lights! action!

At the Theatre Materials conference on Friday, there was a discussion on 'What does greening theatre practice mean?' Those present included Bryan Raven from WhiteLight, Ben Todd from Arcola, Mhora Samuel from the Theatres Trust, Petrus Bertschinger, theatre consultant, and Ian Garrett from California. Some stand-out comments were:

'Theatre is in a unique position to get the message across about tackling climate change.'
'Anything we do is seen as iconic.'
'What does tungsten lighting say about us? It says we're wasteful.'
'We are using a lot more light than we used to. The audience is used to TV and thinks it needs to see everything in close-up.'
'Different solutions are needed for different-size productions. One action won't work across the board.'
'Arts organisations hate gradual steps. Link all the work you do to a production.'
'Use sustainability as a creative challenge rather than 'Thou Shalt Reduce'.
'Start now. One right thing done badly is better than one wrong thing done well.'