Cognitive Ecology in Chantal Bilodeau's Climate Change Theatre.

This article examines Chantal Bilodeau's Arctic Cycle Project, particularly the plays *Forward* and *No More Harveys*, as examples of climate change theatre that foreground cognitive ecology—the study of human cognition as shaped by interactions with physical, social, and cultural environments. Bilodeau’s dramaturgy employs the concept of distributed cognition, encompassing embodied, embedded, extended, and enactive cognition (the "4E cognition" framework), to depict how climate change influences characters’ thought processes and self-conceptions within ecological systems. The plays integrate testimonial storytelling and anthropomorphize non-human elements to foster empathic witnessing and expand audience awareness of climate injustice, especially highlighting the disproportionate impacts on Indigenous peoples and women. Overall, Bilodeau’s work situates climate change theatre as a vital cultural practice that challenges apathy by making the invisible and incremental effects of ecological crisis perceptible through innovative theatrical strategies.