Stage Directions: Seth Stewart, an original cast member of Broadway's Hamilton, currently playing Marquis de Lafayette/Thomas Jefferson,will present the Broadway Green Alliance (BGA) College Green Captain prize at the upcoming USITT Annual Conference & Stage Expo. This award recognizes outstanding BGA College Green Captains for introducing environmental changes to their department's theatre productions. As the Broadway Green Captain for Hamilton, Stewart will also be speaking on one of the conference's green panels, Green Captains - On Broadway & On Campus.
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I think it’s wonderful that both Broadway and colleges are trying to make their programs greener. I didn’t know that there was a such thing as a Green Captain, until I read this article. After reading this article, I google the green captains to see what their programs are. I was most surprised by their Cinderella Program. It’s wonderful that they are collecting dresses for the special needs community in Orange Ulster county. I was surprised how much of their programs focus on reuse, rather than using sustainable materials. I don’t know why, but I was expecting more of a focus on sustainability the reuse. I was also surprised how many Broadway shows have green captains. However, it seems that most of the work they do, does not affect the design and build process. I think that if the choose to grow, that would be the direction to follow. However, I don’t know if it’s an attainable goal. Nevertheless, I hope that the word gets out and more colleges start to create green theater programs.
I think that this is a great way to educate students and artists on such a prevalent issue today. I'm on the same page as Rebecca: I didn't know what or who a Green Captain was until I found this article. I think having a Green Captain is a great way to get people involved in actively doing something for their environment by doing what they love. Theatre is not a very "green art". Nearly all production notes, scripts, and messages are still printed on paper, chemical products are frequently found in paint shops, and what kind of energy we use in a theatre/how much energy we use has never been a conversation I've taken part in or heard of. Having a Green Captain who has the task of thinking of all of these things is huge because it's something that not everyone working on a production necessarily thinks of in the moment or feels is a top priority. Now having a Green Captain doesn't mean that all theatre will all of a sudden be 100% organic or anything like that, but a start is a start, and this is a great start.
This is my second time hearing about the Broadway Green Alliance. The first reveal was in an email sent out by Wendy Arons yesterday informing the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama student body about our very own Green Captains. It is amazing that college campuses are becoming more aware of our effect on the environment, especially theatre which can potentially produce so much waste. Broadway is a massive presence in our world and if this becomes a regular practice, we are already making large strides towards a greener world. This makes me love the theatre community so much. We are so strong, and so resilient. So conscious, accepting and kind. Being a college green captain is definitely something I would like to participate in, in future years of study. I am interested to see what the criteria for the captain prize. Such as how much of an impact does a captain need to make in order to be qualified for the prize and if it is the whole college that receives the prize or the individual? These are all interesting questions that hopefully further research will answer.
I am so happy that this organization is becoming a huge hit. Over the past few years I have heard about them with there efforts doing battery drives and recycling and wicked being a "green" show. This meant that they are trying there hardest to reuse paper products and being more invested into being a green show. I am thrilled that Carnegie Mellon is being apart of this wonderful organization. I know that doing a show requires a lot of paper work and thus the need for paper. With the help of this organization and the help of our newly appointed green captains I am sure we will be able to cut back on the need for paper products. When I received an email about the shows this semester having green captains I was so happy that we are taking the first steps in becoming more environmental friendly! Hopefully in a couple years we will stop using paper products and just use things electronically!
I'm very glad that organization is gaining the amount of traction that it has. I have seen a lot of my friends at other colleges post about it too and their own involvement so I think that it's great that we are getting in on the action. The environment has never been "my cause" but I have always had a very big attachment (as we all should) to issues that face our environment. I am also a big believer that starting small and from a community based level is the best way to make significant social and ideological change. I was very pleased to get the email recently about our involvement with this organization and as a whole I have been amazed and extremely proud of the work that the school of drama is doing to build a better world. I think that there is so much more work to do, now is the perfect time to get educated in things you would have never stood up for. So the environment is gonna be "my cause" now, because everything has to be my cause. We all have to start to stand up for what is right 100% of the time not just when we feel the strongest.
I've never heard of Green Captains before this article and it makes me so proud that the theatre world is making steps toward helping our environment. Producing shows in general tends to not be the most eco-friendly process. We use mounds of paper and use all kinds of products with chemicals we often know very little about as far as their affect on both the environment and our health. The arts, and specifically theatre, strive to help the world become a better place, and the environment shouldn't be excluded from this contribution. I would like to see initiatives like this implemented in companies across the country, not just on the broadway and collegiate levels. Education is the best way to start, and I don't think the issue is that nobody cares; it's essentially the fact the most people involved in a production end up so busy and immersed in their production responsibilities that most rarely pause to think about this issue. I'm incredibly proud of universities across the nation, including Carnegie Mellon, for making steps toward making our art form greener. Hopefully this will make other theatre companies pause and take the time and effort to enact some green policies themselves.
I remember the first time I encountered a group aimed at making broadway, and theatre in general, a greener practice (not Green Captains but something very similar). When I saw that it existed, I realized just how un-environmentally friendly theatre is. We use up so much electricity with lighting, wood in scenery, water in paints and costumes, and various chemicals just about everywhere. I think this organization is a great way to spread awareness about out industry's impact on the environment. These people can advocate for more use of LEDs, safer chemical and waste disposal methods, and less use of woods like luan which contribute to continuing deforestation. This organization can also serve to educate those who work in and around theatres about some of these impacts so safer and greener practices don't have to start with the higher ups, but everyone who works in and around theatrical spaces. I think organizations like these, while it's great to start with bigger and more well-known tiers of theatre, should eventually extend down all the way to the high school level so it's less about breaking bad habit and more about starting good ones in the first place.
Like a lot of other people in the School of Drama I didn't know that green captains were a thing until Wendy emailed us the other day. It seems like a very good idea, especially here at Carnegie Mellon where we seem always just be throwing things out. How many times have we wasted paper by printing something out the wrong way on the plotter? How many times have we thrown out water bottles because the recycling can was on the opposite side of 33? How many times have we printed out extra copies of 100-page scripts we could have easily just looked at on the computer? These are things that most people in our program have done at some point, and I'm definitely guilty of all three. We've got to start being more aware of how our behavior impacts the environment, and start calling each other out when we see this type of thing happening.
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