Is It Time for the Austin Scenic Coop to Hire Designated Staff?

As the fall season gets underway, the Austin Scenic Coop is moving from a long summer of making improvements to the space into a less (physically) strenuous phase. However, we are still kept quite busy with the day to day business of scheduling pick-up and drop off of materials, helping folks load and unload trucks, and keeping our stock organized.

There are two storage areas, one at Salvage Vanguard Theater where I am the general TD and resident designer, and the other at The Off Center, home of the Rude Mechs of which Thomas is one of five Co-Producing Artistic Directors. That space is essentially a shack, with a tin roof and mostly paved floor, but the stock is very well sorted and stored so that it is easily accessible. The space at SVT, the one for which I am responsible, is quite a bit less orderly. It seems that I no sooner get everything squared away than something needs to be dug out of the back of a storage bay in a hurry, and things don't get put back, anything flat from the lids of the bins to the pile of plywood gets covered with other loose bits and pieces, and one can probably guess what it looks like after a week.

So, given that Thomas and I both have other duties, we are now talking about creating staff positions that will be paid, to ensure that there is regular attention being paid to office duties as well as materials. Whether there will be one position, or two part-time positions hasn't been decided. It seems likely that we will need one person whose primary responsibility will be pursuing funding, by grant research and writing as well as petitioning the City for support. As most of us who work in non-profits arts organizations know, seeking grants can be a full time job. So we may need to have a daily/weekly supervisor as well as a grant writer. Frankly, we don't know-- but we're figuring it out.

--Connor Hopkins, Austin Scenic Coop, Coordinator

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

What is the Next Link in the Sustainability Network?

What is the next step after the Co-op? Where do resources go after the Austin Scenic Co-op [Collaboration between Salvage Vanguard and Rude Mechs] can no longer use them? I found inspiration this week from two community service volunteers that were helping me to organize the shed where we house the Austin Scenic Co-op stock. Community service volunteers are court appointed by the city of Austin to complete a certain number of hours with a local non-profit.

This week I worked with two young men to get rid of some of our stock that had not been used since it was donated. Most of these were odd shaped platforms that are very show specific and therefore not used readily by many people. We were hauling these out to the dumpster making way for a new batch of standard 4x8 platforms --by far our most popular item to loan out. To me these old platforms --some of which have not been touched by anyone for three years--were just trash, but the guys that were helping me out asked if they could use some of the lumber. They informed me that they had friends that would break down things like what I was throwing away. If they got the things for free they could turn just enough profit to make it worth their while.

This reminded me of an essay I read recently, "Ecology and Community" by physicist and systems theorist Fritjof Capra. In it he argues that communities should turn to ecosystems to learn how to be sustainable. Capra insists that lessons learned from ecosystems aren’t mere suggestions, but are laws for how communities must organize themselves. The laws of sustainability are "just as stringent as the laws of physics . . . If you go up to a high cliff and step off it, disregarding the laws of gravity, you will surely die. If we live in a community, disregarding the laws of sustainability as a community, we will just as surely die in the long run."

Capra identifies five laws of sustainability: interdependence, recycling, partnership, flexibility, and diversity. I think the most fascinating argument he makes in the article is when he writes, "you can define an ecosystem as a community where there is no waste."

In establishing the Austin Scenic Co-op we have been very concerned with getting donations--making sure people know about us so that they don't throw away set pieces that others could use. We have been working to establish networks to recycle theatre companies' sets and we still have a lot of work to do in this regard. Now that our stock is starting to grow we are encountering a new problem--one that I did not foresee. What is the next step in the network? What do we do with those things that aren't useful anymore to theatre companies?

Now that we have to be more selective about what we can accept and are starting to have to cull some of our less useful stock we need to establish another link in the network. Another level of recycling. I am excited about establishing another partnership one that is interested in using lumber that we cannot. And getting closer to our goal of zero waste.

--Thomas Graves, Austin Scenic Co-Op & Rude Mechs

Austin Scenic Co-op Supports the Fusebox Festival

The past two weeks have been very exciting here in Austin. We have had people from all over the globe visit our little oasis. We had the opportunity to see outstanding performances by Frederick Gravel from Montreal, Big Dance Theatre from NYC, Cloud Eye Control from LA, and Daniel Barrow from Winnipeg --just to name a few. The performances were thought provoking, beautiful and intense. It was a pretty awesome celebration of live performance and visual art that took place in different venues all over the city. In addition to all the exciting performance, I was also moved by the way our theatre community came together to pull the whole thing off. I believe that a love and dedication to collaboration is why many of us chose to become theatre artists.

