Lunchbox Theatre is proud to participate in a national project called Old Dogs, New Tricks: What is Sustainable Theatre Design? This is a Sector Innovation & Development project funded by The Canada Council for the Arts, led by Theatre New Brunswick and supporting 10 professional theatre companies from across Canada exploring sustainable theatre design through deep engagement on one project. Old Dogs, New Tricks is providing participating companies with access to professional tools, resources, mentorship and funds to enable this work.
We are very excited to be diving into this project with Home for the Holidays. Admittedly, a story about air travel on Christmas is not the most obvious fit for a project that explores sustainability in theatre production and design! However, we are excited to tell the story of how we are creating this work alongside the story within the play, with the understanding that to take meaningful action, we must consider the impact of our work no matter what the play is about.
Goals:
We begin by redefining our definition of success: no longer being achieved at all costs, and a long overdue abandonment of the ‘the show must go on’ mentality of production. We divest ourselves of perfectionist thinking, and instead look to the resources around us, drawing upon our team to gather the materials required to put on our show. This requires collaboration and open-mindedness where the ideas of ‘good’ and ‘good enough’ blur. All of this, however, does in no way mean sacrificing creative vision, rigour, or expectations. Rather, it pushes creativity further. For within limitations, great creativity must be wielded to solve challenges.
Within this framework, we are aiming to work within the following limitations to soften our footprint upon our corner of the world:
We will not order properties, scenery, or costumes from Amazon.
We will not purchase properties, scenery, or costumes from dollar stores.
When purchasing new items, we will shop first at locally owned and operated shops, even if purchased items are more expensive and less convenient to acquire.
Instead of immediately shopping, we will draw upon our team of actors, artists, associate artists, and collaborators to ‘crowd-source’ as many props and costumes as possible. Team members will be compensated fairly for the ‘rental’ of their items.
We will use standard-sized lumber to build our scenery and assemble it in a way that – when disassembled – it can be reintegrated into our stock and used again and again. This applies also to hardware and fasteners (screws, bolts, etc.).
We will actively seek alternative ways of coming to the theatre – carpooling, transit, walking, etc.
Creative teams not present in the rehearsal hall daily will be intentional about when they drive into downtown, and consider attending meetings and rehearsals remotely when possible.
Lastly (for now), company-purchased food and snacks brought into the rehearsal hall and catered for receptions will be locally sourced, and with as little packaging as possible.
Throughout this work, we are tracking how these shifts affect both our creative and production process, and we look forward to sharing more of what we learned, as well as metrics of what we were able to achieve!