Sustainable Theatre – Prague Quadrennial 2019 Research

For a while now, I’ve been sensing the urgency for ecology. In my personal life, I’ve started to change some of my behaviours to try to have a smaller negative impact on the planet and try to be more sustainable. However, I couldn’t help but notice that the art scene, particularly theatre, is a machine that creates, throws away and wastes right away. Despite the fact that I really like making costumes and that I would like to make it my career, I’ve started to have this little voice in my head saying that it would be hard to keep doing something that goes against my values and principles. Thus, I’ve been starting to research if eco-theatre existed and I’ve realized that it is an emerging topic for which many questions have started arising. The Prague Quadrennial (PQ) seemed to me like a good opportunity to deepen my knowledge about this topic as ecology is an international topic. In addition, to hear perspectives on the topic from people all around the world is definitely relevant. This research aims to give options and alternatives to those who would like to increase the sustainability of their work. I think that zero-waste theatre is impossible to reach for the moment as theatre is part of a bigger system that is far from ecological. Our society has a lot to change before it becomes eco-friendly and until then, theatre will have to take little steps.

To make theatre more sustainable, it has to be divided in three parts: the conception, the realization and the post-production. Our current system is putting most of the emphasis on the show itself and not really on the process that comes before and after a performance. Sustainability suggests that theatre is a three-step process and that each of them should be celebrated. Therefore, my research will be divided in three parts. The conception will talk about the processes and the shift of mentality. The realization will describe new sustainable techniques and focusing on textures. Finally, the post-production will discuss touring, transportation and storage.

Conception

This part will be based on the talks and meetings I have been attending. Those include the costume talks of the 8th of June (see bibliography 1 and 2) and a personal meeting with Robin Brazill, a professional from the Quebec team specializing in costumes and ecology as well. Furthermore, the Quebec professional exposition was about sustainable theatre. Every day at one o’clock, there was a one hour talk with professionals and students from all around the world talking about ecology in theatre. Most of those people have started to make their work a bit more sustainable or have been starting to raise questions within their community. Those talks are available online (see bibliography 3). Thus, most of what I will be saying won’t be cited because it comes from those discussions. I’ve listened to all the meetings and I’ve done a synthesis of the main ideas that often come back.

System

One of the main themes is how the system needs to change. Jasmine Catudal, the curator of the Quebec exposition, raises the idea of a circular system where material, ideas and collaborations would be exchanged and always evolving. In fact, it is not only the designers that need to change their work behaviour, but every participants of the chain. That means investors, producer, audience and professors. Concerning investors in Canada and Quebec, it would be the government’s job to support and promote sustainable theatre as our theatre is publicly funded. Actually, to achieve the 2030 Agenda, the Canadian government has put in place a set of funds to promote environmental initiatives like the EcoAction Community Funding Program (“Environmental Funding Program.”). Another idea was also to go meet engineers working on emerging eco-technology to offer them a partnership. Using and testing their products in exchange of exposing them to a larger audience could be a very interesting deal. So many people are working on amazing ideas, but sadly we never hear about them because they lack exposure. The producers and directors have the power to choose the kind of projects and to establish where the money and time will be used. Time and money are actually kew words that are repeated a lot and I will talk about them later. Designers have of course the power to choose which materials and which techniques they use and can suggest new ideas to directors. Audience have the power to support the kind of show they want to see and to be receptive to messages that might be sent by eco-performances. Finally, professors have the power to educate. A few of the students present during the meeting pointed out the fact that more and more students want to learn about sustainable techniques, but that those kinds of classes have not yet reached the education system. A few students like Iman Corbani or Holly McQuillan are orienting their studies towards eco-designs. Iman Corbani designed a 95% zero-waste production during her master (Rayes), as Holly McQuillan is currently doing her PHD on zero waste systems design in patterns making (McQuillan). Finally, a few productions recently started to introduce a new position into the theatre team: the green runner. That person has the duty to guide and to inform the team about more sustainable alternatives and to make the research that the other might not have the time to do.

A nice example that represents that idea of system was told by Ian Garrett, an important figure in the sustainable practice in art. In 2001, in PQ, he wanted to do an auction for local artists with all the material that was going to be left behind by the expositions, but the festival wasn’t much interested. They only got a few of the countries’ approval and ended up not selling much of the materials. It was a failure, but the process was a good example of how all the elements of a system need to be involved in a project for it to work. And it did have an impact in the PQ system because now the auction is an integral part of it.

