Almost a year ago I wrote a post entitled (you guessed it) “Walking the Talk.” In it I explain that I have taken the job as production manager for CTM and how the move has put me in the difficult position of putting into practice my ideas on sustainable theater.

As I’ve said repeatedly, it’s been rough. As the only year-round member of the production team, I regularly hire on new labor on a show by show basis, and act in many ways as the theater’s technical director as well. It’s not easy keeping everything in the production department rolling while pushing greener practices too. But I try.

Yesterday, however, I was a bit shamed by our Producing Artistic Director when she told me in a staff meeting that it would have been a much greener move on my part to track down linoleum remnants for the floor covering we need for our upcoming production, rather than buying about 1100 square feet of it brand new (albeit at a very good price). Yikes. How could such an easy idea have slipped by me without a thought. I even had a phone conversation with a local dealer, telling them who I was, and what the linoleum was for — and failed to simply ask, “do you guys have any remnants or unwanted linoleum (or vinyl) that you’d be willing to donate?”

I’m human, of course, and I often feel like I’m merely treading water as a production manager/technical director of a small theater company, with my hands in so many areas of the organization — but I am disappointed in myself for that one. The good news, of course, is that we now have enough of this versatile material to cover most of the floor in the theater space we perform in most frequently. And it can be reused several times over.