips:


http://vimeo.com/20087486 TownHallUSA! 9 minutes
https://vimeo.com/channels/205232


33 original episodes http://www.vimeo.com/album/165248