Negative growth and abundance

A term that comes back a lot when you research ecology is negative growth. We need to produce and consume less and we need to slow down (Arbour-Masse.). Of course, it is hard to apply it in our capitalist society where everything changes so fast and always needs to evolve, and where we need to produce as fast as possible. The main ways to do so in theatre would be to reuse material and to go back to traditional and natural techniques. Those techniques often require a lot more time, as we will see later, but are generally less harmful for the environment. With the legalization of marijuana in Canada, there is actually a big opportunity for material as only a part of the plant is used, but the rest of the plant could serve as fibres to make fabrics. With recycling and reusing comes the idea of abundance. One of the key questions we should be asking is where we can find abundance in this world, and if so, how is it possible when we live in a world where we should reduce our production? Isn’t it contradictory? The answer, of course, is to use what we already have. There is already so much around us and most argue that to have to work with reused material was a great source of creativity. A professor talked about her university’s system where every material is reused year after year and how she is amazed that it always looks so different. It’s a chance to work with new aesthetics and it shouldn’t be seen as a constraint but more like an opportunity. Using material as a starting point is of course a big shift in our actual process, but art is an always changing medium and it might be in our best interest to make it evolve towards a material-based process. Of course, there are performances that have used material as a starting point in the context of specific thematic talking about waste for example. However, it should be used in our everyday practice. Abundance also comes from peers and community. There is so much knowledge flowing all around and by sharing it we can evolve so much faster. Sharing working space is actually one of the ideas that was given. It would allow us not only to share material, but also to share knowledge and ideas.

Money and time

As said earlier, money and time are the two biggest constraints in theatre. About money, there is always this question whether using sustainable practice will make the project more expensive or cheaper. However, it only depends on where you decide to put the money. In general, Jasmine Catudal has noticed that the money you gain with reused material that are cheaper or even free, can be used to pay people for research. The budget actually shifts from material to people, which is a good thing, but it mostly stays the same overall. Of course, we cannot forget that we are at the beginning of those new processes and that they might take a bit more of time because they are new. However, once those practices are integrated in our everyday work process, it shouldn’t create any time issues.

Concerning time, we have to come back to this idea of slowing down. The best would be to have less performances per season and to have more time spent on working on each of those performances. More time to plan, to find material, to build and especially time after the show to be able to get rid of the designs in a more sustainable way. An idea was shared about using the same designer for two consecutive shows. 30 or 40 percent of the first design’s material would have to be reused in the second one. Right now, we think about how to build a show as fast as possible and once the show is over, we just tear everything down and throw it away. If we had more time, we could think of ways to build differently so that the set could be undone in a way that every material could be separate and use again.

Culture

Finally, culture is another important theme I will address. It is obvious that in order to change our mindset regarding sustainability, we have to change a part of our culture and make eco-responsibility a part of our identity. As said before, art and culture are always evolving and shaped by the things that we care about. Annett Baumast, the June 8th key note, said something very beautiful: ecology is not about saving the planet, but rather about saving us because the world will go on without us. By changing our mindset and changing the hierarchy we have with the world, we can question conventions and change our idea of what a play should be. For me, art was always a celebration of beauty and making it in a way that respects and celebrates nature as well should be the base of it. Furthermore, it is important that we start to embrace every step of the process and not only the result. Tanja Beer, an eco-scenographer, separates theatre in three parts: the making, the celebration and the distribution. Today, the emphasis is mostly on the celebration (the performance itself) but she has the opinion that every part of the process is equal. Her most famous work is The Living Space (“The Living Stage.”) which is a recyclable, biodegradable and edible performance space. This shows how our relationship with creativity needs to change as well. As said before, using materially as the starting point is a new kind of process. However, I would like to add the dimension of collectivism. In the talk Costume and Collaboration: Designers and Makers (Bibliography 1) they ask the question of who does a costume belong to? To the designer that made it? To the actors that wear it? To the company that paid for it? And especially, what happens to a costume after a show? With costume storages, when and how can we say a design is ours or not? Our society is pretty possessive regarding copyrights, but maybe it is time that we stop owning design and embrace the collaboration processes that can be really creative and resourceful.

Finally, I’ve listed a few initiatives and groups that I found relevant:

TRIGA Collective (Toronto)

Collaborative model that values the sustainability of People, Planet and Profit. (Doyle, Shannon Lea.)

