Seattle University’s greenSquat program in a new way of producing theater – two or more productions share a stage – the second production “squats” on the set and production design of the first, reducing materials used, and reducing the environmental impact of the shows, which can often be substantial.

The first greenSquat production is a new play called WRITER 1272, a comedy by local playwright Vincent Delaney about plagiarism, ghost writing, and the complex conditions of college admissions. WRITER 1272 is “squatting” on SU’s recent staging of Island of Slaves, reusing the set, production materials and even posters from the previous play to create an eco-friendly production. Any added materials are themselves found, recycled, or repurposed – nothing new. greenSquat creator Steve Galatro says says, “Theatre is wasteful. In terms of time, money, energy, and physical resources, we have not yet done our best as a theatre community to embrace the trend of sustainability that is now present all around us. In greenSquat, we are challenging students to examine their responsibility as eco-conscious artists: examining the wide array of materials that make a production and imagining their potential to make another production entirely.”

SU hopes that greenSquat will inspire other theater artists to reduce their environmental impact as well and has partnered with a number of local businesses to promote the idea and will offer raffles and green product giveaways at all shows.

WRITER 1272 runs through March 13 at SU’s Lee Center for the Arts; tickets are available at the door or in advance through the box office which is open Wednesday through Saturday from 1:30 to 6:00 pm; call 206.296.2244 for ticket details.

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Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center and Benaroya Hall have led a local effort to host the 18th annual International Association of Assembly Managers - Performing Arts Managers Conference (IAAM-PAMC), March 6 - 9, at The Grand Hyatt, Benaroya Hall and McCaw Hall.

The IAAM, a 80-year old non-profit professional association for managers of public assembly facilities, including stadiums, arenas, convention centers and performing arts centers, provides a variety of professional development resources to the field, including educational seminars, publications, training and conferencesand this annual four-day conference for performing arts center managers that draws over 250 attendees from the United Statesand Canada.

The overall conference theme is sustainability - both in performing arts venues and the arts they accommodate. Participants will discuss both how to manage and maintain their facilities in environmentally sustainable ways and to sustain supportive audiences. There will be a strong emphasis on skills building, programming and communications. In addition to several sessions on sustainable design and operations, the conference includes specific sessions on cultural facilities planning, television production in performing arts facilities, and the latest in theatrical production and box office technologies.

Conference participants will have an opportunity to explore several of the city’s cultural venues through tours and a planned scavenger hunt. Through these activities, conference attendees will visit 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT, Benaroya Hall, EMP I SFM, McCaw Hall, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Public Library, Seattle Children’s Theatre, Space Needle, Teatro ZinZanni, The Paramount Theatre and Town Hall Seattle.

PAMC has come to be known nationally as the preeminent conference for managers of all facets of theatres, performing arts centers, and suppliers of products and services to this sector of the venue management industry. The choice of Seattle as a conference venue speaks to the city’s reputation as a world class center for the performing arts.

For more information on the role of McCaw Hall in hosting the Performing Arts Managers Conference and its other business, arts and community endeavors, please visit www.seattlecenter.com or contact Chris Miller at 206-733-9711.

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DEPERE, WI—St. Norbert College is open their doors March 23 for an exhibit and discussion on the new green theatre movement. From 3:00 PM until 8:00 PM in the lobby of Walter Theatre on the St. Norbert’s campus manufacturers will be on hand to discuss their latest innovations on greening up theatre.

Green Theatre has become a big topic, especially with all the energy and resources that go into a single production. School districts have begun making grant money available for environmentally projects as well, but theatre sometimes are at a loss on how to green their processes enough to qualify for the funds. The Green Theatre Showcase aims to answer some of these questions for theatres looking to go green.

Representatives of ETC, Strong, Rosco, Altman, Color Kinetics, Prism Projection, Martin and probably more manufacturers will be on hand to address how their products fit into the green movement, including such products as Low VOC paints & coatings, LED lighting fixtures, modern HID followspots to replace aging incandescent units, or products for any other area of a theatre.

There will be a product presentation at 5:30 PM. Refreshments and snacks will be provided. Attendees will also receive a CD containing information on the featured products.

Registration for the Green Theatre Showcase is requested, but not required.

The showcase will take place:

Saturday, March 23

3:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

St. Norbert College

Abbot Pennings Hall of Fine Arts

Walter Theatre

315 3rd Street DePere, WI 54115

For more info, contact Doug MacDonald and Brian Hatfield at DesignLab Wisconsin, 800-43-DESLB x301 and x302 or e-mail them at wisales@dlabwi.com , or visit www.dlabwi.com.

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It’s a tad chilly for an outdoor show, but a bunch of Broadway performers will provide one on Wednesday, when the Broadway Green Alliance recognizes its one-year anniversary with a combination celebration and e-waste recycling dropoff in Duffy Square, the center island that runs from 45th to 47th Streets in Times Square. The dropoff begins at 11 a.m., and at noon, cast members will sing a couple of songs and alliance leaders will note the progress after a year of greening efforts.

The alliance was announced with some fanfare last November by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. Its mission is to steer Broadway toward environmentally friendly ways of doing business. Has it worked? “It’s the first thing since the AIDS crisis that has brought the entire theater community together,” Susan Sampliner, company manager of “Wicked” and an alliance chairwoman (along with Charlie Duell), said in an interview. “We didn’t know as we started this how many people would get involved and whether diverse groups of people would come together,” she said.

The alliance is also releasing a report to the mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability, summing up the developments so far. In the past year, the alliance and its team of “Green Captains” — there is one in the cast or crew of almost every Broadway show — have:

* Nearly reached the goal of having each of the three major theater owners on Broadway — Jujamcyn, the Shubert Organization and the Nederlander Organization — change all of their marquee and other outdoor lights from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents or LEDs. So far, 97 percent have been changed.
* Found in a survey that most participating shows are using rechargeable batteries, digital instead of paper communications and cold water for costume laundry, part of an effort to encourage backstage conservation.
* Worked with the Broadway League and the American Theater Wing to make the 2009 Tony Awards greener by using hybrid limousines, recycling office waste and printing the Playbill on paper made with 30 percent recycled content.
* Worked with theaters outside New York to offset 4,000 tons of carbon emissions resulting from transporting touring productions by investing in wind power, methane digesters and other renewable energy projects.
* Begun meeting with technical directors before shows close to discuss what they can do with scenery and other objects after the final curtain (other than tossing everything into a landfill). As a result, the report says, about 84 percent of scenery from shows that have closed this year has been recycled, reused or stored for future use.

“The biggest challenge right now is making sure the producers and general managers who make the financial decisions start to see an economical reason to do this,” Ms. Sampliner said. While owners can see immediate savings in energy costs, the benefits of designing and building a set with greener products and procedures are less obvious.

Still, Ms. Sampliner is optimistic, she said, and though it is cold outside and turnout for the performance at noon may be low, she pointed out that the event will be a success because it will be collecting computers, cellphones and other electronics for proper disposal or recycling. “We are anticipating somewhere between 6,000 and 8,000 pounds of e-waste,” Ms. Sampliner said.

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In Part 1 (October 2009), I spoke in general of sustainability. Here are some specific areas to consider in new buildings or renovations.

Making sustainability an actual goal is the single most important thing you can do. If you start with the goal of a sustainable operation, it will be relatively easy to achieve. If you do it as an afterthought, it will always seem to add cost because you will be modifying a less efficient design. By doing things in a sustainable fashion from the start, you may incur additional costs in some areas, but you are likely to reap savings that net an equal or lower cost in the final analysis.

