Check out this presentation by lighting designer James Bedell. He originally gave this presentation at an event for the Broadway Green Alliance exploring Greener Lighting Practices in the theater. As a sustainability advocate, James encourages lighting designers to integrate sustainability into their design priorities whenever working on a project.
Ian Garrett
Taylor Guitars & The Future of Ebony
In this video, Taylor Guitars co-founder Bob Taylor talks about the world’s dwindling supply of ebony, the realities of ebony sourcing in Cameroon, and Taylor’s efforts to preserve a sustainable supply for the entire musical instrument community. With the co-purchase of Crelicam, an ebony mill in Cameroon in 2011, Taylor began to develop a fresh framework for sustainable sourcing, one that blends socially responsible forestry with job training that will help Cameroonian communities support themselves and improve their living standards.
From the Taylor website: “We need to use the ebony that the forest gives us,†emphasizes Bob, who has personally met with a number of other prominent guitar manufacturers since the Crelicam purchase to spread awareness of the new realities regarding ebony sourcing. While the current conditions don’t mean that the days of all-black ebony are entirely gone, they do mean that if we want to ensure a sustainable ebony supply for future generations of instruments and players, we must embrace greater cosmetic diversity.
The story was recently picked up by the Los Angeles Times. In the article, but Ron White, Taylor was also quoted as saying, regarding the workers at the mill:
“We are going to start doing a lot of the processing and that will provide more jobs and more higher-paying jobs and triple the value of what they can sell, instead of just the raw material,” Taylor said. “There is money in the ebony, and they deserve to have more of that.”
Click these links for more info:
Taylor Guitar’s Commitment to Sustainability
Taylor Guitar’s page on Sustainable Ebony
LA Time’s Article about Talyor Guitar’s purchase of the Crelicam Mill
Environmental Justice League Presentation June 16th in Los Angeles
The Environmental Justice League is a community theatre project housed in the Los Angeles City Council District 10. For 8 weeks, they have met on Saturdays to develop their writing and performance skills to create an original theater piece on environmental justice. The ethnically diverse members of the group range from 20 to 90 years old and  they conduct their rehearsals in English, Spanish and Korean.
They invite all to come watch the sharing of their works in progress. Come see as they transform an outdoor amphitheater into a magic bus that will take you on a ride through the present and future of climate, food, transit and environmental justice.
The performance will be at 5:30 PM, Saturday June 16th, 2012.
The location for the performance is the William Grant Still Art Center at 2520 West View Street, Los Angeles, CA 90016.Â
ENERGISING CULTURE: JB’S LATEST GUIDE
Energising Culture: JB’s Latest Guide
Yesterday saw the launch of our latest guide, Energising Culture, the first in a two-part guide on future energy strategies for cultural buildings, published in partnership with The Theatres Trust and Arts Council England.
Energising Culture aims to equip the leaders of cultural buildings with an understanding of the core issues around energy demand and supply, and implications for operational and investment decision-making. It makes the case for energy as a business-critical issue.
The guide covers practical and operational interventions, the current range of technological, compliancy and financial incentives, sources of funding and investment models available.
It also provides case study examples of innovative and bold responses to the energy challenge from the cultural sector.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD ENERGISING CULTURE >
Energising Culture Seminar
12.30 – 13.30 THURS 14 JUNE
ABTT Theatre Show 2012
Join Julie’s Bicycle and The Theatres Trust to discuss practical solutions to powering our cultural events into the future.
Applications open for the 2012 Fringe Festival Award for Sustainable Production at the Hollywood Fringe #lathr #hff12
CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE 2012 HOLLYWOOD FRINGE QUESTIONNAIRE
The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) announces the 2012 Fringe Festival Award for Sustainable Production at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. The CSPA Fringe Festival Award for Sustainable Production is designed to reward sustainable practice in the production of a fringe show. The winner will be announced at the Fringe Awards Ceremony on June 24th at 7:00pm, and will receive a plaque and a feature article in an upcoming edition of the CSPA Quarterly, the CSPA’s print publication highlighting the most exciting work being done in sustainability and the arts.
