Sunday, April 04, 2010
Thoughts on Green Props
Props: "I hate the word “green”. I believe the “green” movement has largely been co-opted by marketers and advertisers in an attempt to sell the same stuff in a new feel-good form. “Green” bottled water and “greener” disposable packaging still has a negative effect on the environment and community."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
16 comments:
Personally, I like the idea of theater doing its part for the world. As a industry, weuse a lot of resources over the years. With companies have a season with 7 or 8 shows and each one using tons o lumber and resourses, it builds up quickly. I thinks that as an industry any reusing of mateials or use of green materials is a must.
I never like the idea of theatre thinking it is green. As an industry we waste so much. We build a set out of wood to throw it in a dumpster two weeks later. We also use tons of electricity powering lights, tools, and all sorts of other equipment. There is also all the travel sometimes involved. While props may be reused and refurbished, the industry as a whole is very wasteful.
I agree that theatre is by nature very wasteful. I also agree that it is important to reuse or buy things secondhand as much as possible. However, I think the line must be drawn somewhere. If something can only be made right if it comes from new materials, then it should be done that way. I don't believe in sacrificing the vision of a play for this. I am not encouraging waste, but discouraging sacrificing quality. Also, I think that thinking green and being green are totally different. I agree with the article that the green movement is just a feel good thing, without accomplishing much.
I think the green movement needs to be put into perspective in our industry. Like others have said, theater is not very green my definition of what our needs are, but we can make an effort none the less. The little things like having ample recycling bins around the facility, only turning on air conditioning while people are in the theater, and conserving power in other areas of the facility (computer monitors ect) will make a dent.
I also agree that the green label is more a marketing gimmick than it is a company's attempt to actually help the environment.
I would think that theater companies already try to re-use their materials as much as possible, but then again thats to save money. i think our industry could be a lot greener, but at the same time sometimes its safer to get more lumber. you can only re-use things to a certain extent. i think the most wasteful type of theater is commercial.
Recycle is not only for our everyday life. Not only do we purchase recycled stuff or separate the recyclable material from other garbage in our daily activity, also we have many ways to extend our view. This article is good reminder to us of how much of lumber has been used to produce a performance. As most of them commented, indeed, an entertainment industry uses a lot of resources for nothing left. Just to meet people's greedy lust? Oh, it makes me feel guilty.
I always think of theater as so wasteful, so it's nice to be reminded that there are a couple departments that are traditionally enormous pack rats and savers. It's also refreshing to hear that not everyone is in love with the word "green." While I'm all for being environmentally conscious, whenever an organization claims they're "green" I doubt how much time and energy they're actually putting into making their processes more eco-friendly and how much they just want everyone to think they care.
ALthough I think that we can't really be green the way that this article describes until we take the necessary steps, I do agree with the underlying complacency tat seems to be going on now that the movement has been taking place for a bit of time. As an industry, we are extremely wasteful but, I don't believe that we actually consume at the levels that some other industries do.
The article talked about how the whole term "green" is a way for many companies to repackage already existing items so that people will feel better buying them. While I think theater could improve it's self and make steps towards recycling and re-using more, I am thankful that there are very few theater companies out there that claim to be "green" and the ones that do are honest that it just means that they do not use certain chemicals or materials that tend to either have a less then eco-friendly creation or disposal process.
I think its very important that the theatre/entertainment industry is trying to develop more eco-friendly practices. We waste so many materials, more so than many other industries, that I think it is our responsibility to try to replace what we are using, or try to reuse materials as much as possible, which I agree with the author, is a practice that props departments use extensively.
I totally agree with this article, I feel like the “green” movement is such bullshit sometimes because there is so much misconstrued information about the environment being taken for facts. A large part of this is because we’re so uneducated or misinformed. When doing research for a project about the 'green' market, I found most big businesses thought of it as a great market they could exploit and statistics proved our 18-24 age group is although believed to be the most eco-savvy and active about eco-education, actually is the most harmful to our environment in terms of recycling and sustainable materials, which as the author mentions is directly correlated to what props people deal with everyday because they find so much of their material from used materials.
I think the second and third links here are pretty useless - every item is either not theatre specific, like using recycled paper, or completely dismisses the artistic point. "design with LED's" is not really a viable idea - it has a very serious effect on the stage picture for only arguable savings in environmental effects. The first list, though, looks helpful - I can imagine artists who have multiple options for a finish treatment but don't know which is better or worse.
I agree with everyone that theatre is a naturally wasteful industry. I think that it's really important for people in the industry to start thinking about what they can do to waste less materials. There are some very simple things we can do, such as using more stock platforms.
In theory, I like the idea of green theater, but I'm just wondering how feasible it is for a small theater company to spend more money to "green" their environment. Don't get me wrong, I wholeheartedly believe in recyling, reusing, and using less toxic chemicals to protect the environment. I just worry that small theaters that are already strapped for cash will go under if they invest in buying completely recycled paper. On the other hand, I COMPLETELY agree that no matter the financial standing of the theater, we need to invest in using safer, healthier, greener chemicals in the processes we use. I've downloaded, and plan to keep, the pdf on how toxic the chemicals we use are. I also really like that the author made a distinction between what the media tries to sell as "green" and what is actually good for the environment.
Kind of a broad overview of an article. I thought this would be some innovative new way to use materials, but it's kind of just a pat on the back to props people who use 'less-toxic' materials, already an unfortunate choice of wording to begin with. Toxic is not a particularly useful description, as anything in large quantities can be toxic, and the tests run to determine toxicity are unhelpful at best. 'Green' theatre is an ongoing debate for a business that's so inherently wasteful. Some new ideas on how to make us more environmentally friendly would be great, but I don't think this post does anything of the sort.
I think this is really good idea using green props for theatre. Actually, after the show, most of set and props are going to garage. I have feeling very bad about this. At one time, every efforts and materials are trash. But if we use green props, it is good for environment.
Post a Comment