As the public becomes increasingly aware of the disastrous effects of climate change, individuals and businesses across the globe have tried to decrease their waste by pursuing environmentally friendly and sustainable practices. Grocery stores are introducing reusable shopping bags, coffee shops are eliminating plastic straws, and movie theatres are recycling 3D glasses. The theatre industry has made some attempts to follow suit, but their expenditure of resources is still extremely high. To envision the scope of expenditure, consider the many costumes and set pieces that get tossed in the trash after a show closes, the enormous amount of electricity necessary to get those high-wattage stage lights up and running, and all of the paper used for flyers, posters, programs, and scripts. With this amount of waste, it’s no wonder the theatre industry has been referred to as the “eco-vandal of the entertainment world.”
According to Graham Eatough, director of the theatre company Suspect Culture, this shouldn’t be the case. In an article from The Guardian Magazine, Eatough says, "We should champion the beauty of anachronistic artforms. If you asked a green activist to describe the ideal form of entertainment in 2050, it would resemble theatre: natural comings-together of communities to tell stories, without the wasteful production of artefacts." While this seems obvious on paper, the theatre industry is still struggling to turn their status as an eco-vandal to one of an eco-paragon.
College-level theatre programs have an important responsibility to foster the growth of an environmentally conscious future workforce. Developing theatre professionals with environmentally conscious mindsets and skills may not only help save the planet, but can also help save money- a hugely beneficial skill for any theatre practitioner to have. Many colleges have noticed the significance and urgency of eco-friendly education and have worked towards making their productions “greener.” The theatre department at St. Lawrence University implemented sustainable theatre practices their production of David Stallings’ Dark Water last year. Their faculty said that they “felt this approach would speak to St. Lawrence University's larger goal of achieving climate neutrality and would allow us to highlight some of the play's broader environmental themes.” They decided that reusing sets and costumes from their previous shows would not only be greener but would also give their students a more realistic theatre-making experience, as many designers at smaller regional theatres are constantly creating new ways to reinvent the same object.
Other schools have started to rent out their sets to nearby programs in order to combat their low storage space. Large costume and props collections can periodically be sold off to others who can reuse it and can be kept available to other theatre companies and groups for a simple cleaning fee. By borrowing from others, theatres do not have to waste resources by making their own costumes and props and then throwing them away. At Emerson College, they strip all useful hardware at strike and keep it for reuse. This keeps hundreds of screws, nails, and casters out of landfills. They also try to use stock size platforms (e.g., 4’ by 8’, 4’ by 4’, etc.) when designing and building scenery so they can be reused for future productions. Some of their more elaborate units (e.g., various size turntables), costume pieces, and props are stored for reuse.
Lighting is another large source of resource consumption in the theatre. Many programs have replaced the 500W lamps they had with 13W LED lamps. LED lamps are known to be better for the environment, as 95% of the energy in LEDs is converted into light and only 5% is wasted as heat. This change allows programs to save a significant number of kilowatt hours, thus resulting in lower electrical usage and total fossil fuel emissions. LED lights also have built-in color-changing technology which eliminates some use of traditional lighting gels that have to be thrown out after they get old.
Theatres are still trying to figure out how to lessen the use of paper, but this has proved difficult due to the audience’s expectation of receiving programs. Some have tried to move their programs online, but many audience members want to look at the program throughout the show and the glare of phone screens, tablets, etc. is just too distracting during a performance. However, printing fewer pages and providing links for supplemental dramaturgical materials, etc. and collecting programs at the end of each performance are small steps that could be easily implemented. Advertising can be done primarily through social media and news reports, links to digital programs can be posted at the box office, and rehearsing actors can carry their scripts on iPads. This is great for students, as many have grown up in this increasingly technological age and are comfortable using that medium.
Luckily, there are programs popping up across the country that help collegiate-level programs get started on their path to a greener future: The Broadway Green Alliance being one of the biggest. According to their website, they are “an industry-wide initiative that educates, motivates, and inspires the entire theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices.” In March of 2013, the Education Committee of the Broadway Green Alliance launched the BGA College Green Captain program. Modeled after Broadway’s own Green Captain Initiative, they provide school’s resources for greening their productions, as well as connecting students to the Broadway community and other eco-friendly colleges. Each college who participates in this program has a faculty or staff member, a lead student, and one student assigned to each production. Visit the Broadway Green Alliance website to learn more about their efforts and for information how to get your school involved.
There are a lot of ways in which theatre programs can make their schools more sustainable, but it takes an effort and a committed leadership. In the words of Scott MacDonald, a senior at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama and a captain of their Green Initiative Program, “Switching to sustainable practices often means changing very large or central parts of a program's operation, and this requires not only support but motivation from the faculty and school heads. This sometimes means financial support or changes to the status quo, which can be difficult to muster. Students usually don't have time or ability to completely organize large systemic change in a program that they are only a part of for a few years.”
It’s also difficult knowing where to start. MacDonald suggests beginning by simply tracking data. This means writing down how much new material is brought in per show or year, what types, how much is trashed vs. retained, etc. After a couple of years, programs will begin to notice trends and can make informed decisions about the most effective changes for their specific program
While adding a mandatory class or weekend workshop on environmentally friendly theatre practices could be helpful, it’s more important that our programs exhibit the behavior they want their students to learn. Telling students about the importance of the environment means nothing if those same students don’t see the faculty they look up to putting those practices to action. With strong, environmentally conscious leadership, collegiate theatre programs could have an enormously positive effect on the world around us.
About the Author:
Aggie Woodbury, originally from Syracuse, New York, is in her fourth and final year of the undergraduate dramaturgy program at Carnegie Mellon School of Drama. After graduation, she hopes to pursue a path that allows her to combine her love for theatre, film, and environmental sustainability.