Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

Lee channels Carson in A Sense of Wonder

Actress, writer, and environmental activist Kaiulani Lee will be bringing her one-woman show, A Sense of Wonder, to Mount Holyoke’s Gamble Auditorium tonight, at 7:00 p.m. In A Sense of Wonder, Lee portrays environmental author Rachel Carson.

Carson is generally credited with beginning the modern environmental movement in the 1960s with the publication of her book Silent Spring, which condemned the use of DDT and other pesticides. Her book led to the creation of a presidential commission, which supported her findings and restricted usage of environmentally harmful chemicals. She died in 1964, only two years after her book was published.

In A Sense of Wonder, Lee portrays Carson toward the end of her life, when Silent Spring has begun to receive acclaim, and she has become aware of her terminal cancer.

“Lee wrote the show,” explained Jane Evans, Program Coordinator of the Center for Environmental Literacy at Mount Holyoke College. “She had access to journals and personal information. She’s created a show that blends the personal and the public.

“It’s quite dramatic,” Evans continued. “This actress becomes Rachel Carson. It’s very provocative.”

The event is being sponsored by the Center for Environmental Literacy and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Carson herself worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service in the 1930s and 40s, as a biologist and editor.

Kathy Zeamer, the director of External Affairs for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s division in Hadley, is excited about the opportunity to educate the public about Carson’s life.

“It’s interesting for us to be able to showcase a theatrical event that showcases a prominent environmentalist,” Zeamer said. “Rachel Carson is one of our own.”

Despite the enormity of Carson’s contribution to the environmental field, little is mentioned of her today. This may have been due to the fact that she died before her work achieved its greatest recognition, and because she was a fairly private person.

“She was a very introspective woman,” Zeamer said. “She’s not one of these huge characters. She was intellectual, studious, and very much a naturalist.

“I wonder,” she continued, “if it’s partly because she was a woman. Women often aren’t recognized [for their contributions].”

A Sense of Wonder is free, and open to the public at large. Its performance is part of a series of events planned for National Wildlife Refuge Week, and is being held in honor of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s centennial anniversary in 2003.

Another event planned in honor of National Fish and Wildlife Week is Our Wild Century, a photography exhibit displayed in the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Hadley office, located at 300 Westgate Center Drive, behind Staples. The exhibit features 47 photos of National Wildlife Refuges in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S.

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