Does Recycling Require Additional Money, Time and Commitment?

Recycling our scenery required more steps at strike than we had been used to in the past. Since we only rent our performance space while our show is running, we could not recycle on site.

In the past, when we would strike our shows, we would have a 40-yard dumpster delivered to the theatre’s loading dock. The set would come off stage, have its reusable hardware removed and then go right into the dumpster.

[Photo1 – You can see that some wood, residue from adhesive, paint and fasteners remain on and in the steel. This is not a problem for the recycling company – as long as you find the right recycler.]

In order to recycle, we had to take a few more steps and spend a little more money.

We had to transport our scenery back to our scene shop (about 10 miles away from the theatre.) Because everything has to be out on our last performance day, we had to rent two 24 foot trucks (we usually only need one.) The set had to be repacked into the trucks.

Upon arrival at the shop, we had to call another overhire crew in to unload the trucks. Next, we took two days to strip the wood from the steel frames and remove any reusable hardware. Once the wood and steel were in separate piles, we had to cut down some pieces of steel so that we could get it all into the dumpster.

The recycling company delivered the dumpster and a few hours later the steel was ready on its way to be recycled.

Overall, the recycling process added an additional two days to our strike. But a funny thing happened on the way to greening up our strike process…

Demand for steel (A Weak Outlook for Steel Makers) has been falling throughout the world over the past several months. When the recycler did not return as promised for the wood, we called. And we called again. And again. And once more after that. Finally, when we reached a person and asked why they hadn’t returned the truth came out – their company did not feel that it was worth their time to work with us. We didn’t generate enough steel for them.

Undeterred, we found another company, Renovated Metals who was more than happy to work with us. And in fact, they even hauled away some odds and ends (including an old storage container) that we needed to get rid of in order to re-arrange our back yard to allow us to have trash, steel-only, and wood-only roll off dumpsters.

However, Renovated Metals, as their name implies, only deals in scrap metal. Without anyone willing to take the scrap wood from the set, we were forced to throw it into the landfill.

[Photo2 – Childsplay’s John Emery and Matt Brown dismantle scenery for recycling.]

We will continue to look for a regional recycler for our scrap wood. However, it has become clear that, no matter how we approach it, it will be more expensive to recycle than to just dump our sets. Recycling will therefore require a commitment from the entire company, not just the production department. We will need the support of management, fundraising, and board members to generate the additional funds for recycling services. We will also need to look for ideas about educating our audiences and potential donors about the importance of sustainable stagecraft…possibly adding a “green” service fee to tickets or setting up a special fund as an add-on to our annual appeal. We are eager to hear ideas from the field: has anyone been able to generate consistent support (not just a grant here or there) for sustainability efforts?

--Anthony Runfola & Jenny Millinger, Childsplay

Gearing Up for the Pilot Program of the Austin Scenic Coop

The Austin Scenic Coop has outlets, light switches, and insulation! There is a new storage loft and much better-organized set of storage bays for upright storage of flats. Our Pilot Program is gearing up, with invited organizations using (or planning the use of) their virtual accounts.



The open space in the Coop is slated to be used for rehearsal starting Monday. However, a side effect of the spray-foam insulation has delayed preparation for that. In the course of installation, a fairly fine spatter of adhesive foam covered everything exposed to open air, including scenic elements which can be easily scraped clean, and other items less easily restored, like fabric backdrops, puppets, and power tools. Some of these items belong to the Coop and others to groups who have traded or otherwise arranged for storage in the space.



The real problem, though, was not the foam droplets on surfaces, but the tiny aerosolized particles of foam that remained in suspension in the air. The foam is often used in industrial spaces which have HVAC systems that filter the air, but we have no such system, and the foam dust lingered for several days, making it impossible to work in the space without eye and throat irritation. So the cleanup and restoration of the areas that had to be moved or partly disassembled in order to accommodate the insulation installation has been on hold.




We look forward to a very busy weekend of storing, cleaning, rebuilding, and otherwise civilizing the area in time for Monday evening. Included are pictures of the preparation for the insulation and electrical work. Pictured are volunteers Hank Schwemmer (up high) Rob Jacques, Devo Carpenter, and Jay Young.

