Curtains up! How can we keep the footlights on while lowering our carbon footprint? What are the environmental impacts of producing a performance? In this course, students will explore issues surrounding sustainability in the performing arts, like carbon emissions, indoor air quality, recycling and repurposing, hazardous materials, supply chains, and transportation. Students will address challenges using a variety of solutions-oriented approaches, including models of technical innovation, green design, updated organizational models, and increasing sustainability literacy. Students will expand their knowledge through readings, discussions, guest practitioners and organizations. This course will require participants to make presentations to the class, engage with industry professionals, and work in teams. 

The Grace Theatre Company’s students, faculty, and contractors are committed to moving towards a sustainable future for the performing arts. We recognize the impact that theatre can have on both our community and the environment. We prioritize mindful production practices, waste reduction, and energy efficiency. We strive to minimize our carbon footprint while continuing to create inspiring performances. We will use creative problem-solving to seek innovative ways to integrate sustainability into all our work, from set and costume construction to theatre technology to audience engagement, without compromising our artistic integrity and production quality. Through this approach to the arts, the Grace Theater Company upholds the importance of environmental responsibility, and we hope to ensure that theatre remains a vibrant, sustainable art.

In this course, students will explore the use of the performing arts to bring about societal change through examination of the integration of theatre, political engagement, justice, and activism. Students will examine how theatre and performance can be used by artists as a tool for community building, restorative justice, public awareness, and a catalyst for action. Students will expand their knowledge of theatre repertoire, practitioners, and organizations, while questioning how creativity, efficacy, representation, and sustainability can work together to create change.