Chantal Bilodeau is a Montreal-born, New York-based playwright whose work focuses on the intersection of storytelling and the climate crisis. She is the founder of the Arts & Climate Initiative and in her capacity as artistic director, has spearheaded local and global initiatives for nearly two decades, getting the theatre and educational communities, as well as audiences in the U.S. and abroad, to engage in climate action through programming that includes live events, talks, publications, workshops, artist convenings, and a worldwide distributed theatre festival. She is working on a series of eight plays – including Sila (2014), Forward (2016), and No More Harveys (2022) – that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight Arctic states. She is a Creative Core member of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. In 2019, she was named one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation” by Audubon Magazine.
At a time characterized by polarization and distrust, the need for approaches that humanize others through narrative and empathy has never been greater. The Lab is dependent on outside funding in order to make our work possible.