Next, take a whole-building approach. Think about your construction materials from the sourcing of the raw materials to their ultimate disposal. A “green” material that has a short life or cannot be reused isn’t as “green” as it seems. Facilitate a sustainable operation through design. The easier it is to behave responsibly, the more likely it is that occupants will operate sustainably. A LEED Platinum facility that doesn’t support sustainable operation is a failure in the long run.

And why not reuse an existing structure? In the world of historic preservation, we speak of the embodied energy that is a building. An existing building has already spent energy and carbon being built. As long as it exists, it is the embodiment of the energy spent manufacturing the materials and components. A reused building comes with character for free. When coupled with a sustainability initiative, historic preservation tax credits can make many sustainability initiatives possible.

The Secretary of the Interior’s standards allow a building 50 years old (or younger, architecturally significant structures) to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Many performance facilities are architecturally significant. This listing yields significant federal tax credits as high as 20%. Many states offer additional credits. My home state of North Carolina offers 20% state tax credit in addition to the 20% federal. A tax credit yields you $1 in reduced taxes for every $1 spent preserving the structure and keeping it in active use. With some creative financing, this tax credit can be leveraged by a non-profit organization to yield an even greater net budget impact. Look around; in North Carolina, there is also a tax credit, in addition to the preservation tax credit, for putting old mill structures back into use.

Buildings must be designed to accommodate materials separation for recycling. This is particularly important for producing organizations with construction shops, as these are light custom manufacturing operations. Consideration needs to be made for the location of not only dumpsters for landfill-bound waste and for food waste, but for the categories of recyclable materials: wood, paper, metals, plastic, and items for reuse centers.

Just as materials represent embodied energy, the same is true of a physical production, which creates a double carbon footprint: building the set is the first, and sending it to the landfill is the second. Reuse saves the energy spent on producing that element and on its decay. An organization without storage will find that it is throwing away a huge amount of material or driving it to storage. In order to be good environmental stewards, we need to remember the inherent value of stock platforms, flats, costumes, and props when we design facilities. Having an effective storage space for stock materials is good for the environment and good for the operating budget.

We can also use more efficient fixtures. Yes, they use less electricity, but if that is all you consider, they are not arguably financially viable. They also lower the heat load on the building, which means lower cooling costs and electrical costs. During system design, this translates to smaller mechanical systems, smaller ducts, and smaller silencers on the ducts. Efficient fixtures also extend the life of expendable items such as lamps, color filters, and packaging, thereby saving materials, labor, storage, and waste. These units also require less power cable, and fewer are usually required to achieve the same coverage.

Occupancy sensors represent old technology that we often overlook in the name of savings. Offices, dressing rooms, rehearsal halls, restrooms, and even corridors benefit from them. With a more sophisticated control system, they can be incorporated into worklight control systems on stage and in the house, including pit areas, grid, catwalks, followspot booths, control rooms, etc. An occupancy sensor need not be the sole control in a system. The key here is centralized override, so that the sensors do not function during rehearsals and performance.

Daylighting is a fancy word for windows—features we traditionally avoid in theatres, yielding cave-like facilities. They’re a no-brainer in offices, studios, dressing and rehearsal rooms, shops, lobbies, etc. With the use of well-designed blackout systems, even stages and audience chambers can take advantage of windows. My years in a cavernous performing arts center sporting that pasty complexion Frank Zappa referred to as a “studio tan” has made me fond of bright interiors.

And what about air flow? Fan wall HVAC systems are newer and employ an array of fans instead of one huge fan in a mechanical system. They have a variable flow so you only run as many fans as you need for the load. They also produce less low-frequency noise, so the silencers in the system get much smaller. Between fan wall systems and reduced cooling loads, the reduction in the size of ducts and duct components yields easier coordination of systems and can decrease the amount of unoccupied floor space, which means more building for your money.

Indoor air quality can be a significant issue in wardrobe and wig areas in touring facilities where dilution ventilation should be considered. In producing facilities, fabrication shops that manufacture scenery, furniture, small props, and costumes may require spray booths, ventilation hoods, dilution ventilation, and negative pressure to keep fumes from being spread throughout the facility.

Waterless urinals have a perceived “yuck” factor, right? Well, in practice, they are as sanitary as traditional urinals and are ideal in high-use environments, like theatres, as they greatly reduce water consumption. In a 1,000-seat theatre, waterless urinals serving the lobby would save 150 gallons per performance per urinal over conventional urinals.

We can even green our roofs. Theatres generally have huge roofs that can be turned to an advantage. Green roofs, rainwater collection, and bio retention ponds all help contain a facility’s ecological impact to its site. Green roofs provide mass for sound isolation and mitigation of rain impact noise, as well as offer excellent insulation, extending roof cycle life (no UV exposure for covered areas), and reduced solar gain.

Rainwater collection from the roof can act as a source for irrigation and restroom facilities (check with your local code official). In some municipalities, this can be an interesting issue, as sewer charges are based on water usage, and a well-designed system can have minimal potable water usage and a significant waste flow. Where a green roof is not viable, white or reflective material can reduce solar gain, reduce the heat island effect, and give you access to reflectivity tax credits.

With the large roof areas typically found on a theatre, solar water heating is a natural choice because long periods of time pass with little or no usage. The system could be designed to accommodate peak draw or could be augmented with variable rise demand water heaters. This solar water heating could also be used in heating occupied space. Solar heating doesn’t just work when the sun is shining. A well-planned system will hold a volume of heated water for cloudy days and nights.

As photovoltaic and wind technology come online, that roof area can be put to use generating electricity to offset usage. In some areas, even private residences are taking advantage of this by incorporating as utilities and having their electricity sold back into the grid as part of the local utilities’ carbon neutral requirements. Tax credits are available here to help offset the initial cost.

At larger performing arts complexes, where there is a central heating plant, a lot of energy is wasted in the steam production process. There is a small, but growing, cogeneration industry that uses that waste heat to generate electricity and sell it back to the grid.

Many theatre complexes have significant physical plants that generate steam and waste heat. Cooperative utilities can take advantage of the capacity that goes unused during daylight peak consumption hours and sell excess capacity to adjacent structures. This is a green alternative because these existing systems are usually at their most efficient when running at or near capacity. Proctor’s Theatre in Schenectady, NY (“Proctor’s Gamble,” LD, August 2006) has become the main steam provider to its downtown area.

We are just scratching the surface of existing green technologies that can help theatres to become sustainable organizations in all senses of the word. We need to open our eyes to the multitude of proven technologies already available and to embrace new technologies as they become available. Make sustainability your goal early, and take the whole building approach to sustainability.

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Manhattan’s Theater for the New City will present “Raising the Roof” November 9, 2009 at 7 PM to benefit its green roof garden project. The event will feature actress and singer Tammy Grimes singing “It’s Not Easy Being Green”; actress Betsy von Furstenberg with a “green” reading; singer Judy Gorman with her repertoire of songs about peace and justice; post-vaudevillian (and author of NYC Fringe hit “Willy Nilly”) Trav S. D. performing songs from his show “Kitsch,” or “Two for the Price of One” which is upcoming at TNC; Richmond Shepard and Alex Simmons in a new play, “Luncheon or Two Men, a Park & Pigeons” by Paulanne Simmons; a concert reading of “Long time Passing,” a fable set in the ruins of a war-torn Central Park by award-winning playwright Barbara Kahn; environmentally friendly and funny songs by Lissa Moira and Richard West; and much more.