Julie’s Bicycle (London)

Charity that supports the creative community to act on climate change and environmental sustainability. Can measure carbon footprint in art spaces (“About Us” and “Creative Green Tools.”).

Fridays For Future (Every Where)

A movement that began in August 2018 when Greta Thunberg sat in front of the Swedish parliament every Friday to protest against the lack of action on the climate crisis. (“About #FridaysForFuture.”)

Broadway Green Alliance (USA)

The Broadway Green Alliance is an industry-wide initiative that educates, motivates, and inspires the entire theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices. (“About Us,” Broadway Green)

Scenery Salvage (England)

Scenery Salvage will recycle 95% of Sets and props or store them. (“Welcome to Scenery Salvage.”)

Ready, set, recycle (Canada)

Entertainment industry professionals who want to keep used scenery, props and costumes from going to waste or ending up in landfill. (“Welcome to Ready Set Recycle!”)

Realization

For this second part, I have done research on textile and different techniques that might be more sustainable. This part will be the one focusing on textures and the possibilities available.

Fibres

There are a lot of reports that analyse the ecological footprint of each fabric. There are four categories: the energy required, the CO2 released, the space needed and the amount of water used. I’ll make a brief summary because these reports were filled with complicated numbers and I’d like to focus on alternatives. Natural fibres (cotton and hemp) require a lot less energy than synthetic fibres (polyester) (“Estimating the Carbon Footprint of a Fabric.” and “Carbon Footprint Considerations.”). Natural fibres absorb CO2 and are biodegradable. Hemp requires less space and cotton is the most demanding, knowing that land space is the heaviest factor when calculating an ecological footprint (Cherrett, Nia). Natural fibres, especially cotton, requires the most water (Kiron).

However, I am more interested in new fabric alternatives like eco-cotton or eco-hemp that require a lot less energy and water (Cherett, Nia.). I have found a Spanish industry that manufactures textile eco-solutions for all types of industry. Santanderina is a leading European textile industry group with a complete, traceable, vertical production system. They take in consideration every steps of the process such as spinning, design, weaving, finishing, coating and printing (“Santanderina Group.”). For example, they have developed recycled polyester fabrics that they make from recycled plastic. They transform that plastic into thread from which they make the fabric. This process to make recycled fabric requires less energy than virgin polyester and is a lot more sustainable because it reuses plastic while preventing it to go to landfill and doesn’t depends on petroleum. In addition, this group developed recycled cotton fabric using wasted cotton and already used fabric which reduced our use of virgin cotton and thus the use of huge amount of water. Their website also displays different projects with ecological purposes like LIFE SHRETEX. The aim of the project is to produce new garments using recycled fibres from waste garments. (“Santanderina Group.”)

What is important also is what with do with those textiles. It is estimated that we produce 400 billion m2 of textile annually, but 60 billion m2 of this is left on the cutting room floor. Most of these leftovers end up in Asian landfills. We thus loose 15% of the energy and money spent on growing, harvesting, weaving, shipping (Milan AvJc). To fight those statistics, zero-waste patterns have been created. That technic, even though it requires more time to figure out how to place and adapt each par of a garment, is highly beneficial. Milan is a compagnie that research deeply the impact that fashion has on ecology and have made great suggestions about three barriers that stop the clothes industry to be eco-friendlier. Technique: we use the same old techniques without questioning them. Education: we teach that design is more important than the making. Organisation: we separate the creation and the production. Those three barriers seem to me very accurate and can definitely be apply to theatre as well. Furthermore, they listed all the benefits of zero waste design such as the use of a bigger seam allowance (that makes a garment more durable and alterable), the use of excess material as "strengthening" in sensitive areas and the reduction of cutting time. (Milan AvJc)

