What does life look like if
we get it right?
2024 Alfred P. Sloan
Writers Lab Fellowship
What does the world look like in 20 years?
Hi, I’m Emma.
I grew up exploring wetlands with my dad. He would throw waders on me and we would tramp through swamps and rivers, him pointing out a brightly colored fish or naming a bird by its song.
To this day, when I’m feeling unsettled, I return to those places. I was standing on the edge of a beaver dam one day and thought,
"What if everybody lived in a place this beautiful?"
And what if it helped the climate crisis?
What does life look like if we get it right?
Beaverton, a one-hour series, is my answer to that.
Because even though we get it right, things can, and will, go wrong.
The series is set in the year 2047 in a lush canal city that mitigates the effects of climate change with beaver colonies.
It’s an enchanted-feeling world — think Wednesday — but the story engine is a small-town ensemble like Gilmore Girls.
There’s no magic here, just science, and our three protagonists — adopted siblings with different racial identities Circe, Orion, and Electra.
The three live together following the death of their mother while Electra, the youngest, finishes high school.
Our pilot sets us up for season one, and the overall push and pull of the series.
Circe is thrown into crisis management after a moose she helped to reintroduce injures an elderly citizen. Overnight, Circe’s job goes from a dream to a nightmare as an unhinged local politician grasping for power leads protests against the town’s rewilding efforts.
Which not only threatens Circe’s livelihood and her ability to provide for Electra, but the animals she views as an extension of her family. To make matters worse, the protests are backed by a shadowy group Citizens for Human Rights that are pushing back against climate mitigation efforts around the nation.
In the midst of this, Electra’s birth father moves to town and asks to meet her. This forces Circe to grapple with information about her past and what that means as Electra moves into adulthood.
When his sisters need his peace-keeping abilities the most, Orion gets distracted by a romance with the loud librarian that keeps interrupting his work. They go on an incredibly romantic date which is unfortunate because it upends his tidy life and raises questions about his future.
At it’s core, Beaverton explores how our connection or disconnection to human and non-human communities shape our everyday lives. It’s a calming story for a tired world while still grappling with the reality that even in the future we want, conflict will still exist.
But even in the midst of this conflict, a kayak date with your siblings can help you keep fighting for all the progress we’ve made.
Inspired By:
Project Status
Beaverton was written as a visual project but would be *expensive* to produce.
So I'm crowd-funding an audio version!
The vision is a dramatized table read with paid voice talent. I'm a video editor by day and will be adding music cues and sound effects to create a full show.
I am currently preparing to cast. We will be recording in-person in Ann Arbor Michigan.
What is a dramatized table read? Our dramatized table read is a cross between an audio drama and an audiobook. This audio project will include all of the action lines in the screenplay read by a narrator. For fans of dramatized audiobooks this is very similar in style.
FAQs
Where is the crowdfunding money going? I believe in building a network of creatives able to practice their craft and get paid for it. Most of the money raised will be going towards voice talent, with the rest covering equipment, recording and editing costs. While I cannot cover my typical editing fee, I will be taking a small stipend to make up for time I have to take away from paid projects,
What's important about this story? This project transforms climate science into a story, with a focus on solutions. Many people don't know about the incredible options at our fingertips to address climate change and biodiversity loss. This project is the result of months of research work. I also partnered with a science advisor as part of my fellowship with the Alfred P Sloan Foundation to double-check the science aspects of the story.