Betsy von Furstenberg, a longtime Theater for the New City friend, says, “I cannot speak highly enough of Crystal Field and TNC. She has achieved the unachievable every year.” “What makes you think that will work?” a board member once asked about an unlikely goal.” “Because I’m doing it,” she answered with such conviction there was no room for doubt. “And the theater’s green roof (the first in New York City!) will eventually blossom no matter what the hurdles TNC has to overcome. I’ll bet my life on it.”

Green roofs, building roofs that are covered with soil and vegetation, grant many benefits for urban environments: they absorb rainwater, provide insulation, combat pollution and offer a habitat for birds. Crystal Field, who initiated the project, hopes Theater for the New City’s green roof will be a beacon for the entire city. “We will be the first theater in New York City to have a green roof,” she says. “It will help our neighborhood. It will help the air quality on our block. There should be a green roof on every flat roof in New York City. Then we will have a green grid.”

“Raising the Roof” will take place at Theater for the New City, located at 155 First Avenue, between Ninth and Tenth Streets, in Manhattan. Tickets to the event are $10 and are availible online at www.theaterforthenewcity.net or through the box office phone at (212) 254-1109.

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Following up on Bob Usdin’s excellent piece on the greening of the entertainment industry in the “Green Issue” (“How Green Is Green?” August 2008), I want to explore the broader picture, including the facility itself and the surrounding community.

So that we are all starting at the same place, I will use the generally accepted definition of sustainability. The most popular definition of sustainability can be traced to a 1987 UN conference that defined sustainable developments as those that “meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs,” (United Nations World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987 p.24, §27). While this provides a general framework of the ideal, more specifics may be garnered from the following corollary: “Sustainability integrates natural systems with human patterns and celebrates continuity, uniqueness, and placemaking,” (Early, 1993).

In general, many speak of sustainability as having three overlapping components: economic, social, and environmental. Theatres, by definition, score high on the social sustainability scale as places where cultures can mix, and they exist to communicate ideas, broaden our points of view, educate, and entertain. When looked at with a wider lens, theatres also play a role in the economic sustainability of the urban environment. The impact that performance facilities have on communities by fueling jobs in the hospitality, food service, and retail industries, as well as their supply chains, is well documented. Theatre Communications Group, among others, has published studies on theatres’ economic impact on the larger community. Environmental sustainability can further economic sustainability in the operation of a theatre. If we use resources more efficiently, we save money. Environmental sustainability is usually what we are speaking of when we talk about “being green.”

Working as a theatre consultant and chairing my city’s historic districts commission, I think about how buildings—new and existing—can support the goal of being sustainable. Although our measure of greenness for new construction or renovation is the US Green Building Council’s LEED New Construction certification, it doesn’t sufficiently acknowledge the value of reuse of a building. Preservationists and sustainability cheerleaders like to remind us that “the greenest building is the one you already have.” What they are so eloquently pointing out is that, to properly consider the sustainability of a project, one must look at the impact of materials used from raw material to the dump. By thinking of things in this fashion, one can assign a carbon footprint to materials and components. If you can avoid using materials by adapting something that exists, you have avoided a significant carbon impact, waste stream, and release of pollutants.

The Sustainable Sites Initiative has pointed out that, when one disturbs soil, one releases carbon. So in terms of minimizing carbon impact, the greenest choice is to renovate an existing facility. Demolishing an existing structure and building new also can be a triple impact in that one sends an existing building and cleared vegetation to our overburdened landfills. Shockingly, 25% of our waste stream is construction waste (Carl Elefante, director of Sustainable Design, Quinn Evans | Architects).

Another lesson from the preservation crowd is that renovation has a much larger economic impact on the local and regional community than new construction because costs from new construction generally divide to 50% materials and 50% labor. In rehabilitation projects, that figure is closer to 70% labor and 30% materials, and the skill level of that labor is higher. In renovation projects, the figures are somewhere in the middle (Don Rypkema, Place Economics).

These lessons hit on all three components of sustainability because reuse of an existing building can be a huge contributor to the local economy, and a green initiative makes this kind of project attractive to local governments and donors.

Existing facilities are not without challenges. Many, especially those built in the arts building boom of the 1970s, feature inefficient, poor quality systems that make them energy hogs. The challenge with these facilities is how to make them function better without racking up an unrecoverable payback period. Many also lack daylighting in support areas, create huge storm water runoff issues, and are monumental heat islands. Nationally, 50% of our building stock was constructed in the period from 1950 to 1979, when the cost of energy was not a significant consideration. Another 30% was built after 1979 (Elefante).

Performance facilities have the economic challenge of being expensive to build. In my 19 years experience as a theatre consultant, I can tell you that, whether your budget is $800 million or $500,000, there isn’t enough money to achieve the desired goals. Reuse of a facility, and/or a sustainability goal provides access to additional financing through tax credits and an additional field of potential donors.

Historically, operating and construction costs have been separate pools of money that were never discussed in the same meeting. As a consequence, we have deleted storage areas, picked less efficient equipment, and designed less efficient systems to save construction costs, when, in reality, we have actually just shifted costs to operations. We need to break that wall between operating costs and construction costs during design. Further, even the construction costs tend to get divided with performance equipment and viewed as an independent budget from the disciplines that install it, support it, and cool it.

The design criteria of the facility needs to incorporate sustainability as a goal from the outset of the project, and the project team needs to be given the requirement that its choices be reviewed in light of operating costs. In many cases, looking at a one-to-three year operating budget in conjunction with construction costs will be enough to allow the team to make environmentally responsible choices that can have fiscal benefits that last decades. Furthermore, part of the requirement for the design needs to be that it supports operational sustainability, not just sustainable construction.

Going green is a major theme at LDI2009, with a Green Day conference and Green Technology Today Pavilion (www.ldishow.com).

Curtis Kasefang is trained as a lighting designer and embarking on his 20th year as a theatre consultant. He is a principal with Theatre Consultants Collaborative, LLC. Prior to his consulting work, he was a production manager for a four-theatre complex. He also chairs his local Historic Districts Commission.

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Prague - The National Theatre will have its second solar power station. After dark panels covered the roof of its operational building last year, technicians are now installing photovoltaic modules on top of the Nová scéna building.

“The power station could start operating already in the middle of November,” Miroslav Ružicka, deputy technical director at the theatre, told Aktuálne.cz.

The National Theatre is therefore conforming its dominant position in electricity production from solar radiation in Prague - it has the biggest solar power station in the capital city.

“The objective is to reduce energy costs in all National Theatre buildings in the long run,” said Ružicka. The solar power stations come as part of an extensive environmental project that the theatre management launched a few years ago.

Dozens of millions of crowns invested in making the theatre and auxiliary facilities “green” bear fruit already. According to the plan, the theatre was to save more than CZK 4 million just last year, but the actual saving was CZK 2 million higher.

Besides the photovoltaic power station, another contributor to the cost cuts was modern equipment hidden on the bottom floors of the historical building. The theatre uses for example waste heat, which brings savings in the order of thousands of crowns every day. The project counts on total savings of nearly CZK 50 million in ten years.

The solar power station on the roof of Nová scéna is bigger and more efficient than the “old” photovoltaic panels on the operational building. What they have in common is that both roofs needed new hydro insulation, so besides installing solar panels, workers will also seal the roof.

“We killed two birds with one stone,” said Ružicka. “The option involving photovoltaic modules is more expensive, but a mere insulation foil does not make any money.”

The theatre uses the savings achieved to repay the investment, and will even make money on it after some time. Moreover, the method chosen makes it possible to improve energy efficiency, and therefore to reduce emissions.

Last year, the more economical operation of the theatre reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than a thousand tonnes. To give a comparison: every Czech releases about 12 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The second photovoltaic power station at the National Theatre will save a further 25 tonnes, and generate electricity that would suffice for 7-8 households that do not use electricity for heating.

The guaranteed lifespan of the power station, which cost roughly CZK 8 million including the hydro insulation, is thirty years.

“The return on investment is fifteen years,” said Ružicka. The theatre management plan to build another solar power station on the roof of its warehouse and other environmental projects, he added.

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Late last year, a distraught Michael Ballam walked into a board meeting, plopped into his chair and announced, “I have some bad news.”

The founder and general director of the Utah Festival Opera had just come from the historic Utah Theatre — a shuttered movie house that was being converted into a production venue for the northern Utah-based company. Crews, attempting to dig 15 feet down from the orchestra pit tucked beneath the newly expanded stage, had just hit groundwater at 12 feet.

A geyser was bubbling up, filling the pit at about 20 gallons per minute and seemingly dooming the $3.5 million-$4 million renovation.

In the long run, the watery problem didn’t kill the project, But the solution added $500,000 to the price tag, which along with a plummeting economy that was stifling fundraising efforts, forced the cancellation of the 2009 summer schedule of shows planned for the venue.

“In some ways it was a blessing,” said Ballam. The half-million-dollar fix helped designers create a larger, deeper space for the mechanical innards of a complex organ system. This is seen as a distinctive feature of the restored theater that eventually will feature opera, plays, recitals and movies, including silent films.

And the unwelcome water started arts officials thinking about an environmentally pleasing, cost-saving solution for heating and cooling the theater — geothermal energy instead of natural gas.

But first, workers had to solve the immediate problem of the orchestra pit flood. They installed a rubber membrane — below water level — at 15 feet down and then poured 4 feet of concrete to make a “boat” that essentially floats. This keeps the space dry, and it allowed the organ’s inner workings to be installed. The organ console will sit several feet away on an automatic lift in the orchestra pit. During productions, it can be raised and lowered as needed. In addition, a grand piano can be moved onto the lift for the same purpose.

“It’s like the Radio City Music Hall [in New York City], except there the organ comes in and out of the wall,” said Ballam.

As it turned out, the water was the least of the Utah Theatre’s problems. The nation’s economic crisis and its effect on stock portfolios has dulled contributors’ enthusiasm and cut the Utah Festival Opera market-based endowment in half. This has put the renovation on hold, and it could take a few more years before the theater once again comes alive.

“The spirt’s willing, but the bank account’s weak,” said Richard Anderson, Festival Opera’s board vice chairman.

Stalled plans for the theater are ambitious. It is much smaller, at 350 seats, than the main Utah Festival Opera venue, the 1,140-seat Ellen Eccles Theatre on Logan’s Main Street. Ballam said the theater is a perfect facility for launching smaller-scale operas — think intimate Mozart works versus mammoth productions, such as Giuseppe Verdi’s “Aida.”

If additional cash is found, “we could open it on a limited basis next season by showing films,” Ballam said. “That would take $1 million. Another million, and we can finish the lobby.” Still another million would buy the inner workings of a backstage “fly” system that raises and lowers scenery. Ultimately, the balcony could be expanded, raising the number of seats to 500.

“We’ll do it in phases,” the general director said. Meanwhile, the Utah Opera Festival, despite hard financial times, plans a full 2010 summer season of five operas and musicals around the corner in the Eccles Theatre, plus all of the associated educational activities. The festival staged 130 events during the 2009 summer season — a tradition that goes back to its inception in 1993.

During the past summer, the festival sold 21,000 tickets to five shows over four-and-a-half weeks, generating $870,000 of its $2.3 million operating budget. The balance is raised through philanthropy.

The Utah Theatre’s season-ending groundwater issue, while a minor disaster, has led the opera company to what could eventually become a long-term, cash-saving alternative. If the water pressure was powerful enough to create a bubbling geyser in the orchestra pit, then something must be driving it.

In this case, an aquifer, fed by subterranean runoff from the mountains to the east, sits another 200 feet below, exerting its pressure upward.

After Ballam walked into the board meeting to deliver his bad news, vice chairman Anderson was struck by a thought. Could the deep aquifer be tapped and, using geothermal technology, could the resulting green energy be used to heat and cool the Utah Theatre?

The aquifer’s water probably is a consistent 50 to 55 degrees, summer or winter.

Anderson uses that technology to heat and cool his home 10 miles south of Logan. His small system takes water from a free-flowing spring, runs its through a heat exchanger and, can manage his indoor climate at a comfortable level whether the temperature outside is 20 below zero or 100 degrees above.

To do the same for the Utah Theatre would require the drilling of two wells adjacent to the building in downtown Logan — one for extracting naturally heated water from the aquifer, another to return it into the subterranean cavity. A commercial heat exchanger would transfer heat from the aquifer water to a liquid within the exchanger, and that would be used to provide heat or cool the theater.

“Of course, you need electricity to run a compressor and the pumps to move the water around,” said Anderson, “but you don’t need electricity or natural gas to heat or cool the theater. There would be no flame [from a pilot light] in the building; no carbon-monoxide detector is necessary.”

The cost would be $10,000 for each of the two wells, $50,000-$75,000 for the compressor and heat-exchange system — no more than for a conventional system, said festival Managing Director Gary Griffin.

Ballam, a world-class opera singer who performs in many Utah Festival productions, loves the geothermal idea beyond its long-term cost- and energy-saving benefits.

“It’s not noisy,” he said. “As an opera singer on stage, you notice when the [traditional furnace] system turns on. It can be distracting.”

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The Arcola Theatre in Hackney aims to relocate to a 2,000sq m site next to Dalston Junction station and create a 350-seat theatre built of sustainable materials including straw bales and doors salvaged from skips.

Engineer Arup has given 18 months worth of pro bono work for the proposal while the London Development Agency has awarded a £60,000 for a feasibility study subject to Hackney Council approving the site.

The overall concept, which can be scaled up or down according to how much money is raised, includes an expanded main theatre with two smaller studios, an eco café, gym, learning centre and park.

A key element is an enterprise centre with offices and laboratories for entrepreneurs and technology and product design firms.

Arcola chief executive Ben Todd said the feasibility study could be completed by December, with work on the new theatre starting in 2010 and completing in 2012.

Todd, who trained as an engineer, said: “The theatre will literally be built from straw bales, rendered to pass fire regs and be weather-proof.

“Doors from old schools and hospitals that don’t match are a nice example of the reuse, recycle attitude and are important to the texture. If we end up using steel and if most of the project comes after 2012, it would be a nice idea to recycle some of the Olympic stadia.”

Hackney Council is due to discuss the plans next week.

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On 14 September 2009 at Plasa 09 The Theatres Trust will announce a new three year programme to provide specialist theatre environmental advice and undertake free DEC assessments with 48 small scale theatres in London.

One year on from the launch of the Mayor of London’s ‘Green Theatre: Taking Action on Climate Change‘ initiative at Plasa 08, The Theatres Trust will announce it is to receive GBP450,000 over the next three years from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) in London to deliver the ECOVENUE advisory programme.

Mhora Samuel, Director of The Theatres Trust said “When the Mayor of London’s Green Theatre Plan was launched last year to help theatres in London achieve reductions in carbon emissions by 60% by 2025, commercial and subsidised theatres in London were quick to sign up. We recognised that smaller theatres with less resources would find it harder to participate, and so made an application for funding to the LDA at the beginning of 2009 to help address the gap. I’m delighted that we can announce the ERDF award at Plasa 09 and help more London theatres to address environmental issues associated with climate change and reduce their energy use.”

