GREEN THEATER GOES GLOBAL

How sustainability took center stage during lockdown

The Piccolo Teatro production of A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction in Milan. Photo: Masiar Pasquali

What will theater look like after the climate apocalypse? Maybe something like A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction.

When it was staged at the Barbican in London, electricity for the production was entirely generated in real time by onstage cyclists riding 10 bikes. At the Théâtre de Liège in Belgium, they did it with two. In Zagreb, the Croatian National Theatre cast child actors as a reminder of the generation that stands to inherit the imperiled future. At the National Theater and Concert Hall in Taiwan, five-watt LED bulbs were enclosed in reused plastic bottles filled with water, in order to refract the most light possible from minimal power.

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But Play for the Living, which will have completed a zero-travel “tour” of ten countries by the end of this year, isn’t meant as a preview of our inevitable doom. Instead it’s a provocation for theatermakers around the world to make sustainability a priority—and it’s part of a growing wave of green initiatives that have boosted awareness and created tools for reducing the environmental impact of shows, venues, and practices both onstage and backstage.

In this SPOTLIGHT STORY, I’ll highlight:

• the data on theater’s carbon footprint

• how lockdown spurred the creation of ambitious international projects now contributing to the conversation

• the country that’s taken the lead in the push for sustainability

• the comprehensive resources out there for creators, producers and organizations on Broadway, on the West End, and all over the globe

Let’s go green.

HOW THE SHUTDOWN BECAME A STIMULUS

In early 2020, everything stopped. But for many in the theater industry, it was also a time when things got started.

The pan-European STAGES (Sustainable Theatre Alliance for a Green Environmental Shift) launched after theaters everywhere were darkened by COVID-19. And according to Serge Rangoni, the general director of Théâtre de Liège, it perhaps never would have happened without the pause of lockdown.