Inside Iowa State

Nov. 7, 2008

Class project Farmscape is hitting the road

by Mike Ferlazzo, News Service

Distinguished Professor of English Mary Swander admits that agriculture and the arts don't seem to have much in common.

But she found so many similarities that she led an effort to link them in a play. Swander and her upper level "Writing about Environmental Issues" class studied the plight of the contemporary Iowa farmer last fall. Through their research and interviews with Iowa farmers, they wrote, Farmscape: Documenting the Changing Rural Environment. It debuted on campus last February.

Because of the play's message, the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture provided Swander grant money to perform Farmscape off-campus. She is booking dates through next spring with other colleges, universities and community theaters around the state. The Leopold Center will send a staff member to lead a discussion following each performance.

Agriculture/arts group

Leopold Center distinguished fellow Fred Kirschenmann also suggested creating a campus group that explores agriculture and the arts more formally. He and Swander drew 40 members to their organizational meeting this summer.

The group, now called Agarts, will meet for a free, public viewing of Farmscape at 7:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 16, in the second floor gallery at Images by Ngaire, 408 Kellogg Ave.

Agarts is open to the public. The group meets bimonthly to discuss related agricultural and artistic topics.

The docudrama

Swander said her students studied non-fiction plays based on real events and researched local environmental problems prior to selecting the changing farmscape as the subject for their docudrama.

"There are 10 actors in the play," Swander said. "It creates a chorus of voices -- the sort of David-and-Goliath situation that's out there right now with small farms and large corporate interests."

The play is a reader's theater production, with local volunteers reading roles with some minimal costuming. The main character is a farmer who has lost his farm, and the setting is an auction as he sells off his property. Among the other characters are an agribusiness farmer with 1,700 acres, a woman farmer with two acres of organic vegetables, a man who lost his farm in the farm crisis and eventually earned a Ph.D., a corporate researcher who develops genetically modified crops, and a couple on a century farm who started a hog confinement operation to save their farm.

"It creates a chorus of voices -- the sort of David-and-Goliath situation that's out there right now with small farms and large corporate interests."

Mary Swander