The ECOVENUE project provides each participating theatre with a free theatre-specific Environmental Audit, and free Display Energy Certificates in 2010 and 2011. A DEC is a publicly displayed certificate that informs the public about the energy use of a building. This free environmental improvement advice will be delivered by a new Theatre Building Services Adviser to be employed by the Trust.

The Trust will be inviting 48 theatres to apply to participate in the project, which will run until spring 2012. Application details will be advertised over the following months.

Pictures accompanying this release are available through the PA Photowire. They can be downloaded from http://www.pa-mediapoint.press.net or viewed at http://www.mediapoint.press.net or http://www.prnewswire.co.uk.

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Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, the creators of The MeLTING Bridge, Flamingo/Winnebago,¡El Conquistador!, and Red-Eye To Havre De Grace & Lost Soles, present a new theater festival to be powered entirely by renewable energy. Titled Off The Grid, the festival will take place concurrent with the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival & Philly Fringe and will feature three world premiere theater works and a hybrid performance concert. Off The Grid will be powered by solar panels, a wind turbine and bicycles and will take place in the heart of Old City, Philadelphia, at the Painted Bride’s new studios at 230 Vine St. The festival was conceived by Thaddeus Phillips and Tatiana Mallarino, co-artistic directors of Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental.

The program includes new work from Lucidity Suitcase Intercontinental, New York based Magician Steve Cuiffo, Miro Dance Theater and a concert by the Mural & the Mint. Each work will be powered by a different renewable source — the only thing these artists promise to be plugging into is creativity.

Mr. Phillips, co-organizer of the festival within a festival, says “After creating two works that dealt with current environmental problems — Flamingo/Winnebago and The Melting Bridge — we wanted to create a work that explores solutions to those problems. We thought we would try something that has never been done before: create a visual theater work without plugging into the power grid. Realizing that it could be virtually impossible, we took it to the next level and decided to make a whole festival of it, and challenge other artists to create work “Off the Grid,” to make and perform multimedia pieces using only sustainable energy.”

Performances will rotate on a nightly basis. Mr. Phillips will perform in Microworld(s) Part 1, a world premiere and solo theater work set in Tokyo and played within a 3-foot-by-3-foot-by-8-feet white box. The play is about a man named Milo who is fascinated by Nikola Tesla, the comedian Bill Hicks and Fumio, his rubber duckie. Milo does not see the need to leave the self-contained world he lives in until he loses everything. This live action piece claims to be the first theater work constructed only out of recycled materials and special low-energy LED lighting.

Digital Effects will be powered by solar panels, Generate. Degenerate. will be powered by bicycle and the Mural & the Mint will be powered by solar, bike and “weza.”

Tickets cost $15

For more information, visit offthegridfest.org

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Opera Grand Rapids is rooting itself into a culture of green. The long awaited Betty Van Andel Opera Center will be a Silver LEED certified facility. The center, which will house a rehearsal hall, costume shop and offices, will be built on the West corner of Fulton and Carlton.

Currently a brown field, the parcel of land had been the home of Michigan Litho. After a fire in 2002 destroyed the printing company, the lot has set empty for years, an eyesore for a budding neighborhood on the edge of the City’s downtown.

The Opera’s future building is not the first to go green in Grand Rapids’ growing skyline, recent projects by the Grand Rapids Art Museum and the Grand Rapids Ballet are also LEED certified. Planners from the Opera Grand Rapids facilities committee note that going green was always in the plan for the project. At question was the level of certification.

As a Silver level facility, the project will meet standards that include: sustainability, pollution prevention, water efficient landscaping, water efficient utilities, optimized energy performance, construction waste management and the use of regional materials to limit transportation pollution.

Fundraising efforts continue on the long awaited project, which was jump started by a $1 Million grant from the Jay and Betty Van Andel Foundation more than seven years ago. Construction and material bids for The Betty Van Andel Opera Center have come in higher than initially expected, driving the estimated cost of the project up from $1.95 Million to approximately $2.3 Million. A groundbreaking ceremony, originally expected for this fall, will be held when 100% of the funds needed to complete the project have been raised. Currently the Company has raised approximately 80% of the new campaign goal. A public fundraising campaign will be launched later this month.

Once open, in 2009, the facility will consolidate the Company’s resources in one location. Currently the Company stages its operas and fits costumes at a variety of donated spaces throughout Grand Rapids. This means for each of its three shows time, energy and money are spent to set up temporary rehearsal spaces. With the facility, the Company’s costume shop, property and set storage as well as vocal warm up rooms and rehearsal room will all be located in one permanent facility.

The Company will begin rehearsals for the first show of its season, “Tosca” in mid-October. The show will take place Nov. 7 and 8 at 7:30pm at DeVos Hall. Tickets are currently on sale through Ticketmaster.

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Daniel S. Burnstein

It’s hard to imagine New York bereft of artists.

Few absences would dull the city’s reputation more convincingly. And yet a bleak economic climate, ever-escalating rents and living expenses make the likelihood far from intangible.

From crisis comes camaraderie however, as demonstrated by a new nonprofit performance space in Williamsburg, the Center for Performance Research (CPR) which opened its doors this week.

The facility has a variety of selling points: It’s the first environmentally conscious space of its kind in Brooklyn; it aims to promote community engagement and education; and it’s co-founded by two of the city’s most respected names in dance, Jonah Bokaer and choreographer John Jasperse.

The three-year collaborative project opened for operations Feb. 2 and welcomed its first renter, the Trisha Brown Dance Company. And for Jasperse, the facility has arrived at a critical time.

“I truly feel that this is a last stand in terms of artists really being able to work affordably in New York City,” he says, having observed the displacement of artists since his arrival in the 1980s. He explains that it’s no longer a just a question of artists moving from Manhattan to Brooklyn to avoid rent increases—the situation is more urgent. “It’s really gotten to a density where there’s a question about whether artistic process can really remain local,” he says.

Bokaer echoes such concerns, outlining how CPR’s name itself embodies the much needed resuscitation of the city’s arts centers. “Part of the reason why we called it CPR is the acronym can be read as a response to crisis,” he says. The gentrification of areas like Williamsburg has displaced artists and longtime residents and Bokaer describes how the “condo craze” has made the area a treacherous one for local creatives. Even since his involvement establishing CPR began in 2006, many local arts spaces have had to close due to soaring rents. In fact, the facility’s location is surrounded by the new generation of real estate. “You look around this one block radius, there’s nine condo developments,” he says.

Amidst the hyper-evolution of New York real estate, the aim of the facility is to provide “a new model for sustainable arts infrastructure in dance and performance” and the green-friendly nature of the 4,000-square-foot space is a key element of that. Located on the ground floor of Greenbelt, a building designed with specific environmental initiatives in place, CPR is zoned as a community facility. The building’s upper four floors are residential, the sale of which subsidize CPR’s nonprofit space.

Greenbelt is in fact Brooklyn’s first private green development to qualify as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold project, LEED being a certification program that ensures the creation of high performance green buildings. Bokaer outlines how it has been developed according to strict guidelines, with longevity, minimal emissions and low energy costs in mind.

“A theater or performance space usually uses light, sound and video, which all consume an enormous amount of energy,” Bokaer says. “We’re going to be saving probably about an eighth of the power of a normal theatrical facility.”

Engaging with CPR’s philosophy of providing an affordable, sustainable facility, a variety of ensembles has expressed interest in the venue. Artist Robert Wilson will be developing a work there for the Guggenheim in April, CPR is currently in discussions with the new media enthusiasts at Bitforms Gallery and Israeli artist Iri Batzri may also use the space. So too, Jasperse will prepare projects at the facility and Bokaer plans to develop “a duet studying memory” there, a commission for the National Academy of Sciences.

