Artists Lead The Charge In Going Green

Artists are showing the way forward. Playmarket is thrilled to announce the publication of two future-facing resources which aim to trigger meaningful change in environmental sustainability: The Green Theatre Touring Guidebook by Trick of the Light Theatre and The Aotearoa Green Theatre Plan compiled by Elspeth Tilley.

In their Statement of Intent 2022-2026, Creative New Zealand signalled that the arts can “play a role in the culture change required to address environmental challenges such as climate change”.

Independent theatre company Trick of the Light’s Hannah Smith and Ralph McCubbin Howell were motivated to create The Green Theatre Touring Guidebook after recognising that they weren’t bringing the same green priorities to their work that they had in their home life. Galvanised by the shocking Australian bushfires at the dawn of the new decade, the rapid global pandemic response and ongoing extreme weather events in Aotearoa, they secured investment from Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture & Heritage to create best practice resources for environmentally sustainable touring, aimed at performing artists working in and from Aotearoa.

McCubbin Howell said, “This is our way of responding to the call for collective action. The guidebook builds on expertise from around the world, but has been specifically tailored for our unique context, weaving in ideas from the industry, strategies we’ve road-tested ourselves, and a mātauranga and te ao Māori perspective. Our hope is that the guide is both user-friendly and widely applicable, and brings together the mahi that is already happening around the country.”

Trick of the Light has been working to integrate green kaupapa into their touring practice, both domestically and internationally. Smith said, “We don’t claim to be experts; we don’t claim to be perfect – we’re on this journey ourselves, and we balance environmental aspirations with the realities of making work in an under-resourced sector.”

The guidebook is underpinned by an environmental audit of Trick of the Light’s annual activity in 2022, and research undertaken by Tour Makers on their 2023 North Island tour of Upu, where the production’s carbon footprint was robustly tracked by producer Andrew Malmo.

The suite of resources created by Trick of the Light include the guidebook itself alongside an online toolkit, which can be found at https://www.greentheatre.co.nz This up-to-the-minute resource kit includes a digital tool for measuring production emissions in Aotearoa, a touring data collection template, disposal directories, materials inventory, touring sustainability plan, green rider sample for presenters, a guide for sustainable materials, amongst other practical assets.

Alongside their collaboration with Trick of the Light, Playmarket also published The Aotearoa Green Theatre Plan in July as part of the ongoing Playmarket Guideline Series, which is designed to provide best practice advice and create greater discourse within the arts sector in Aotearoa. Compiled by Massey University professor Elspeth Tilley, this sustainability guide for Aotearoa theatremakers is relevant to schools and communities, professional and in-house producers. The Aotearoa Green Theatre Plan covers seven key steps to help theatres start lowering their footprint at the same time as activating their audiences in greener thinking together. These steps consider everything from communication and catering to transport, waste, energy, water and simple monitoring and evaluation.

Tilley said, “Innovating, celebrating, and sharing are things that community theatres have always done well, and nothing about that needs to change when it comes to sustainability.

Tight budgets mean we are already thinking creatively about reducing, reusing, and recycling and just need to expand our creative problem solving to all aspects of greening, not start from scratch. Designed to be accessible, the plan augments and enhances the skills community groups already excel at.”

In her artistic practice, Tilley uses theatre to address social and political issues such as climate change and gender. She has produced Climate Change Theatre Action Aotearoa four times and founded the Creative1World youth creative activism conference. Her climate-focussed plays have been performed more than 50 times across Europe, Asia, North America and Oceania. Elspeth was the first CCTA producer to stage a fully carbon-neutral production and has shared her theatre production carbon template with other producers worldwide.

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