Sustainability

Sustainable Scenic Design
Carrie Ferrelli

A peek at the dumpster behind a scene shop after a large-scale production will tell you; theatre scenery is usually not sustainable. Shows in the Emmett Robinson Theater at the College of Charleston use thousands of dollars worth of material for a show that runs for a little more than a weekend and then most of the set goes straight to a landfill. As we as a school and world realize the importance of sustainable practices, the need to reevaluate practices is necessary across campus, in our case in scenic design. Sustainability in theatre is not a new concept. Tony award winning scenic designer Donyale Werle serves as co-chair of the pre/post production committee of the Broadway Green Alliance. Werle’s approach to sustainability usually revolves around found materials, showcased in her Tony award winning design for Peter & the Starcatcher. Of course, as we explore in our QEP initiative and in the show that is the focus of this blog, An Enemy of the People, sustainability is about much more than just saving trees and the rest of the environment. True sustainability involves labor, cost, and time. Many solutions, while they aid the environmental sustainability effort, cut into all of these other factors, especially time. The true challenge of sustainable theatre practices, and what I sought in my design, is finding a way to balance all of these factors.

Our approach to achieve sustainability in our scenic elements has been to use as much stock material and reclaimed/recycled material as possible. For example, most of the furniture was pulled from our stock. The foliage details on the wall are flower and leaf props from previous shows. The biggest effort for sustainability on this show, however, was finding a sustainable lumber alternative. What we came up with was using pallet wood for all the slats on our walls. While we could not find a way around making frames out of 2x4 to start with a square, safe foundation, the facing on all the walls is reclaimed. This alternative also cut costs, although did take some extra time dismantling the pallets to get the wood. Below is a picture of all of the pallets it took to get the walls fully built.

Lighting Design & Sustainability
Ryan Miller

With the plan to change the time from act to act, the lighting design is meant to mirror the changes to household lighting in the 1880's, 1930's, 1960's, and modern time. As time progressed, light bulbs began to be more illuminative, with higher light quality. This change also occurred with the color of light given off by household lightbulbs. With each updated bulb, the amount of energy required to power them has steadily decreased throughout the decades.

From an electrician point of view this design will pursue the goal sustainability by means of using donated cable to power the instruments. Miles of cable was given to the shop without connectors, so I, along with other shop employees, have taken on the task of sorting, joining, and giving connectors to these lengths to keep from having to purchase new cable. Also, any gel that is not burned through by the end of the run will be able to be resorted and then repurposed for future shows.

Costume Design & Sustainability
Margaret Lavigne

The costume design helps to illustrate the time changes between acts by evoking silhouettes that are in popular throughout the 1880's, 1930's, 1960's, and modern time. Along with the progression of time the costumes also connect to the character's motives by intensifying in color or fading depending on their choices to let the community rot or stand up as a activist. 

In our efforts to keep the costumes sustainable we are pulling from the costume shop's stock to reuse as many garments as possible, garments and fabric from stock are also being re-purposed to create new costumes that will be used in An Enemy of the People. Thrift shopping for pieces that we do not have is one of the ways we plan to remain sustainable while also working to create the desired design. Once the production is over the costumes will go back into stock so that they can be used again in future productions.