Emerging techniques: 3D printing & growing leather

There are new technologies and techniques emerging that could be very good alternatives in the future. Those techniques are still new and thus will obviously need to develop to be more sustainable, but they do open a new door for more eco-friendly alternatives. For example, we have 3D printing. For fashion and clothing, it is not the best option because it’s not very practical due to its rigidity, but it can be very interesting for theatre. When you look at the first collection of 3D-printed clothing by threeASFOUR the textures that were created are interesting and strong (Jacobson). There are infinite possibilities and 3D printing might be one of the most sustainable emerging technologies. I’ve researched about it and the conclusion is quite encouraging. The down side of 3D printing is that it uses a lot of energy: 50 to 100 times more electrical energy than milling and drilling (Vialva). There is also a problem with the fumes released by heathen plastic, but as it seems that it’s close to cooking indoor, it can easily be fix with ventilation systems (“Moving Toward Eco-Friendly Manufacturing.”). The good sides, on the other hand, are very promising. First, it allows to build on demand, cancelling mass industry and the need of storage spaces. Secondly, it creates a lot less waste because it uses the exact amount of material needed and doesn’t require all the steps of assembling and refining. Finally, it can use a whole range of materials from metal, ceramic to wood-like and glass-like materials, as well as reused plastic and even corn based biodegradable plastic (“Moving Toward Eco-Friendly Manufacturing.”).

There is also bacterial leather. This was developed by BioCouture, a company founded by Suzanne Lee (Fairs). This process is based on the same bacteria that grow Kombucha and she has been making whole garments with little more than bacteria, yeast, and sweetened green tea. The recipe is available to all and Lee believes that clothing materials themselves could be living organisms that could work symbiotically with the body to nourish it and even monitor it for signs of disease (Malik Chua.). The consistency and texture of that leather is actually very exciting. Lee describes it as such: ‘“Imagine leather that’s as lightweight and transparent as a butterfly wing or has the natural stretch of rubber or imagine a material with the dynamic responsiveness of the skin of a chameleon. (Grushkin)

Dyeing

Dyed fabrics are another very important part of costume making. Bleaching and dyeing are the processes that require the most water (Kiron). Furthermore, chemicals used are not good for the environment. Aura Herbal Wear is a factory based in India that was able to apply natural dye to the scale of their factory. Natural dye requires natural fibres like cotton that require a lot of water. Sonal Baid, the founder of the company, turned towards organic cotton, which uses less water, pesticides, and is easier on the soil. He blames synthetic dye factories for polluting local water sources and now would like to convert them back to natural dyes on natural fabrics (Chhabra). Rinsing water from the dying process has been contaminating many of India’s rivers. In 2014, Centre for Science and Environment did a study in Tirupur, a textile city, where the results showed that the river near the dye house had significantly more chemicals than other rivers in the area. At Aura Herbal Wear, on the opposite, the rinse water is very clean. As Sonal says: “The water that comes out of our process is purer than the underground water we start our production with. That’s our trophy” (Chhabra). Natural dyes are biodegradable, non-toxic and non-allergic. They are mostly extracted from plants by boiling them. For example, you can make yellow with turmeric or onion skin, pink with a voca skin or beets, purple and blue with red cabbage and black beans, brown and black with tea and green with chlorophyll (Weyand). However, natural dyes do have a negative side. They are expensive, require more time, require larger quantities to create the same depth in colour, need mordants which include heavy metal salts to stick to the fabric, the color is not the most vibrant and washes off with time. Furthermore, as natural dye is made from plant, the amount of land needed to grow them is quite large so it questions its sustainability (“Natural Dyes and its Importance.”).

In my opinion, natural dye might be hard to use alone for large scale industry. The best option would be to find a balance natural and synthetic dye and to find a way to filter the rinsing water contaminated by chemicals. For small scale however, natural dye is a lot eco-friendlier and even though they might require more time and testing, I think they are a good alternative, especially if we stay in that mind state of negative growth and slowing down.

Texture: Pleating and Heat Gun

Finally, to add to the textures created by 3D printing and bacterial leather, I would like to talk about pleating and heat gun techniques. Those are two fabric manipulations that only require heat and that can create an infinite variety of patterns and textures. In the context of the Prague Quadrennial, I have intended the Plica Ex Plica Workshop with Tsai-Chun Huang, where I have had the chance to deeply explore pleating techniques. The main idea is to create a mold with a specific type of cardboard that can be reused many times. Once the two panels are folded, you unfold them and lay the fabric between the two panels. Once the fabric is strongly stuck between the panels, you refold them slowly until it’s all full folded. Then you steam the molds for 30 minutes and when you take the fabric out of the molds, it should have taken the shape of the pleats. This technique work with synthetic fabric like polyester, but not all of them work the same so they should be tested first. Creating a fold takes time of course, but once the mold is made, you can reuse it many times. In addition, let’s keep in mind that it’s okay to take time to make costumes in the slowing down mindset.

