Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
How to Use Up, Repurpose, or Sell Leftover Renovation Materials
lifehacker.com: Renovating your home is exciting, expensive, and stressful. You might think the difficulty is over once the last coat of paint has dried, but there’s almost always one final step: Dealing with the leftover construction materials.
I think theaters absolutely should be doing more to reuse or recycle. The challenge is coordinating that under such a short timeline. It also impacts every step of the process before getting to the stage. This summer, I worked on a new play called Ushuaia Blue about two environmental researchers. The scenic designer wanted to have ice bergs made from recycled trash that we could take to a recycling program after strike. This informed how we built and painted everything. As the production management intern, I took on ensuring the materials we worked with were conducive to recycling and finding a facility that would allow us to recycle. This is not an uncomplicated project. Finding a home for things that are less easily recycled is another layer of complication. An institution that is committed to more eco-friendly theater would need to go to great lengths to ensure that all of their materials had a home to go to after strike, and that there was enough time during strike to carefully deconstruct the materials.
In my high school theater, we almost always reused everything that we made. I was always so upset at the end of productions because I would always want to celebrate the end of a production by taking a huge sledge hammer to the set; taking out all my anger from preparing and running a show for the past few months. When my tech director would insist that we take it apart piece by piece, it seemed like so much extra work. What I didn’t realize until my junior year was that everything that we carefully unscrewed or tore apart, was resued for future productions. We were saving thousands of dollars per production, and trees, by not damaging materials and storing them for reuse. I think this article not only outlines the different ways to repurpose your materials, but the importance of actually repurposing them. While it may be more fun to take a sledge hammer to a set, the amount of money it wastes for the program is not.
I clicked on this article because I love using recycled or unconventional materials to make costumes. In high school I did multiple fashion shows where I made costumes out of unconventional materials. This article I really enjoyed because some the materials that were talked about I have used for my pieces of wearable art or have seen others use them. I used leftover wall paint skins for one of my pieces. One of my friends did a corset out of leftover tile from his parent renovation project before. I feel like its really cool as artists how we can adapt and find things to use that are not that expensive. The program that I was in was very big on that and I think it is an important skill to learn early on in this field. Being able to use materials that are leftover or free can expand ones artist growth by making that artists mind go out of the box.
I know the article was about making use of all the different ways to use the leftover renovation supplies, but what about the waste of material that you're replacing with the renovation. Like for example, I remember when my parents didn't want to hire someone to put laminate flooring in our house so my mom got me to do it for the family. And all of the carpet that we threw away was so wasteful, like we tried to use up all of the rolls of ugly carpet as much as we could like little beds for my dog or just covering up things in our garden, but even like the tack strips in the floor could probably have been reused too. Also like, all of the cut laminate floor that I made mistakes cutting angles into also probably could've been reused too!! See! Now I feel bad, I could've been creative about it, y'know?
I love seeing anything that promotes reusing and recycling materials. This article definitely focuses on mostly home renovation which has been such a popular thing within the past decade or so. I always want to ask people when the renovate why they are renovating. We all have this knack for chasing trends, especially when it comes to something so stylized as certain parts of your home. It would serve us all some good if we sat down with the idea of renovating and made sure it was something that we will enjoy for times to come and not just for the immediate year. The idea of timeless vs trendy limits on people's personal style at times so I do believe that one should do what they want but make sure it is something lasting. I also think we can always be more resourceful with how we source these materials and how we use them to ensure no waste happens and they are sustainable sources to begin with.
As someone that loves to build my own furniture and frequently cannibalizes my own furniture to make even more furniture, I will say that this article speaks to me. It's so cool building something and having this moment where you remember what this object was four cuts ago. It's like each piece of my furniture is the culmination of all the things that have been in my space before. And it's nice feeling like I am whittling my furniture down to the ideal forms that work for me throughout my life.
I think we throw things away far more often than necessary. Especially building materials. Downcycling those materials gives us more opportunities to use it and exercise our skills while also allowing us to get more mileage out of our money and lessen the impact our craftspersonship has on the earth.
Also who doesn't like a sick as hell table made from old wood that's been given a nice finish?
In this day and age, we should absolutely try to be reusing, repurposing, donating, or selling our materials. I know this article is about homes, but a lot of it can be applied to the theatre world. We build to not last long. Shows run for a few weeks or maybe even a few years, but we’re not building sets to be like houses. