Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2017 - Public - 25

wood. Contact with several construction recycling services in Indianapolis failed to yield any nearby companies that accept wood that had been painted and/
or contained screws or other fasteners. An alternative
reuse options, borrowed from an interview with Professor Justin Miller of the University of Pittsburgh, was to
use the wood to build boxes for migrating bats. Through
this simple effort, the authors found a valuable purpose
for wooden crates salvaged from the May 2016 production of Bloody, Bloody Andrew Jackson. Material from
one dozen plywood crates was repurposed for IU's own
migrating bat project. However, this was a one-time
solution for the theatre, and different landfill diversion
strategies must be pursued for each production. Local
solutions, while often short lived, can be found on many
campuses and communities and require continuing effort to discover potential uses and alliances.
It should be noted that the rate at which IU Theatre salvages materials from stage productions does not
necessarily translate to other academic theatre programs. With no data available to compare salvage rates
among various theatres, the authors assume IU Theatre's
salvage rate of 25 percent to 38 percent to be relatively
low compared to others. Many factors affect the rate at
which materials can be salvaged, including time, labor,
design, construction techniques, storage space, materials used, production schedule, and department culture.
Variations in any one of these factors, or a combination
of several, can positively or negatively impact salvage
rates.
The exploratory research and environmental audit
identified numerous challenges in making the operations side of IU Theatre more sustainable. The authors
hoped to build upon and expand this exploratory work
by researching how a single production could harness
sustainability. Ranseen received a sustainability research
grant from IU in April 2016. The grant provided modest funds (a scholarship and support for materials) to
carry forward the exploratory research into a production-specific case study in the 2016-2017 academic year.
IMPEDIMENTS TO SUSTAINABILITY
The IU Theatre production of The Duchess of Malfi in
February 2017 served as the case subject, because its
production timelines best aligned with the research
project. The Duchess of Malfi was a smaller scale production with a tight budget and schedule, typical of most
academic productions. Constraints in size and budget
restrict resource use and encourage creativity and reuse
(Brunner and Mehler 2013, 28-29). The authors sought
to improve sustainability in every facet of production-
including set design, stage management, directing,
house management, materials, and production culture.
The goal was to identify barriers to lasting change towards more sustainable production, and to better under-

Numerous studies and articles have explored sustainability
and environmentally friendly policies in theatre design and
technology. Following is a review:
Community-minded, Local, Intergenerational, and Positive
A broad study was presented in Mehler and Brunner's 2013 TD&T article, "Theatre Design and Production Reimagined: Four Principles for
a Sustainable Future." The authors present a two-pronged research
project in sustainable design and production for theatre. The research
team was comprised of a designer and a technical director providing a
more broad perspective on the potential impact of sustainable ideas
on theatre design and production. After visiting theatres and production organizations that claimed to practice sustainable operations, and
through study of popular books and articles on sustainable ideologies,
four common themes applicable to theatre arts emerged with the acronym "CLIP." Community-minded, Local, Intergenerational, and Positive are four characteristics that need to be present in any viable plan
for more sustainable theatre production. These principles underpin this
case study.
Impact of Institutional Size
The ability for academic theatres to consider changes in production
operations through new approaches, methods, or materials requires
a complicated multi-level approach. Further hindering change, particularly with regard to environmental sustainability, is the size of one's
theatre department and the institution itself. While larger academic
institutions may have more resources to support sustainable change,
they also contain more layers of administration that present impediments to change. This notion was referenced by Jones and Brunner, in
their 2011 TD&T article, "Green at the University: Teaching Green by
Being Green." Jones taught in a two- to three-person department at a
small regional institution with a strong environmental campus strategy,
while Brunner taught in a 30-person department at a large research institution with an equally strong campus-wide sustainability initiative.
The ability to make change towards more environmentally sustainable
theatre production was far easier at a small institution than a larger one
primarily due to the size and complexity of the respective departments.
Sustainable Panel Products
The fall 2009 TD&T article by Brunner, "Green Stage Scenery with Sustainable Wood Composites" sought to explore wood-based composites
panel products as a more sustainable material option for scenery. The
2009 article presents an overview of commonly used scenery materials (plywood, oriented strand board, medium-density fiberboard,
hardboard, etc.) to understand the scope of panel products available
to theatre. A table compares the mechanical properties of traditional
scenery materials and includes a few non-traditional options, including
Wheat Board. This table, and the detailed examination of properties
and characteristics of engineered panel products, allows practitioners
to better assess new and novel products to expedite end-user acceptance of more sustainable materials as they come onto the market.
Stage Lighting Energy Consumption
Katie Oman's study from Protocol (2013) discusses a year-long study
on energy consumption of a professional theatre. LED stage lighting is
a low-impact way to reduce energy consumption, but Oman's findings

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