That collaborative spirit was really shining bright for the past two weeks. This was most evident to me in the resource sharing that was taking place. Because of a willingness to share: platforms, ladders, projectors, screens, lighting instruments, and headsets found their way to one of the many venues where Fusebox took place regardless of who they belonged to. The Co-op [collaboration with Salvage Vanguard and Rude Mechs] certainly had a hand in this. Our stock was completely depleted during the festival. We had stuff in theatres all over town. Fusebox is like a disaster hitting a small town, where everybody ends up in the street filling sandbags. Fusebox really shows our true colors. And watching our theater community do what it does best inspires me to redouble our efforts to get the co-op of the ground.

--Thomas Graves, Austin Scenic Co-op & Rude Mechs

How Can the Austin Scenic Coop Generate Revenue?

Last month we moved a lot of heavy stuff. This month we crunched numbers. I’m better at moving heavy stuff. Nonetheless, Brad Carlin and I worked out an approximation of monthly/annual operating costs and identified the Coop’s (the Austin Scenic Coop, collaboration by Salvage Vanguard and Rude Mechs) means of generating sufficient revenue to meet those costs. A structure for membership, fees, expenses, etc. was laid out according to a roughly 50/50 split between earned and unearned revenue, and levels of membership were established. The groups who have already declared their interest in Coop membership were sorted into categories as partners, members, and users, and we set goals for the number of each in the next year. Lastly we finalized the plan for the pilot program which constitutes the second phase of the proposal and set a short term to-do list geared toward launching the pilot program in the late summer.

On a personal note, it has been very interesting and gratifying to ”take apart” and analyze a project that originated very organically, as a labor of love and also as a common sense measure to make theater less wasteful, cheaper, and more convenient all at once. Looking at the component parts of the operation, and identifying exactly what goes into making it work, has given me a chance to appreciate how much it is possible to do almost without noticing, when you are working at something you believe in. The Coop has already served several groups as a valuable resource, and as we work out the details of its enlargement, it is exciting to think how many more it will be able to serve.

--Connor Hopkins, Austin Scenic Coop / Rude Mechs / Trouble Puppet Theater Company

Work Day at the Austin Scenic Coop (With Pictures!!!)

On February 28th, the Austin Scenic Coop (a collaboration between Salvage Vanguard and Rude Mechs) held a work day to clean the storage area at Salvage Vanguard Theater where much of the inventory will be housed. A dozen volunteers cleared out old, unusable equipment and material, and built storage bays, shelving, and lockable cages.

{In this photo (above) we are moving giant rolls of gray foam, l to r: Chris Gibson, someone hidden by foam, Jeanine Lisa, Connor Hopkins, Hank Schwemmer.}

Paint, flats, platforms, step units, doors, windows and "other" now have a space of their own, and there is plenty of room for the creation of an office and meeting room, as well as for hosting rehearsals (beginning March 1).

{In "after shot" photo (below), standing in cleaned space, l to r: Joe Carpenter, Devo Carpenter, Jeanine Lisa, Jennifer Rogers, Natalie George, Connor Hopkins, Abbey Wyndham.}



The space will also host the retreat, planned for next month, during which Thomas, Brad, and myself will meet with other theater workers and begin to build the needs and wants of the community into the Coop's business plan. More news soon to follow...

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

Scenic Design’s Social Impact

Salvage Vanguard Theater’s partner in the Austin Scenic Co-Op is Rude Mechanicals. Today, Thomas Graves of Rude Mechs shares with us a thought provoking meditation on scenic design and its significance beyond the stage…

I began working on this project during a state of emergency. When hurricanes Katrina and Rita tore through the southern United States, many of us felt an urgent need to act. Among other things, the devastation Katrina and Rita caused forced us to recognize the racist and classist structure of our society; the fact that our elected government officials fail to serve us; the scarcity of natural resources; and the devastating effects of our actions on the environment. The crisis caused me to interrogate the ethics of my arts practice and ask myself how I can have a more positive impact.

Over the past three and a half years I have been working as an actor and sometimes technical director with the theatre collective Rude Mechanicals (Rude Mechs) in Austin, TX. Katrina and Rita book-ended the construction of the set for the Rude Mechs’ production Match-Play. As technical director of this production I bought the materials and organized the labor required to build the set. Performing this task in a state of crisis made me wonder what impact the immense time and resources invested in the construction of theatrical sets has on the world.