As for heat gun, it is a technique that is a little bit more aggressive. By using a heat gun and its quick even movements, the surface texture of fabric changes. The heat burns the fabric and creates amazing bubbled effects on synthetic fabrics or burned patterns on natural fabrics (“Burning and Melting Fabric.”). Those two techniques are very interesting regarding sustainability because they don’t require a lot of energy or heavy chemicals and they offer such a big range of possibilities. They should definitely become part of costume designer’s usual techniques.

Post production

Finally, the post-production is the part that happens after a show. We often forget about this part, but it should be as important as the others steps. In this last part, I will discuss touring, transportation and storage. The information below also comes from the 1 o’clock discussions of the Quebec meetings.

Transportation

As many researchers have demonstrated, planes are the worst eco-friendly type of transportation. When you start to think about the things you can do to be more sustainable, then taking the train or the bus becomes your main transports. A few designers in the Quebec’s meeting have started thinking about their designs in a way that can be carried easy by hand and in those public transports. Set might be more complicated to fit in a luggage, but finding ways to make costumes fit doesn’t seem impossible. That would allow us to not use transportation trucks and to use more eco-friendly transports. A designer also said something that I thought was really cute. She said that every time she would take the plane, she would plant a tree. I think that’s a beautiful initiative that shows awareness. Of course, it is not possible to be perfect and to never take the plane, especially when you live in a country as big as Canada, but at least it shows some caring, awareness and mindfulness. There are a few examples I thought were funny like an opera house in Sweden that wouldn’t accept orchestra coming by flights or the music band Radiohead only accepting interviews from journalist that came biking.

Touring

Touring is an important part of many shows. As said above, making designs more transportable would make touring a lot more sustainable, but the discussions also questioned touring itself. Touring has the quality of reusing the designs for an extended period of time contrarily to shows that just throw away everything after a few representations, but the transportation it requires questions its legitimacy. There were ideas raised about a new kind of touring that would recreate a show based on the community and the material and resources available. Those shows would be more site-specific driven performances and be unique. That kind of show would of course require more time, but it could give an authentic result unique to the space and would be more sustainable.

Storage

The last point to discuss is storage. It requires a lot of place to store costumes and set and that kind of space is not always available and is expensive. Some people have started to partnership with owners of empty places, like social clubs, that might be interested to participate in sustainable projects even though they have no link to theatre. One of the designers invited to PQ just went around in his city and found people that had empty garage and that were happy to support an eco-friendly artistic and cultural project. In Montreal, Jasmine Catudal is working on a network that would register all the materials available so that what people have and what people need can be exchanged. It is a system that wouldn’t require storing, but just a platform where people would say what they have and people interested can go get the material for free or for lower prices. Those kinds of alternatives are very new, but they are worth our attention and support.

In conclusion, there are a lot of initiatives that give us alternatives and options, but we just need to find them because they are new and small and don’t have much exposure. After this research, I will definitely be changing my relationship with creation and design and I really hope that the thread of design in general will go toward a more sustainable direction. I would like to end this paper by underlining that eco-responsibility is not something perfect. That aspect has been raised many times through the meeting and conversation I’ve been attending: it is impossible to be perfect. Being aware and using a eco-friendlier process is something that you use in order to make your work a bit more ethical and sustainable, but it’s not something that you can apply to everything. Sometime you do need to use polluting material that won’t be reused afterwards, but that’s just part of the world we live in. It is important not to be discouraged by all the waste we witness, to keep our hopes up and celebrate the little steps we do one by one even if they are little because it’s from those little steps that the big changes will happen.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Meeting and talks from June 8th

1:Costume and Collaboration: Designers and Makers by Sofia Pantouvaki (Aalto University), Suzanne Osmond (National Institute of Dramatic Art), Madeline Taylor (University of Melbourne).

2: What costume Can Do and Be by Rosane Muniz (artist, curator), SodjaLotker (Prague Performing Arts Academy), Christina Lindgren (Oslo National Academy of the Arts), Arianne Vitale Cardoso (University of São Paulo).

1’oclock meeting from Quebec professional exhibition

3: http://apres-after.org/

Other sources

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31 : RAYES, Chrisitine. « Meet the mastermind working to move theatre into the zero-waste era.” Concordia University News. 4 July 2019. https://www.concordia.ca/cunews/offices/advancement/2019/07/04/meet-the-mastermind-working-to-move-theatre-into-zero-waste-era.html. 17 July 2019