Sustainable Theatre: New Stage Management Practices

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Starting off this series with the area of theatre I know best: stage management! While stage and production management do not contribute as much waste as other departments, we can still hold ourselves accountable for the wellbeing of the environment while practicing our craft. As I talked about in my previous post, there is little data regarding the actual footprint of theatrical productions, although organizations like Julie‘s Bicycle are working to change that. However, a lack of published data should not hinder us from recognizing how our industry contributes to climate change. In this series, I’ve been using How Bad Are Bananas? to sculpt a more detailed picture for how our industry impacts our environment in an effort to make up for the lack of data on our footprint.

ways your stage management practice is creating waste…

paper use

It should come as no surprise that paper waste makes the top of this list. As stage managers, we print and reprint scripts and paperwork constantly throughout the production process. In the theatre industry, we are accustomed to having a hard copy of everything from props lists to daily schedules; when an update is made, new copies must be printed and distributed. Mike Berners-Lee estimates that each kilo of paper produced uses about 2.35kg of carbon emissions, not including the carbon it takes to print on the paper. If you use recycled paper, the carbon emissions are cut in half, which is great incentive to buy recycled paper if you can (Berners-Lee, 2011).

energy waste

Electricity is one of the biggest proponents of consumption and waste for theatre, and it is one of the biggest bills a theatre company will pay for. As stated in How Bad Are Bananas?, electricity is one of the biggest contributors to carbon emissions across the globe (Berners-Lee, 2011). The rehearsal room exemplifies just how much we rely on running electricity to do our job: in a normal day we have the A/C running, the lights on, a speaker on to work with sound cues, our laptop and phone plugged in to ensure their availability at all times, and, most importantly, the coffee pot perpetually brewing. Not only that, but many productions are reliant on the use of electronic communications systems backstage for tech and performance. As a stage manager, or any theatre practitioner, heavy electricity use is essential to performing our job.

travel

Being a stage manager puts us in a unique situation in terms of travel to and from work. While actors are often able to carpool to rehearsals and performances, stage management is the first in the door, and the last out. Our schedules make it harder for use to take advantage of carpooling, especially if we are the only member of stage management on the production. Next to electricity consumption, travel makes up for a large portion of carbon emissions for any given theatre production, especially if we are living and working in a place where public transportation is limited or not an option altogether.

supplies

I’m using this category to encompass all the miscellaneous, single-use supplies we might work with during the production process, the biggest proponents being office supplies, tape, and hospitality amenities. As stage managers, these are all necessary tools for our process, but they are not always conducive to a sustainable practice. I know I personally like to take my notes in a paper notebook, and I make use of a lot of sticky notes and plastic tabs for marking up my scripts. Throughout the production process, we use endless amounts of gaffer and spike tape to mark our sets; during the run of a show, I usually have to replace spike marks at least every week. Lastly, many of the items provided for actors to make coffee and tea require disposable packaging, and if you’re not providing reusable mugs, then you’re disposing of a lot of coffee cups each day. All of these small but plentiful examples of single-use items used in a production process add up to a lot of waste going into the landfill.

how you can reduce the footprint of your production as a stage manager…

While our individual practices may not produce as much waste as those of our collaborators, being a stage manager comes with the opportunity to effect change for the whole company. For example, many theatre managers are responsible for closing down the building after a performance: that means we get the opportunity to see that all the stage lighting and sound equipment, the HVAC, and the backstage and FOH lights get turned off, ensuring that energy is not being wasted while the building is not in use. Small actions like this allow us to make a large impact on the footprint of our theatrical process. The next time you’re in the theatre, try implementing some of the tips below to make your practice more eco-friendly!

