Miranda Wright

Sustainable Production Award Announced for THE PANTRY SHELF at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

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The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) has awarded the first CSPA Fringe Award for Sustainable Production at the Edinburgh Fringe to The Pantry Shelf, a comedy produced by Team M & M at the Sweet Grassmarket venue. The award, which debuted earlier this year at the inaugural Hollywood Fringe Festival , was designed to reward sustainable practice in the production of a fringe performance, in addition to content that encourages audiences to incorporate sustainable changes into their own lives

The Pantry Shelf is a satirical comedy that takes place in any ordinary pantry shelf. Characters are food items most of us have readily available. The story follows the addition of a revolutionary new snack to the shelf: Queenie, a quinoa, date and bark bar.  Queenie discovers that her healthy branding doesn’t accurately represent what’s actually inside. The comedy explores branding, consumerism and the corporate control of our diets. It’s also a “love story between a quinoa bar, a bag of Scottish porridge and a sexy block of dark chocolate,” about staying true to yourself.

“We chose The Pantry Shelf as the award winner based on its comprehensiveness,” comments Ian Garrett, Executive Director of the CSPA.  “The show raised valid questions that are relevant to everyone’s daily lives, without being heavy handed. Team M&M took great care to ensure the production was produced as environmentally sustainable as possible, and the content of the play was both entertaining and informative.”

The CSPA Directors, Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright adjudicated the award, along with select CSPA affiliates. The recipient was chosen based on their submission of a questionnaire about how the show was produced along with audience response. For the Edinburgh Fringe, Mhora Samuel and Tim Atkinson from The Theatres Trust’s European Regional Development Fund-backed Ecovenue project have helped the CSPA adapt the criteria for a UK audience, providing guidance on UK equivalents to US name brands, as well as providing insight on measuring conventions and policy. The award simply would not have been complete with out their assistance.

“The CSPA is not just another ‘go green’ organization,” says Wright.  “We hope to gather and distribute information that aids in the sustainability of the earth, the sustainability of our communities, and the sustainability of our art.  And so, the purpose of this award is not to recognize the greenest production.  Our objective in offering this award is to ask questions of ourselves, as theater artists, about the greater impact of our work on the world around us.  The winner of this year’s award not only limited material waste in production, but asked audience members to consider sustainability in their lives.”

In addition to offering an award for Fringe performances, the CSPA also presented a panel on sustainability in theater at Fringe Central in Edinburgh on Monday Morning, August the 16th. Panelists included Garrett and Wright, Sam Goldblatt (author of Greener Meetings and Events), Dr. Wallace Heim of the Ashden Directory, Mhora Samuel of theTheatres Trust, and Bryan Raven of White Light. A full video of the session can be found on the CSPA website and at http://cspa.blip.tv.

Wright continues: “We’ve been working since we started the CSPA on how to provide resources and guidelines for sustainable production to the theatrical community. Both Ian and myself come from theatrical backgrounds and it is important to us. The fringe festival model provides an ideal platform to introduce these ideas and the award due to the expectations and scale of the shows. It is easier to start the conversation at a fringe level of production than Broadway. By involving ourselves with the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest and oldest fringe in the world, we are looking to create the greatest visibility and excitement around the introduction of ideas of sustainability to the largest number of theater artists at home and away.”

“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,” adds Garrett.

Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright founded the CSPA in early 2008 after individually working on each of the programs that now make up the multi-faceted approach to sustainability separately. The organization provides a network of resources to arts organizations, which enables them to be ecologically and economically sustainable while maintaining artistic excellence. 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. www.sustainablepractice.org

THE CENTER FOR SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE IN THE ARTS ANNOUNCES PANELISTS FOR “SUSTAINABILITY IN THEATRE”, A PANEL DISCUSSION WITH UK AND US LEADERS IN GREENING THE ARTS.

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CLICK HERE TO RESERVE A TICKET FOR FREE

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) will host a panel on issue of sustainability and “greening” the arts on Monday, August the 16th. A leader in the sustainable arts movement in the US, the CSPA will bring together key players in the sustainable arts movement in the UK to talk about the future of theatre and performance in the face of climate change. Guests will include Sam Goldblatt, Wallace Heim, Mhora Samuel, Bryan Raven of White Light LTD, and CSPA directors Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright. The panel will be presented from  10:00am until noon on Monday, August 16th at Fringe Central. The event is free, but ticket reservations are encourage and can be made through the fringe box office.

In addition to showcasing the latest news from UK innovators in sustainable practice for the arts, the CSPA’s directors Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright will present initiatives and resources being developed around the world. These will include San Diego’s Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company’s Green Theater Choices Toolkit, Toronoto’s York University and their MFA in sustainable design for the theater, Mexico’s “El Sabino” led by Laura Kuri and her brother Claudio Kuri, director of Montezeuma at the Edinburgh International Festival, and Denmark’s Wooloo with their New Life Festival focused on Art and Hospitality.