--Connor Hopkins, Austin Scenic Coop, Coordinator

Moving Forward with the Play Development Laboratory

Have had a series of meetings over the last weeks with Adam Greenfield, Director of New Play Advancement at Playwrights Horizons, whose organizational skills has Diana weeping in admiration ( I'm impressed too, but she has to bear the brunt of my cluttered brain).

We have put together a nice clean process for our play development laboratory, so beautiful in its orderliness that I told Adam I didn't want to muck it up with actual programming. We have a few more practical hurdles-- minor, we think. The next step is choosing the projects, which is some of the fun part. Adam, his assistant Alec and Ann Thayer, who we have hired as the project manager, are a delight and the meetings are probably too enjoyable. I look forward to working with more of the Playwrights staff as we get into this.

So our big plan: 5 week-long play labs, monthly, from November-early April. Being frugal donwtowners, Clubbed Thumb will program development projects of our own in the unused block of the rehearsal time for each of these labs. So! We'll be developing at least 11 projects from September-April (and on either side producing). Time to read some plays.


--Maria Striar, Clubbed Thumb

What are the Financial Benefits of Membership in the Austin Scenic Coop?

For the last month I have been at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut, attending the National Puppetry Conference and working for the Center during the National Playwrights' and Music Theater Conferences. From here I've been communicating with volunteer coordinator Kathryn Rogers as she makes the arrangements for some physical improvements to the main Coop storage space and future office. By the end of the month we should have insulation (reducing the temperature at least enough that we can store paint without cooking it) and electricity for all those useful things like lights, for seeing.

Power will also be useful for our most recent acquisition, a photocopier, which constitutes the beginning of our office equipment collection. Eventually, the copier, a fax, scanner and printer will be available to Coop members to help with aspects of production other than scenic needs. In addition the Coop office can be used as a business mailing address for itinerant companies, so they can have the appearance of professionalism.

After I get back to Austin, we will be setting up "virtual accounts" for the members of our pilot program, assigning each a differing Membership level representing a corresponding financial investment in the Coop. During the season we have identified a September 2010 to February 2011, we will track the participating companies' usage of Coop resources to establish the point at which Coop usage begins to pay off for members, using the cost analysis/pricing guide that Brad Carlin (Salvage Vanguard) and I developed last month. This will enable us to present clearly the benefits of Membership to the community (theater and others), and to the City of Austin and other granting institutions in the course of pursuing further financial and material support. The information will be available on the Coop website as a case study that can be used by others interested in establishing similar cooperative projects.

--Connor Hopkins, Austin Scenic Coop, Coordinator & Trouble Puppet Theater Company, Artistic Director

The Purpose and The Substance…of a Talent Agency

After diving into the joyous waters of Tax Codes, Articles of Incorporation and IRS Determinations, Ming has discovered two potentially key issues that may determine how this agency would be organized in relation to East West Player’s nonprofit status.

PURPOSE
Does the agency further EWP’s exempt purpose (as originally determined when the organization incorporated)? An example Ming offers: a halfway house operates a furniture store. The store employs clients in their transition back into the mainstream. Because of this, the furniture store’s ‘for-profit’ activity clearly serves the purpose of the organization’s mission (as defined in the IRS’s definitions of nonprofit activities). To the IRS, EWP falls in the category of ‘education.’ Thus, it appears that if a clear argument is made that the agency would advance our educational purposes, then the creation of an agency as part of our ongoing mission would not raise issues. However, if the IRS deems that the agency does not fall within our original nonprofit purpose as defined by our determination and articles of incorporation, the question of substance comes into play.

SUBSTANCE
Or rather, how substantial will the activities of the agency be in relation to EWP’s other activities (theatre productions, acting/writing courses, youth outreach programs, etc.)? Many nonprofits have for-profit activities (theater concessions & souvenirs, hospital gift shops, etc.). Often, these activities are small in the scope of the organizations major activities. Thus, in the case of activity deemed as “unrelated for-profit” activity in a nonprofit model, less is best. In the case of the agency, however, we have to question how much constraint we are putting on this agency model if it must be tied to a certain (yet-to-be determined) percentage of the organization’s operating budget.