“I think our appetite for what performance research will look like is pretty vast,” Bokaer says, explaining that the $6-$15 hourly rental fees at CPR are an obvious draw. “It’s a public program so we’ll probably have a great diversity of renters.”

The financial structure behind CPR is also an anomaly. Bokaer’s Chez Bushwick Inc. and Jasperse’s Thin Man Dance Inc. are the parent companies of CPR and have made the facility economically viable (along with funding from the Department of Cultural Affairs).

“It’s very rare for dance organizations to partner in general but also in terms of real estate,” says Bokaer. CPR is unique in this manner as it’s unusual for dance and performance organizations to own their facilities. Indeed, the Trisha Brown Company recently closed its studio and the Paul Taylor Dance Company will lose its Soho facility (and home for 20 years) in April to an expanding Banana Republic store.

“There you have historical legends of American modern dance who do not have adequate work space,” says Bokaer. “That’s another reason this is a dynamic project because [CPR] puts that issue in the foreground and it says ‘Dance needs space. And it needs permanent space in New York.’”

Undoubtedly CPR represents a new model for performance centers and how dance companies operate, deterring from traditional American models which tend to be characterized by a single choreographer with a singular vision. “I think that a dance company can be a different thing now,” says Bokaer. “It can be a cultural organization, or a space, or it can have a larger generative power.”

Jasperse, who’s been a friend of Bokaer for almost a decade, affirms the importance of the partnership, explaining that neither of their organizations could have established CPR individually. “I firmly believe we’re going to demonstrate the power of this kind of model,” he says. “We’re taking a risk. But hopefully we will serve as an example that defies certain ideas of where real estate and arts organizations are necessarily headed in the city.”

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Hailed by the World Wildlife Fund as “the world’s first global election,” Earth Hour took place on the evening of March 28. To show concern for global warming, individuals and major organizations around the world were encouraged to vote “Earth” by switching lights off for one hour, or vote “global warming” by leaving lights on.

The aim is to collect one billion votes for “earth” and present the results of the election to world leaders at the 2009 Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the outcome of which will replace the Kyoto Protocol.

“We have a great concern for the environment at Artistic Licence and wanted to show our support by teaming up with some of our customers who share our concern about the threat global warming is imposing on us,” says Artistic Licence’s managing director, Wayne Howell.

The property management firm, Broadgate Estate Ltd, a founder member of the UK Green Building Council, provided just such an opportunity. Broadgate had organized the “lights-out” for Earth Hour in all of it estates—including the installation of in-ground lighting at Finsbury Square on which the company had worked with Artistic Licence in 2004 and for which it again called on Artistic Licence to help implement the switch-off on March 28.

The Finsbury Square installation consists of a large, in-ground array of color-changing lamps, laid out in a semi-symmetric pattern. The array uses over 650 individually controllable light modules, each providing independent colour mixing creating a dynamic floor of colour with effects ranging from subtle moods of color to dynamic animation.

The concept was designed by Mark Ridler of Maurice Brill Lighting Design, who called in Artistic Licence to develop, manufacture and install the system, thereby creating Colour-Tramp in the process.

Artistic Licence’s Colour-Tramp is a new breed of lighting controller that communicates via the Art-Net Ethernet standard and implements all the functionality of Remote Device Management.

Operating as both a lighting controller and as an installation management system, it was one of Colour-Tramp’s newly implemented features that was used trigger the Earth Hour switch-off on voting day.

Howell was able to program the switch-off to happen automatically at 20:30—and reinstate at 21:30—by simply emailing the controller installed on site. The feature allowing Colour-Tramp to be remotely control by email was only introduced earlier this year.

“That’s how easy it is to maintain control of an installation’s energy consumption,” says Howell. ” We have already instituted power saving measures on the Broadgate Project with the recent introduction of astro-triggering to ensure the display only starts at a time relative to sunset. Now we can send further instructions quickly and easily to fine tune performance and power usage.

“Artistic Licence is dedicated to developing more efficient forms of lighting and control and our product range reflects this.”

“Our current work involves the newly formed Zero Carbon Project which aims to bring together the combined knowledge and technical expertise of our industry to develop sustainable, alternative forms of lighting through micro power generation. In our industry we are in a position to make a real environmental difference.”

Earth Hour started in Sydney in 2007 and by 2008, 50 million people worldwide joined the cause as lights were turned out on landmark buildings such as San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, Sydney Opera House and the Colosseum in Rome.

In 2009, the movement has earned the backing of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Artistic Licence and Broadgate Estates have pledged their support alongside the London Eye, Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, the Pyramids at Giza, the Empire State Building and the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpar.

To join the discussion on Artistic Licence’s Zero Carbon Project please email: ZeroCarbon@ArtisticLicence.com

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Thorne is quick to emphasize that PCS’ vision for its new building, an old armory that they saved from impending demolition, encompasses far more than just environmental stewardship.  Expanding on the advice of designer Ed Schlossberg, who suggested that they work to “move the proscenium outward, so that the audience is on stage as soon as they walk in the building,” they decided to work toward a new model whereby the meeting of audience and organization is not just a “transactional relationship”, with spectators entering the doors to head straight to their seats.  Rather, they envisioned a model in which the theater is a locus of the community, with spaces that function as public arenas and events that enhance the work presented on their stages.

Two views of the PCS lobby

This meant, first of all, the creation of a lobby space open to the public at all hours of the day.  A gorgeous cafe with wireless internet sits just in the doors; at lunchtime, the upstairs lobby is host to tai chi and yoga classes; and as audiences file through the doors, seminars and parties are often underway in an adjoining area.  The theater’s design facilities an open, communal feel, with the oval space of the lobby conveying a sense of swirling movement.  “The project was about creating a building people could identify with us,” said Thorne, and there is little question that a visitor to the Gerding might forget its interior.

Thorne oversaw the work during the Gerding’s retrofitting, and he recounted the process that led them to the decision to move into it.  At the time, they were sharing space with the Symphony and Ballet in a multi-use facility nearby, but the 900-seat house was too large and not well suited to their needs.  A commissioned study of the Portland arts scene recommended that PCS be given its own home, and Coleman was brought on as artistic director in part because of his commitment to that process.  Although the financing was tricky, and required the concerted efforts of a number of dedicated partners, they managed to raise the funds necessary for the move.

And when Norris Lozano, the president of the project funding partner Portland Family of Funds, a newly formed organization tasked with bringing New Market Tax Credits to Portland projects, insisted that the new theater be a showcase for green technologies and aim for LEED status, the learning curve was steep.  In particular, Coleman and Thorne were worried that the concessions they would have to make to earn the points necessary for certification would alter the design of the two spaces that had worked so carefully to craft.  However, the result is a magnificent building with two gorgeous theaters, and has been, as Thorne says, “Better than we could have hoped.”

As for its green credentials, the building was the first on the historical register and the first performing arts facility to achieve LEED platinum status, a mark not easy to hit.  It helped that they were able to reuse the shell of the old building: the recycling of building materials earns a number of points.  However, meeting some of the other measures proved somewhat difficult — it took some persuading to get their seating manufacturer to work with fabric made from recycled soda bottles.  And not all of the green features proved easy to use at first.  The cold water sent from a plant on top of a nearby Whole Foods (also supplied to a number of other area buildings, as the Gerding is part of a larger green development project) was, at first, sent at pressure high enough to blow off a number of the building’s valves.  And properly calibrating the motion and daylight sensors, both meant to reduce lighting usage, has taken some time.  Thorne is quick to point out, thought, that some of the technology the installed was still freshly developed when they installed it and might be far easier to use in this day and age.