  • Sam Goldblatt is an arts and events producer, and author of the textbook Greener Meetings and Events, to be published by John Wiley & Sons in 2011 as part of their Event Management Series. In Washington, DC, he served as Environmental Officer for the Capital Fringe Festival, creating theatre venues from reused building materials.
  • Dr. Wallace Heim researches, writes and teaches on performance and nature, on the philosophical dimensions of ‘art and ecology’, and on climate change and social practice. She does this in many places. She is co-editor ofwww.ashdendirectory.org.uk; and is on the editorial board for the Journal of Performance and Ecology. She taught on the MA Arts and Ecology at Dartington College of Arts; co-curated the conference/event BETWEEN NATURE; co-edited Nature Performed. Environment, Culture and Performance. She is a director of the research communication group PublicSpace, an FRSA, and a trustee for PLATFORM. She also has worked for many years as a set designer for theatre and television/film, and was a co-founder of the Gate Theatre, London.
  • Mhora Samuel began her career as a dancer and choreographer in Scotland and as Administrator for the Gregory Nash Group in Oxford. She moved to London in 1989 as Centre Co-ordinator for Chisenhale Dance Space, and in 1991 was appointed as Director of Total Theatre, the UK lead body for physical and visual performance. She joined ABL Cultural Consulting in 1998 where she worked on a range of capital feasibility studies and arts strategies. In 2001 she was appointed Chief Executive of the Cultural Industries Development Agency, the leading business support regeneration agency for the cultural and creative industries sector in East London. Mhora joined The Theatres Trust in January 2006 as Director and has led on the development of specific environmental advice for theatres, contributing to the Mayor of London’s Green Theatre Plan in 2008 and successfully achieving European Funding for the Trust’s Three Year Ecovenue project, helping to improve the environmental performance of London’s theatres.
  • Bryan Raven is Managing Director of White Light and has been with the company for over 23 years. Since then White Light has grown from 17 staff with a turnover of just over £1M to the current size with 120 staff and turnover of nearly £20M and projects all over the world as well as continuing to be the leading supplier of lighting to the UK theatre industry. His career started with a brief spell at Theatre Projects after spending two years realising that lighting was a lot more fun than mechanical engineering at Imperial College. He has been at the forefront of White Light’s desire to improve both it’s own environmental record and also that of the industry as a whole. He was part of the team responsible for Mayor of London’s Greening London Theatre programmes and is a member of Julies Bicycle theatre steering group.

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Hollywood Fringe Sustainable Production Award Announced

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LOS ANGELES — The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) awarded the first CSPA Fringe Award for Sustainable Production to Presque Pret a Porter, produced by Dreams by Machine on Sunday night at the Hollywood Fringe Festival Awards Ceremony.  The award was designed to reward ecologically sustainable practice in the production of a fringe performance.

The award was adjudicated by the CSPA Directors, Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright, along with select CSPA affiliates. The recipient was chosen based on an online data form created by the CSPA, and informed by the Mo’olelo Green Theater Choices Toolkit.

“The CSPA is not just another ‘go green’ organization,” said Wright at the ceremony Sunday night.  “We hope to gather and distribute information that aids in the sustainability of the earth, the sustainability of our communities, and the sustainability of our art.  And so, the purpose of this award is not to recognize the greenest production.  Our objective in offering this award is to ask questions of ourselves, as theater artists, about the greater impact of our work on the world around us.  The winner of this year’s award not only limited material waste in production, but asked audience members to consider sustainability in their lives.”

Laura Brody, this year’s winner, stated the primary goal of her project as “to create awareness of and to encourage re-use through entertaining and participatory demonstration.”  In the performance, materials were re-purposed from thrift stores and cutting room floors.  Materials were donated by friends and colleagues of the project.  And, the musician’s set up was made of found objects strung together to create a percussion rig.

While debuting at the Hollywood Fringe, the CSPA Fringe Award for Sustainable Production will also be offered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, where the CSPA will be presenting a panel on sustainability in theater at Fringe Central in Edinburgh on Monday Morning, August the 16th.

“We’ve been working since we started the CSPA on how to provide resources and guidelines for sustainable production to the theatrical community. Both Miranda and myself come from theatrical backgrounds and it is important to us. The fringe festival model provides an ideal platform to introduce these ideas and the award due to the expectations and scale of the shows. It is easier to start the conversation at a fringe level of production than Broadway. By starting with the Hollywood Fringe, our local and the newest fringe festival, and immediately moving to the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest and oldest fringe in the world, we are looking to create the greatest visibility and excitement around the introduction of ideas of sustainability to the largest number of theater artists at home and away,” says Executive Director Ian Garrett.

“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.”

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. The organization provides a network of resources to arts organizations, which enables them to be ecologically and economically sustainable while maintaining artistic excellence. 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

The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts to Present Award for Sustainable Production at Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals

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The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts (CSPA) announces the inaugural Fringe Festival Award for Sustainable Production, debuting at the Hollywood Fringe Festival June 17th – 27th. The CSPA Fringe Festival Award for Sustainable Production is designed to reward ecologically sustainable practice in the production of a fringe show. The winner will be announced at the Fringe Awards Ceremony on June 27th 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.

