Sea Change

Sea Change: Reversing the Tide is a dramatic lecture combining the knowledge of science with the wisdom of poetry in which renowned scientist Roger Payne and acclaimed actress Lisa Harrow argue compellingly that man is not the overseer of life but an integral part of life’s complex web, and that our survival requires that we must attend not just to our own wellbeing, but to the wellbeing of the entire web of life.

Written and performed by Payne and Harrow, and including the poetry and prose of Wendell Berry, Robert Frost, Melville, Mary Oliver, Carl Sagan, Shakespeare, Shelley, Gary Snyder, Victor di Suvero and others, Sea Change: Reversing the Tide lays out the consequences of humanity’s current indifference to natural laws and offers practical help for change. The audience emerges with a clear understanding of their role in the natural world, the urgency of living sustainably, and some effective steps that can get us there.

Lisa Harrow
New Zealander Lisa Harrow’s theatrical career began with the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she starred opposite Judi Dench in Twelfth Night. She went on to star in several West End productions, on TV, and in film opposite such actors as Patrick Stewart, Peter O’Toole, Pierce Brosnan, Glenda Jackson, and Sam Neill.

Her film credits include The Last Days of Chez Nous (Australian Oscar for Best Actress) and Sunday (which won the Grand Jury Award, 1997 Sundance Film Festival). For TV, she played the title role in the nine-hour BBC/PBS Masterpiece Theatre production of Nancy Astor.

Since her American debut as Vivian Bearing in the Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Production of Wit, Lisa has garnered critical acclaim for roles such as Medea in Medea, Raynevskya in The Cherry Orchard and Kate Keller in All My Sons.

Lisa is also the author of the environmental handbook What Can I Do?–four separate editions of which have been published in the US, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

Dr. Roger Payne
Roger Payne, Founder/President of Ocean Alliance, has an BA from Harvard and Ph.D. from Cornell. Before founding Ocean Alliance, he spent six years on the Tufts University faculty and eighteen in a joint appointment at Rockefeller University and the Wildlife Conservation Society. He is best known for discovering (with Scott McVay) that the complex sound sequences of humpback whales are songs, and that blue fin whale sounds carry across oceans. His many expeditions have studied every large whale species.

The “father of whale science”, Payne has written and presented television documentaries and the IMAX film, Whales. His awards include a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, a knighthood from the Netherlands, a UN Global 500 Award, an Emmy for best interview, and Oxford University’s Dawkins Prize.