Some green measures proved too expensive.  Installing photovoltaic panels on the roof or microturbines in the basement — both of which would have gone some way toward decreasing the theater’s carbon footprint and saving money in the long run — would have added significant expense to the project.  Moreover, under the current LEED standards, set to be changed later this year, these elements would have only garnered a point each, whereas a much less costly step such as installing scrape grates at the entrance doors was also worth a point.  Thorne says that, although it might be tough in this economic climate, they are still looking to add such features to the building, and that they might be able to do so with the increase in funds and tax credits being directed toward green energy projects.  And as the building’s LEED accreditation is set to expire after five years, he’s looking ahead to adding features that will make it eligible for LEED-EB (existing building) status.

Going green has drastically increased PCS’ local and international profile.  Groups of green architects and designers from around the world, drawn to Portland because of its high number of green projects, have taken tours of the building.  Just that day, a group of 100 school high school students in the midst of an environmental education course had come by to learn about the building’s rainwater reclamation tanks, chilled beams, and CO2 monitoring system.  Community Programs Manager Tim DuRoche put their tour in context by explaining that most of Portland’s energy came from coal and that PCS’ efforts would reduce the amount they had to draw from that non-renewable energy source.

Although PCS might have rested on its laurels with a green building, it has continued to try and make its operations as green as possible.  They’ve banned the use of spray paint whenever possible; they use recycled paint from a local city agency whenever they can; and they use Zipcars for local staff transportation.  And they’ve taken an even more significant step by opting to purchase green tags — tradable renewable energy certificates — from the Bonneville Foundation.  Of course, living in a city with the green consciousness of Portland, employees are already fairly mindful of their environmental impact.  They’ve had little luck persuading designers to work with less wattage and fewer materials, however, as most of them are reluctant to change their working methods, and Thorne said he thought it would take a revolution in education before younger, environmentally-conscious designers began to rise through the ranks.

Before I went, I had been told that PCS’ younger demographic had increased significantly with the move to the new building, and I asked Thorne if that could be attributed to their new green credentials.  “Not necessarily, but it has played a part,” he said.  More importantly, he said, was that the new building, and the new model that it represented, had increased PCS’ presence and integration with the city’s residents.  “They feel a sense of pride and ownership.”

Links:

“The Four Pillars” (theater, community, history, and sustainability), PCS website

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Wicked producer David Stone, like many Americans, saw Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth and began to wonder what he could do to find viable solutions to our planet’s growing environmental crisis. Having facilitated Eve Ensler’s successful V-Day initiative to stop violence against women, Stone began wondering if he could use his new hit musical to educate the Broadway community about its role in the issues of climate change and sustainability.

Stone realized that smaller shows didn’t have the financial resources to invest in greening operations, but that “big shows have big power”.  Knowing that he could commit the upstart capital needed to make energy-saving investments, and with the extremely eco-minded Universal Pictures as a producer, he decided that Wicked would be the first Broadway show to explore green procedures and procurement.  He began by tasking Sampliner with researching ways in which the production could green its operations.  And in the early stages of the show’s run, NBC/Universal provided in-house health and safety experts who ensured that toxic chemicals were stored, labeled, and handled properly.

When the hit show launched multiple companies, Stone encouraged each department in Wicked’s U.S. companies to find more energy efficient and earth-friendly options for carrying out daily duties. Over an 18-month period, Sampliner worked to tabulate each company’s (and each individual department’s) eco-efforts.  To date, the New York company alone has saved over $80,000 by recycling batteries and replacing incandescent front-of-house lighting with compact fluorescents. Additionally, Wicked’s makeup designers were encouraged to work with actors to adjust their makeup palettes to account for CFL lights, as opposed to traditional incandescent dressing room bulbs. These actions were not only good for the environment, but allowed Stone to invest financial resources in additional backstage eco-efforts.

David Stone at the Wicked Friendship Garden

In addition to environmental thinking in Wicked’s backstage areas, Stone and his staff wanted to integrate environmental education with their community engagement and marketing efforts. After being approached by Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project, Stone funded the Wicked Friendship Garden in Upper Manhattan, which opened on the fourth anniversary of “Wicked Day” in October 28, 2007. The Wicked producing team made the decision to use all subsequent Wicked Day events around the globe to educate the show’s fans about environmental action they can take in their daily lives. Local environmental organizations and eco-minded companies have been invited to provide information to Wicked Day participants in London, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, and other cities worldwide.

Wicked’s producers and marketing team decided to curtail the show’s traditional billboard campaign and focus on media outlets that would help spread Stone’s vision for a greener Broadway. Marketing firm Serino Coyne suggested a new marketing campaign that highlighted Wicked’s green efforts. Reallocating a portion of the show’s marketing funding, Serino Coyne developed the “This is a Wicked green bus/taxi” campaign, advertising the musical on the sides of hybrid buses and tops of hybrid taxis throughout the city. Additionally, ads at commuter stations, including Penn and Grand Central Stations, encourage patrons to utilize mass transit when making their way to the Gershwin.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg with the NRDC’s Allen Hershkowitz

In Spring 2008, Stone contacted the Broadway League regarding Wicked’s newfound environmental ethos, only to find that the League was discovering the importance of inserting environmental considerations into Broadway productions. The League encouraged Stone to host a town-hall style meeting in June 2008 to inform the Broadway community about Wicked’s eco-efforts and source additional interest from theatre owners, producers, general managers, and industry members. After hiring an outside marketing consulting firm, the League was paired with Allen Hershkowitz, PhD, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Hershkowitz was brought on board to help the New York theatrical community realize its impact on the local and global ecosystems. After learning of the efforts of the Wicked companies to date, Hershkowitz was quick to admit that Stone and Co. had taken more environmental action than a major US soft drink company!

Hershkowitz, who has worked to green the Oscars and Grammy Awards, used NRDC’s Major League Baseball Team Greening Program to show theatre owners and producers how the Broadway community could take similar action. “We’re using the audience’s passion to educate them,” says Sampliner. “A baseball fan’s favorite players are heroes just as our favorite theatre stars or characters are our heroes.” Stone agreed that if Wicked’s Elphaba were living in the present day, the environmental crisis would be her raison d’être just as animal rights influence her thoughts and actions in the musical.

The town-hall meeting proved that going green was on the radar at many New York producing offices and non-profit theatre companies. Due to the overwhelming concern and commitment voiced at the meeting, the League began to work with Stone to gather an ad hoc committee that would decide on further research and action. August 2008 marked the first meeting of the “Broadway Goes Green” Committee. Broadway League President Nina Lannan appointed Sampliner and Charlie Deull (of Clark Transfer) as co-chairs. Upon realizing the scope of the new initiative, the committee agreed to divide their research into three subcommittees: Pre-/Post-Production, Production and Venues.

The Venues Subcommittee, headed by Jujamcyn Theaters Head of Operations Jennifer Hershey, was the first subcommittee to analyze their piece of the puzzle. Because most Broadway theatres had already received energy audits as first steps toward potentially receiving state funding for energy-efficiency upgrades, baseline measurements already existed for the energy-intensive act of housing a Broadway production. Thanks to these numbers, the Venues Subcommittee had a clear vision of the work ahead; but shops and shows had a bit more research to conduct before disseminating findings among program participants. Jujamcyn Theatres has moved to add recycling bins to dressing rooms, with other theatres soon to follow.