While debuting at the Hollywood Fringe, the CSPA Fringe Festival Award for Sustainable Production will also be offered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this August, where the CSPA will be presenting a panel on sustainability in theater at Fringe Central in Edinburgh on Monday Morning, August the 16th.

“We’ve been working since we started the CSPA on how to provide resources and guidelines for sustainable production to the theatrical community. Both Miranda and myself come from theatrical backgrounds and it is important to us. The fringe festival model provides an ideal platform to introduce these ideas and the award due to the expectations and scale of the shows. It is easier to start the conversation at a fringe level of production than Broadway. By starting with the Hollywood Fringe, our local and the newest fringe festival, and immediately moving to the Edinburgh Fringe, the largest and oldest fringe in the world, we are looking to create the greatest visibility and excitement around the introduction of ideas of sustainability to the largest number of theater artists at home and away,” says Executive Director Ian Garrett.

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, various sections may not be included in a single evaluation to provide equal footing for the shows on a case by case basis. 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 is also involved in bringing shows to both the Hollywood and Edinburgh festivals. He will be designing for the Rogue Artist Ensemble’s ‘Hyperbole: Origins’ workshop at Art\Works Theater on Santa Monica for the Hollywood Fringe (To be premiered in full production at Inside the Ford this Fall) and is the conceiver and producer for the devised physical theater piece on memory, aging and identity ‘At Sundown’, which will be at the Edinburgh Fringe at Venue 13. 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 7th year. In the interest of fairness, these shows will not be eligible for the CSPA’s award.

“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.”

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 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 Online Resources, annual CSPA convergence and the CSPA Institute’s curriculum building. 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.

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CSPA December 09 Newsletter

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cpslogocolorOn Friday we both head to Copenhagen for the New Life Copenhagen Festival, the arts festival surrounding COP15, which began on Monday. During our stay in Europe, we’ll also be checking in on Future Arcola and a project for the 2011 Prague Quadrennial. December will be a very exciting, if not a bit chilly, month. We also have open calls for the next edition of the Quarterly and Mammut, which will be guest edited by the CSPA. As we approach the New Year, we hope that your winter is cozy (for the right reasons) and that we’ll be seeing you often in 2010!

Ian Garrett & Miranda Wright

CSPA Directors

CSPA December 09 Newsletter.

CSPA October 09 Newsletter

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Newsletter #3 is here! The quarterly is on its way out the door as well. Weve got a couple of very important events coming up as well and I hope youll join us for them. For those in technical theater, were helping Showman Fabricators with their Green Day 2009 at this years LDI conference in Orlando. And if that wasnt big enough news, well also have people on the ground in Copenhagen for COP15 and Wooloo.orgs New Life Festival.

All of the information on these developments is below as well. With all of this going on, wouldnt you considering joining the CSPA?

Ian Garrett & Miranda Wright
CSPA Directors

CSPA October 09 Newsletter.

CSPA September 09 Newsletter

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We invite you to view our second newsletter. As you read this, we’re hard at work on compiling our first issue of the CSPA Quarterly, which we will be releasing at the end of the month. We’re also working on bulstering our Wiki, which hasa lot of great information, but there is so much more to get in there. If you’re interested in helping, we welcome volunteers to contribute as well. It is free to join and post. If that wasn’t enough exciting news, the cat is out of the bag that we’ve been working with LA Stage Alliance on developing a plan for physical materials reuse infrastructure in Los Angeles AND we’re gearing up to start our certification initiative in the new year! There is just so much going on, and we thank you all for your continued support of the CSPA!

Ian Garrett & Miranda Wright

CSPA Directors

Check it out here: CSPA September 09 Newsletter.

Moving Art, Moving Green Mini Expo Reminder

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The Moving Arts, Moving Green mini-expo is Sunday, December 7th at the Ford Amphitheater. The mini-expo has been organized as part of the talk-back series for Moving Arts production of Song of Extinction at [Inside] the Ford.

Inspired by the strong environmental themes within this beautiful new play, Moving Arts has begun “Moving Green” by taking steps toward becoming a more eco-friendly company. The Green Mini-Expo is way to celebrate these changes, as well as connect our audience with local Green organizations and businesses and provide access to emerging green issues and eco-friendly lifestyle techniques. Audience members are also welcome to participate in a free panel discussion with a diverse group of local, green professionals on the day of the Green Mini-Expo.

The Expo will be open to the public at 1:00 pm and the talk back will be at 5:00 pm. There are two shows that day at 3:00 pm and a pay-want-you-can 7:00 pm show. 

I will be talking on behalf of the CSPA and as the lighting designer for the show, hopefully providing a bridge between the Art and the Commerce of the green-expo. Myself and Miranda Wright will also be on hand for most of the day with a table in the courtyard to discuss the upcoming EcoDrama Convergence in may. We’ll have copies of the brochure, and both the University of Oregon and our own RFPs.

EXPO INFORMATION 

When: Sunday, December 7, 2008 from 1pm-7pm 

Where: The Ford Theatres, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Los Angeles, CA 90068 

Cost: Admission is FREE to the public