conserve paper by…

• Going digital for all of your paperwork! Use tools like Google Forms and Google Sheets to create all necessary paperwork and gather information from your collaborators instead of having to do it on paper (@GreenTheatreUK). A tutorial on how to use the Google Suite in your stage management process is coming soon! Get notified here.
• Creating a paperwork portal. This involves creating one central location for all necessary paperwork on a production, like accident reports and PR forms. This encourages company members to use the digital version rather than filling out everything on a hard copy. It also increases efficiency and accuracy. Your paperwork portal could simply be a Google Drive or Dropbox folder, or you could create a free website with all the links to the forms (Broadway Green Alliance).
• Creating a “to print” list during your pre-production week will allow you to keep track of what needs to get printed before rehearsals and how many copies need to be made. Any changes should be recorded on the list so that by the end of the week, you’re only printing what’s absolutely necessary. This also prevents you from printing and reprinting documents after changes have been made or mistakes fixed. Instead, take the time to go through all of the documents, make sure they are updated, fix any typos, and then print them at the end of the week.
• Asking actors if they would like an electronic copy of the script. Using tablets and phones in rehearsal is becoming more and more popular as technology becomes more efficient and reliable, and some actors would prefer to use a PDF of the script rather than a hard copy (Broadway Green Alliance).
• If you are working on a musical or opera, you can print off only the sections of the score that each performer needs. It takes more work on your part, but it saves a lot of paper than the alternative of printing out an entire copy of the score for each performer (Broadway Green Alliance).
• Similarly, if you are working on a play in development, you can make sure to print off only the pages with script changes rather than printing a whole new script whenever a change is made.
• Finally, whenever printing is necessary, you can reduce paper use by 50% if you print on both sides!

conserve energy by…

• Using power strips in the rehearsal room and at the tech table. Power strips are not only convenient for providing more outlets to plug in electronics, they also help users conserve energy by making it easier to turn off energy flow to the devices: instead of having to unplug all electronics you can just turn off the whole power strip to conserve energy. If you want to take this a step further, you can purchase a smart power strip (affiliate), which cuts off energy flow automatically to devices that are turned off.
• In a similar manner, you can charge your electronic tools using a solar power bank! Stage managers use their laptops, phones, smart watches, and other electronic tools constantly throughout the day. Why not charge those up using a portable solar bank (affiliate)?
• Unplug electronics while you are using them. If your laptop is fully charged and still plugged in, you’re still drawing energy from the outlet! Most electronics will draw power from the outlet in order to avoid using energy from the battery, which is why it is good to unplug laptops and phones whenever they have enough charge.
• Power down after every rehearsal and performance. Remembering to turn off the HVAC and lighting in the rehearsal hall when you’re done can save so much energy! Remind crew to completely power down all sound & lighting systems, printers , and computers so they are not using “stand-by” power overnight. If you can, unplug electronics to conserve even more energy (this will need to be a discussion with management and design staff before you add “unplugging” to your post-show duties)(Broadway Green Alliance).

reduce waste by…

• Trying not to buy new items if you can get them already used. For instance, you can try to utilize supplies leftover from your previous productions, such as unfilled notebooks, old binders, etc. Programs like Broadway Green Alliance’s Binder Project allows theatre companies to lend out used binders for others to take for their current productions. Is there a program you could start in your own theatre community?
• Encourage the use of reusable water bottles and coffee mugs in your theatre company! At one of my theatre companies, we used mugs taken from the props department for our hospitality station. Each actor got their own mug to use for coffee and tea, and they were responsible for washing them at the end of the day.
• Create a recycling bin! If your facility doesn’t already have a recycling program, you can bring in your own receptacle to have in the rehearsal room and backstage. You can use whatever is available, even if it is just a cardboard box labelled “recycling”. This is especially helpful for touring shows where it is not guaranteed that each facility will have a recycling bin; you can bring your own instead! You can collect recycling while at work and then bring it to the nearest recycling facility at the end of the week (@GreenTheatreUK, Broadway Green Alliance).
• Use biodegradable tape or chalk for marking up the stage or rehearsal room. You can reduce some of the waste created in rehearsal and performances by substituting traditional spike tape for biodegradable options or using a chalk pen (@GreenTheatreUK).

more sustainable theatre ideas…

hold a donor drive: have patrons and theatre donors bring in items for donation. Some possibilities could be office supplies, mugs, reusable water bottles, clothing, decor, electronics, etc.

become a green captain: the Broadway Green Alliance has a program to help individuals create a greener environment in the theatre. They will give you the support needed to make your production as sustainable as it can be. It also introduces you to a network of individuals committed to creating a greener theatre industry.

track your theatre’s footprint with Julie’s Bicycle’s free tools! JB created a suite of Creative Green tools to help track the total carbon footprint of any creative project, including theatrical productions.

where to find more tips on being green in the theatre….

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for further reading…

• Berners-Lee, Mike. How Bad Are Bananas?: The Carbon Footprint of Everything. Vancouver: Greystone Books, 2011. Print.
• Production. (n.d.). Retrieved August 23, 2020, from https://www.broadwaygreen.com/production-1