These questions are just beginnings which need to be vetted through legal counsel as well as foresighted business and mission-driven planning. Onward!

--Lisa Tang, East West Players

Is 'Literacy' the Right Term?

The Parking Lot where we put ideas that might deserve more conversation at a later time. You can see the big ideas sprouting throughout the day from "WIA – the Workforce Investment Act" to “What is diversity” to “Is ‘literacy’ the right term.”

Jane talking about the literacy center – Not trying to teach people to read, but to give them a positive experience with a piece of literature so they can go out and find meaning in what they read.

This was toward the end...my antennas went up because we moved into generalities about Book-It’s work. I pushed for us to be specific, and to support our ideas with evidence. They said I looked more like a bull.

To close, here is an image of our original “Vision Exercise” that happened at the beginning of the grant. During a break we looked at what we imagined the literacy center to be back in November – we saw assumptions and ideas that are affirmed by the information that’s been gathered to date.

Two big things that came up at the very end of the retreat are:

1. We need to talk more about our work as a theatre. Are we trying too hard to become something else? Does our theatre inspire literacy in our community? Or does it promote something else?
2. What does inspire mean to us?
   

We are mid-way – Sha-woo...

--Gail Sehlhorst, Book-It

News from Childsplay’s Third Sustainable Stagecraft Summit

At our third Sustainable Stagecraft Summit, the participating organizations gathered to review our first two meetings and discuss what can be done to begin to fill the gaps between our desired sustainability and the resources that are available to us now.

Overwhelmingly, the theatres agreed that improving communication during the design process can improve the sustainability of our scenery and the personnel who build it. Working through Midsummer illustrated the great benefit of involving the technical director from the start of the process. However, it will require an understanding on both the designer/director and TD of why they are all in a room together. Some artists may resist the presence of production person so early in the process, while some TD’s might feel like they are there to squash ideas before they’ve had the chance to fully evolve. The real benefit lies in the TD understanding the design on a much deeper level, which could inform the decision making process once the scenic design gets down to “value engineering.” For directors and designers, the TD’s presence early the in process could help to focus ideas on what’s possible given the theatre’s production time line and budget.

It was agreed that any thoughts of sustainability go out the window as opening night draws near. How could the energy that goes into these final weeks be re-directed to the front end of the process? Would it help keep your design process consistently on time? Would this yield a more productive working environment during technical rehearsals?

It was noted that production timelines are often determined by the needs of the box office. It’s difficult to change one process without looking at all processes necessary to produce theatre.

The idea of a centralized depot or co-op (as our colleagues in Austin are creating [Salavge Vanguard]) came up several times. The question of the financial feasibility of such an organization came up each time. Operations, fee structures, and space were ongoing concerns. Because of the disparate operating budgets of area theatres it’s likely such an operation would be highly attractive to the smaller companies, while the larger organizations would get less out of participating.

What gaps should we focus on now?

Materials – the thought that spurred this project: let’s stop using trees on stage. We have discovered that several potential alternatives (Kirei Wheatboard, PlyVeneer) are being developed, but as of yet, we have not found a product that meets most of the needs of scenic construction. We’re confident we will find the right manufacturer who will be interested in helping us realize our goal.

Funding – there’s no doubt that using a sustainable plywood alternative will be more expensive. We need to find ways to convince our funders that sustainability is important. In Childsplay’s case, the irony of a children’s theatre with a mission of “imagination and wonder” that is mortgaging children’s futures through unsustainable practices was not lost on the group. We need to tie our requests for support to causes, “asking for the right thing, the right way”.

Conciseness raising – as we learned at the first summit, recycling our scenery was a much more achievable goal than we had been led to believe in the past. The Think It grant allowed us to spend the time to find “the right person.” In our next blog post, we’ll be taking you though the process of the first two sets to have been recycled in Childsplay’s 33 –year history.

-- Jenny Millinger & Anthony Runfola, Childsplay