DAMASCUS, PA — “The More Things Change” is the newest original work from Farm Arts Collective; it premiers at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 8 at Willow Wisp Organic Farm. 

Conceived and directed by Artistic Director Tannis Kowalchuk, artistic director, the play is fourth in the ensemble’s 10-play climate change series, titled “Dream on the Farm.” 

This year’s play is the story of a multi-generational farm family who is offered a large sum of money to sell their organic farmland to developers who want to turn the farm into a “bio-diversity” theme park called Eco-Land.

The offer pitches the family into a crisis. What should they do in the face of climate change? Sell, not sell?

And what of their own dreams?

“The More Things Change,” said Kowalchuk, is created collectively and performed by Farm Arts Collective. “It features original music, spectacle and a poetry of performance that works in a unique harmony with the landscape and bucolic vistas of Willow Wisp Organic Farm, a 25-acre farm on the Delaware River.”

There will be food to share after the performance.

The performance is supported by National Endowment for the Arts, Radio Drama Network, William E. Chatlos Foundation, Honesdale National Bank and Deep Roots individual donors.

Ensemble and crew list

 Conceived and directed by Tannis Kowalchuk

Text by the Ensemble, Mark Dunau, Melissa Bell and Hudson Eynon-Williams

Composer: Doug Rogers

Music and choral director: Annie Hat

Additional songs by Melissa Bell, Mark Dunau and traditional music

Company manager: Jess Beveridge

Costumes: Chris Barkl

Parade puppets: Sue Currier and Ace Thomas

Stage manager: Cami Pileggi

Dramaturg: Jess Barkl-Lopez

Ensemble actors

Jess Beveridge as Sarah Wilder

Beau Brazfield as Oliver Wilder

Michael Chojnicki as Grandpa “GiGi” Walter Wilder

Ginny Hack as Aunt Linda

Annie Hat as the Ghost of Grandma

Tannis Kowalchuk as Nora Kosciuk-Wilder

Lexee McEntee as Candace Two Feathers

Doug Rogers as the Narrator, Old Joseph

John Roth as Theron Wilder

Jonah Watwood as Jo Wilder

Hudson Williams-Eynon as Justin Darling

The musicians and chorus

Pam Arnold, percussion and banjo

Rebekah Creshkoff

Tiffany Esteb

Annie Hat

Karen Hudson, guitar

Kris Kurtz

Doug Rogers, guitar and piano

Pheonix

Food: Alicia Grega

Tesla: Jim and Pat Sanders