Page 8 RAIN October 1977 The sun and ·wind and garbage are resources we've ignored Cheap, renewable and clean! Who could ask for more? What a joy it was to watch a group of people teaching about • energy alternatives with something other than slides and charts and polemics. Thq.ter! That's what this movement has been needing. Telling it like it is (even slipping in a few facts and figures) but with grins, costumes, songs and dances, and some very fine juggling. The New Western Energy Show is a troupe of 14 actors, dancers, "chanteusies," and handy energy-types who have been traveling around towns in Montana for the past two summers. They do two shows a day on their fold-down stage that doubles as a semi-trailer for hauling props and displays. One is a children's matinee complete with a dinosa·ur who explains about fossil fuels, a windmill named Louise, and ·old Mother Hubbard, who learns that saving energy means saving money. In the evenin$ they do a Medicine Show that includes. a chorus line of insulation bags, a wonderful ventriloquist and dummy act, and a skit about a town who learned the hard way what being energy wastrels does. All the skits and songs are ;well-written and marvelously acted. I sat in Billings for five days and watched people absolutely entranced by the message- and the medium. The audience was filled with little kids, families, old geezers in overalls, a sprinkliri.g of longhairs and members of the high school track team that had been practicing nearby. Often 60-100 people showed up for a show. Mouths hung open, eyes twinkled and everyone had lots of fun. • The great thing about it,· though, is that it isn't all theater. Encircling the area sit solar hot water heaters, water wheels, solar ovens (where cookies were baked each afternoon and given away to children during the matinee), woodstoves, windmills and a whole series of display panels explaining the whys and wherefores of energy conservation and the various ~ different alternative means of generating energy. There was also a library table and books to buy (best seller was, I think, Bruce Anderson's Solar Home Book). There were always members of the troupe standing by ready to answer questions or give tours of the exhibits. Slide shows and "town forums" were going on, too. Sometimes they were by the group and sometimes by folks like myself, Jay Baldwin, Jack Park, Howdy Reichmuth and Jeff Barnes, who were brought in to be part of the troupe for a week. Alongside all this was the blue school bus that served as transportation, dining hall, closet and infirmary for the troupe. It was always colorfolly bedecked with sleeping bags, bicycles and boxes of vegetables donated by local people. (We ate very well.) It even had a breadbox solar water heater on the roof. So not only was there entertainment and education to be found, but the people ·n the group were an example for all to see of the living lightly ethic they were espousing. In some ways, that and their infectious enthusiasm were the most important messages of all. One, I might add, that was often commented on by visitors- many of whom came to gawk and went away inspired. The show is the brainchild of Kye Cochran and AERO (Alternative Energy Resources Organization). The first year it cost $30,001.12, which they borrowed from friends until a grant finally came through in December, long after everything was packed away. This summer they had a $45,000 Renewable Energy Resources grant from the State of Montana. What happens next year is still uncertain. Some of the group, many of them native Montanans, want to stay together to do ·theater in schools and for other public occasions all year round. A small contingent that hails from Seattle are thinking about getting another troupe going there.
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