The Rude Mechs adapted Match-Play from renowned choreographer Deborah Hay’s dance The Match. The play uses Hay’s performance practice to raise questions about consciousness and the relationships between theatre, dance and daily practice. The work of performers like Hay that challenge the boundary between what I regard as carefully crafted artistic practice and everyday life inspire me to more be more intentional about practices of making theatre.

Early in her career, Hay participated in the Judson Dance Theatre, a group that explodes notions of dance’s ontology. Watching Deborah Hay perform, my perceiving heightens and expands. A plane flies overhead as she makes a slow turn center stage, and I hear, as if for the first time, the intricate complexity of the sound of a jet engine. Nothing escapes the performance. Planes, late-comers, and people rustling candy wrappers all become something to marvel at. Hay’s work expands my understanding of what performance is, thus challenging me to carefully consider what happens behind-the-scenes as much as that which happens onstage. This more capacious definition of performance demands that the technical process receive attention.

The performance of Match-Play itself certainly has an impact by making us—technicians, performers, and audience—question the way we perceive the world. The set, therefore, in so far as it serves as a site for the performance and furthers its artistic vision, makes an impact. However, considering the nature of tragic events that surrounded the production I couldn’t help but feel the need to have my labor as a technical director make an impact that was less ephemeral and esoteric, and more concrete and immediate. Linda Frye Burnham captures the sense of urgency that fuels this project when she states, "There is too much going on outside . . . Real life is calling. I can no longer ignore the clamor of disaster—economic, spiritual, environmental, political disaster—in the world in which I move.” I am interested in exploring the ways that the performance of my labor and its product can have a direct material result in the face of real life disaster.

Peggy Phelan, in her book Unmarked, makes the case that performance is fundamentally ephemeral. She writes, “Performance’s only life is in the present . . . Performance’s being . . . becomes itself through disappearance.” Although I agree with Phelan, matter refuses to disappear. The performance may disappear, but the set, props and costumes remain. Considering matter’s durability, should not the impacts of the material excesses be as intentional as those of the performances they support?

I want my work in the world to matter. This project focuses on the technical production of theatre as an important site to do those things many performances confront onstage, like countering capitalism, addressing inequality, and contributing to the well-being of the planet and its inhabitants. I am interested in how theatre enacts better futures, not only in the moments of live performance, but also within technical production. This Austin Scenic Co-op project concerns itself with the making of theatre as a way to create the world in which we want to live.

--Thomas Graves, Co-Producing Artistic Director, Rude Mechs

Salvage Vanguard Theater and Rude Mechanicals...the Austin Scenic Co-Op

This week we have an introduction to Salvage Vanguard Theater's project with partners Rude Mechanicals--the Austin Scenic Co-Op...

The Austin Scenic Co-Op is a project that I started with a fellow TD (Technical Director) named Thomas Graves. I am the resident set designer and TD for Salvage Vanguard Theater, and a company member of the Rude Mechs, the theater group for which Thomas is a Co-Producing Artistic Director. We both saw a problem with the way theater and arts organizations were using resources: buying materials to build platforms and flats, then throwing them out because storage was too expensive, only to have to buy and build them all over again. It made production expensive, time-consuming, and wasteful of materials that could be recycled. So we started collecting generic set elements that could be re-used, storing them at Salvage Vanguard Theater and The Off Center (home of the Rudes), and making them available to TDs, theaters and arts groups. The greater purpose of the program is to reduce waste and to make production less costly and time-consuming for the creative community, especially those members who struggle financially and technically.
We have mostly standard sized flats (lightweight "walls") and platforms (sturdy, used for stages and risers) that are 4 x 8 feet. There are a few odd sized or shaped pieces, as well as a variety of step units of different heights, some doors and windows. We are beginning to build a small collection of props and more detailed set-dressing materials. It's been a fairly casual operation until recently. With the help of the TCG "Think-It" grant we hope to take the project from informal lending done in our spare time to a robust sustainable network of theatrical materials. We are hoping to improve our space and create an online system to keep inventory updated and linked to a calendar, set up regular hours and create a membership structure and fee schedule with the aim of self-sustainability. Our dream is that Austin can share a state-of the art facility for technical production—a shop equipped with the necessary tools for constructing sets, costumes, and props; a storage facility housing stock scenery, props, costumes, lighting, sound and video equipment; and a truck, shared by the theatre companies, to transport things to the various performance spaces. By pooling our resources and strengthening existing networks, we can make Austin theatre more affordable, efficient, earth-friendly, community-engaged, and of higher production value.

--Connor Hopkins, Resident Designer, Salvage Vanguard Theater and Co-Director, Austin Scenic Co-Op