The Pre-/Post-Production Subcommittee, headed by Showman Fabricators owner (and LEED AP) Bob Usdin, is analyzing the building of sets with a focus on end-of-life cycle recycling or reuse. The Production Subcommittee, headed by Stage Manager Spook Testani, began researching green practices for the running of shows from rehearsal through their runs. The Production Subcommittee distributes a monthly publication, called The Green Sheet, which features the eco-efforts of different departments across various productions.

Two more subcommittees were recently added to the Ad Hoc Committee: Touring and Education & Outreach. The Touring Subcommittee, headed by Kirk Wingerson of Broadway Across America, is working to gather green practices being implemented across the country and see if they can work in New York. Additionally, this subcommittee will address the issues of trucking and travel associated with touring productions. Finally, the Education & Outreach Subcommittee, headed by 9 to 5 Producer Seth Greenleaf, will explore ways to inform audiences about Broadway’s green efforts and establish partnerships with other members of the entertainment industry.

Having worked to challenge local colleges, universities, and hospitals to explore sustainable options, New York’s Mayor Michael Bloomberg quickly set his sights to other major industries, including the commercial theatre sector. The Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability began working with the League to examine commercial Broadway’s carbon footprint. On November 25th, 2008, Mayor Bloomberg was joined by representatives from various Broadway productions at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre to launch “Broadway Goes Green”. Since the press conference, the newly-named Broadway Green Alliance has worked hand-in-hand with the Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability to establish set recycling data tracking, retrofit marquee lights for energy efficiency, and develop various sustainable strategies for productions and theatres. The Broadway Green Alliance will reexamine Broadway’s eco-efforts in November 2009 to assess efforts to date and make industry-wide recommendations. Additionally, the Alliance hopes to hold discipline-specific seminars highlighting “better” eco practices, including workshops with costume, set, and lighting designers in theatre and film.

Disney Theatricals, who has been a leader in sustainability, has also joined the Alliance and appointed a representative to each of the subcommittees. Disney was the first show to appoint a “Green Captain” at each of their shows. Since then, other productions have elected Green Captains who will receive regular briefings on actions that can be implemented at their own shows. The Alliance is also exploring levels of green certification that will enable venues and productions of various sizes and means to participate in the initiative. In the near future, participants that join the Alliance may post signage in their theatre’s lobby area to educate the public about the initiative. The Alliance is also working to obtain an energy baseline for the Tony Awards to green aspects of the awards ceremony is the near future.

In March, 2009, Broadway theatres turned off their marquee lights from 8:30 to 9:30 pm to “cast their vote for Earth” during Earth Hour. The folks at Wicked took the challenge one step further, encouraging cast and crew to turn off as much electrical equipment as possible during the hour. Sampliner plans to encourage the Wicked company to have their own “off the grid show” once a month. (For productions in which cast members spend the majority of the show away from their dressing rooms, exploring the off switch might be a good route for one hour a month, or even one show a week.)

Sampliner refers to Broadway’s recent green awakening as a grassroots movement. “We’re helping the different departments talk to their colleagues at other shows to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  I was around when Broadway Cares started and this is the first initiative I’ve seen since that one that affects everyone in the community,” she adds. “That’s what’s so interesting to me. Everybody can do something. You might not be able to do it all but you can make a difference.”

Links:

Wicked’s Green for Good page

The Broadway Green Alliance

9 to 5’s Green from 9 to 5 page

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Hartz Mountain Industries, owner of the building at 4 Emerson Lane, Secaucus, New Jersey, has given permission to its tenant, Rose Brand, the specialist in theatrical fabrics, fabrications and supplies for the event, entertainment, and display industries, to plant a communal garden in celebration of Earth Day, Wednesday, April 22nd.

The garden will occupy 360 sq. ft. on the west side of the building with planned crops including vegetables, perennial herbs, and some flowers. Rose Brand employee volunteers will care for the garden and ultimately benefit from the food and herbs grown. This year, over one billion people worldwide are anticipated in the 2009 Earth Day celebrations.

Rose Brand’s corporate headquarters and warehouse in Secaucus is considered state-of-the-art in terms of energy conservation, the company reports. With highly efficient lighting systems, occupancy sensors, and careful monitoring Rose Brand is actively reducing its carbon footprint. Hartz Mountain Industries has cited this building as being the paradigm of retrofit energy usage and a star in its portfolio of millions of square feet of commercial space. Rose Brand’s operations manager, Bob Bertrand, stated, “This garden is an important milestone in our continuing education of our employees about environmental issues.”

Earth Day has achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from both secular and religious leaders, rich and poor, urban dwellers and farmers businesses and labor leaders. The first Earth Day in 1970 lead to the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the passage of The Clean Air Act, The Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Earth Day is widely celebrated around the world as a collective expression of public will to create a sustainable society.

In a continuing effort to reuse, reduce, and recycle, Rose Brand will be earning money to be donated to The ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes by collecting empty printer cartridges and used cell phones and recycling them for cash credit at Funding Factory, a company based in Erie, Pennsylvania offering nationwide free recycling. The fundraiser continues Rose Brand’s support of Behind the Scenes and the company’s commitment to the environment.

As Josh Jacobstein, Rose Brand’s sales director, said, “We have a long-term relationship with the entertainment industry and the hard-working people who make it all happen. With our recycling efforts we will create a benefit to Behind the Scenes and that’s a perfect way of continuing our ongoing support of the industry and people we work with.”

Rose Brand’s Deborah Sperry added, “Rose Brand is on a journey to find the types of eco-friendly behaviors and activities that are genuine and sustainable. As the coordinator for Rose Brand’s green journey I am pleased that our recycling of used toner cartridges and cell phones will result in a contribution to Behind the Scenes and our green goals.”

All laser and inkjet cartridges and cell phones collected through this effort are sent to Funding Factory. Items are inspected and the value for each collected item in Rose Brand’s account is then sent to The ESTA Foundation’s Behind the Scenes program.

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Reprinted from Lighting & Sound America, April 16, 2009:

The U.K.-based entertainment lighting supplier White Light announces the release of the White Light Green Guide, available now from the company’s website.

Intended as a starter guide for those wanting to make their work in lighting shows have as little impact on the environment as possible, the Green Guide offers suggestions for each phase of the process of show lighting, from initial meetings and planning through rig design, set-up and focus, show running, touring, and final load-out.

“Many of the suggestions in our Green Guide are largely common sense,” comments White Light’s managing director, Bryan Raven, “but it’s often the obvious things that get overlooked when it comes to putting a show together, particularly in the final hectic days of tech when the old mantra of ‘the show must go on’ tends to win out over everything else! We hope that by writing some suggestions down they might be able to be integrated into the planning and production process a little better.”

The White Light Green Guide draws on the experience the company has gained in trying to reduce the environmental impact of its operations and working to introduce newer, more energy-efficient technologies to lighting practitioners. This process has covered everything from installing a waste compactor, moving to filtered tapwater rather than bottled water, investigating hydrogen fuel cells as a power source for outdoor events, and adopting a wide range of LED lighting products — as well as continuing the company’s principal operation of renting lighting, giving equipment as long a working life as possible.

White Light have also been involved with a number of other environmental projects, including working with the Arcola Theatre on their aim to become the world’s first carbon-neutral theatre, and collaborating with the Mayor of London’s Office on its Green Theatre: Taking Action on Climate Change, and with environmental organisation Julie’s Bicycle on its Green Music guide.

The White Light Green Guide compliments these by focusing more specifically on lighting, hints ranging from switching off discharge moving lights when not actually in use, to considering new approaches to attaching cables to lighting bars.

Designed to be easy to read on-screen, the White Light Green Guide is available for download only; it can be found at the link below.

Links:
White Light Green Guide

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