The award will be adjudicated by the CSPA Directors, Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright, along with a number of CSPA affiliates. It will be looking at public communication and education, resource use and transportation in support of presenting a fringe show based on methodology developed by the CSPA itself and San Diego’s Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company, who has created a comprehensive Green Theater Choices Toolkit with a generous grant from the Theater Communications Group.
To be considered for the award, a production fills out an online questionnaire. Questions range from an inventory of materials used to what public transportation lines run close to venues to how themes about sustainability are addressed in their shows. Because venues vary so greatly, all but the most basic questions are optional. Shows are encouraged, but not required to provide a CSPA affiliate with tickets to their production to allow a trained eye to look at shows and projects as they exist in the real world.
As an independent producer and designer, outside of the CSPA, Garrett has produced dozens of shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.  Garrett also serves as the Festival Producer for CalArts Festival Theater, a program of California Institute of the Arts’ School of Theater that enables students and alumni to bring work to the Edinburgh Fringe, now in it’s 9th year.
“Even more so than we want someone to score perfectly on the questionnaire we use to evaluate shows, we want theater artists to look at the questions and think about how it helps to guide their thinking about sustainability in the their art. There may be questions asked in ways they hadn’t thought, and we hope they ask these questions of their next project and the project after that.â€
To apply, fringe show producers can head over to the CSPA’s website at http://www.sustainablepractice.com/fringe or email fringe@sustainablepractice.org. Applications for evaluation will be taken up until the end of the festival, though it is encouraged to apply while it is still possible for a CSPA affiliate to view the show. All questions regarding the award by also be be directed to fringe@sustainablepractice.org.
The CSPA Award for Sustainable Production at the Fringe launched in 2010 at the Hollywood and Edinburgh Festival Fringes. Previous recipients include:  The Pantry Shelf a satirical comedy that takes place in any ordinary pantry shelf, produced by Team M&M at Sweet Grassmarket; Presque Pret a Porter, produced by Dreams by Machine; and Allotment by Jules Horne and directed by Kate Nelson, produced by nutshell productions at the Inverleith Allotments in co-production with Assembly.
The CSPA was founded by Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright in early 2008 after individually working on each of the programs that now make up the multi-faceted approach to sustainability separately. It provides a network of resources to arts organizations, which enables them to be ecologically and economically sustainable while maintaining artistic excellence. We support the infrastructure of this network by supplying artists with the information, education and intellectual community they need to make the best choices for their sustainability. We do this through three independent programs: CSPA Knowledge Network,  CSPA convergences, workshops and granting. We extend these efforts with key partnerships with like minded organizations. Past and Present partnerships have included the University of Oregon, Ashden Directory, Arcola Theater, Diverseworks Artspace, Indy Convergence, York University, LA Stage Alliance and others. Under the umbrella of the CSPA, each program and partnership uses different tactics with their own mission to create a comprehensive and cooperative synthesis in artistic sustainability.
Showman Fabricators Celebrates Donyale Werle’s Tony win for Peter and the Starcatcher
After Donyale Werle’s win for best Scenic Design for a play at the Tony Awards last night, Showman Fabricators, who worked to bring the show to Broadway, sent an email to congratulate Donyale Werle on her Tony Award for Best Scenic Design of a Play for ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’. Saying “Building this set was an honor and pleasure.”
Read on from their email this morning…..
BRAVA!! to Tony Award winning Set Designer Donyale Werle for her work on ‘Peter and the Star Catcher’.
Best Scenic Design of a Play was 1 of 5 Tony Awards ‘Peter’ won last night. Donyale is very conscience about the environmental impact of her designs and material choices. We could not have been more proud to have built this show for her. Congratulations to Donyale as well as David Benken, Technical Supervisor and Patrick Eviston, Production Carpenter. And Donyale, thanks for the shout out during your gracious acceptance speech!
Set Designer Donyale Werle at Showman Fabricators
Playbill came to Showman and took a tour through the sustainability-conscience design and fabrication process of ‘Peter’ with Donyale Werle. For more information about the show, visit Peter and the Starcatcher.
