Review Fix Exclusive: Phil Paradis Talks ‘Footprints of the Polar Bear and Other Eco-Centric Plays’

Review Fix chats with playwright “Footprints of the Polar Bear and Other Eco-Centric Plays” Phil Paradis, who discusses the production and the creative process behind it.

About Phil Paradis:

Phil Paradis (Playwright) served on the faculties of universities for twenty years and is best known for his full-length play with song Soldier’s Christmas (about the Christmas Truce of 1914), his solo play Evening with Stephen Crane, and Love Knots: Five One-Acts. His awards include an Academy of American Poets Prize, Appalachian Poets Prize, Kentucky New Short Play Award and Cincinnati Director’s Competition Grand Prize for Footprints of the Polar Bear. Phil’s plays have appeared at ATA, Manhattan Rep, Producer’s Club, Midtown International Festival, fringe festivals in Hollywood and Cincinnati; Louisville and San Diego; Northern Kentucky University, Cincinnati LAB Theatre, Falcon Theatre, Drama Workshop, Village Players, and elsewhere. A published playwright, poet, and fiction writer, Phil resides in Kentucky with his family and their cats. Watch for his North Country Holiday coming to ATA in 2020. www.philparadis.com

Review Fix: Review Fix: What was the inspiration for this project?

Phil Paradis: The inspiration for this project for me was that the dire predictions of climate change and global warming, rising seas, melting ice caps, and super storms that climate scientists predicted for 100 years hence have already come true 100 years earlier than they predicted. Humans are facing down the existential threat of the collapse of entire ecosystems, and the possible collapse of a viable biosphere which sustains human, plant, animal and aquatic life. If that doesn’t motivate humanity to act swiftly and cooperatively and innovatively to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions and to shift to sustainable and clean energy sources, and to create new infrastructures for those renewable clean green energy sources, then we all won’t be leaving much of a world for our children’s children to the seventh generation.

Review Fix: What did you learn/are learning about yourself through this process?

Paradis: I’ve learned that I feel very strongly about this. And that as an environmentalist and activist and writer, I can perhaps help express the urgency of catastrophic loss of the biosphere. We have to hold our leaders accountable for deceiving us about global warming. I don’t want to be alarmist saying the sky is falling, but… common sense tells us that we can’t squander natural resources, pollute the rivers, aquifers, the oceans, burn the rainforests and add another billion humans to the planet every two years. What is required is visionary leadership rooted in an awareness that the biosphere is fragile and the earth and its resources are finite. Unless we adopt drastic changes in thought and behavior and adapt to an enlightened stewardship of our planetary home, and tend it as our precious garden that sustains us, we will be joining the polar bear and the dodo and the passenger pigeon

Review Fix: What are your ultimate goals for this piece for the future?  

Paradis: If people like these plays, maybe they’ll want to stage them again somewhere. That would be fine with me. 

Review Fix: What’s next ?

Paradis: I have a full length drama of an activist environmentalist drift that I would like to complete.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 13821 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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