Highlights of ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’
Click the video to view some of the highlights of ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’. Also visit the Showman and ‘Peter and the Starcatcher’ facebook pages for additional video’s and information.
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Showman Fabricators www.showfab.com 47-22 Pearson Place Long Island City, New York 11101 |
Frozen Planet in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl
Fri-Sat JUL 6-7 8pm
Los Angeles Philharmonic
George Fenton, conductor
Following the success of Planet Earth Live, the world premiere of Frozen Planet in Concert comes to the Bowl’s big screen in the latest co-production of the BBC and Discovery Channel. The ultimate portrait of Earth’s last great wilderness, the polar regions, will be presented with stunning imagery with live orchestral accompaniment conducted by composer George Fenton.
Presented by LA Phil. For tickets and information, visit HollywoodBowl.com.
Announcing Heatwave: LA’s Theatre Community Commits to the Environment
The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA)Â is proud to partner with
TO SUPPORT
HeatWave: LA’s Theatre Community Commits to the Environment.
Register here to attend the HeatWave conference on June 9th by clicking here!
HeatWave is a project which brings together the professional Los Angeles Theatre Community – writers, devised theatre makers and producing theatre companies – to confront and grapple with environmental issues, including Climate Change and issues of Environmental Justice.
HeatWave is designed to generate new works and connect the Theatre Community to the Environmental Community, as well as promote and facilitate greener practices in operations and production.
Join us for our kick-off day-long event at TreePeople’s Conference Center in Coldwater Canyon Park.
- 12601 Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, CA 90210
- Saturday, June 9, 2012
- 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
$25 Registration Fee (includes lunch)
Scheduled Speakers include:
- Terence McFarland (LA Stage Alliance)
- Ian Garrett (CSPA)
- Douglas Clayton (LA Stage Alliance)
- Justin Yoffee (Arts, Earth Partnership)
- John Raatz (GATE Foundation)
- Spoken Word by Steve Connell & Douglas Kearney
- Video by Heidi Druckler Dance Theatre
- Staged Reading TBD
For more information about HeatWave and HeatWave events, visit www.HeatWaveTheatre.org!
I-LAND X-ISLE – Latai Taumoepeau
Sydneysiders and visitors to the Harbour City can explore the impact of climate change on island communities through this large-scale performance installation by Tongan Islander, Latai Taumoepeau. Large blocks of ice, suspended using traditional Tongan architectural lashing techniques for binding, will draw connections between melting ice glaciers and rising sea levels. Lanai says that she attended the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali in 2007, and thereafter decided to “extend the voice of our invisible pacific people through my artistic practice.”
 In her own words… “My name is Latai Taumoepeau, I am a performance artist with a new performance installation campaign called i-Land X-isle. It is about the impact of climate change on vulnerable indigenous communities from the arctic to coastal low lying islands. My body will be bound by rope to a 2 tonne block of ice to parallel the experience of already impacted people of human induced climate change to a form of water torture, that is imposed by developing countries. It will be live and a durational performance over 2 days.
I humbly invite you… to use my public art spectacle as a platform to raise wider awareness of communities already impacted by human induced climate change and instructions of how ordinary citizens can change to minimise and cease harm to Australia’s nearest coastal neighbours all the way to the Arctic.”
Faka’apa’apa Atu (with respect), Latai Taumoepeau
When: 26 & 27th May 2012
Time: 10am – 12noon & 2pm – 4pm
Where: Museum of Contemporary Art – Circular Quay Sydney.Â
(outdoors on the forecourt).
http://www.mca.com.au/events/i-land-x-isle-latai-taumoepeau/
Sustainability in Theater Conference Recordings Online Now!
Sustainability in Theater:Â People, Planet, Profit, Purpose
A blended conference dedicated to providing tangible, practical strategies to implementing greener theater practices, ensuring theaters remain a vital part of our community.
Day One (WEBCASTED LIVE): Learn
A full day of learning and networking, featuring sustainability experts, sustainability in theater pioneers and success stories.
All Day One activities were broadcast online – and are NOW AVAILABLE.
Please find the recording of the conference online! http://bnw.qwikcast.tv/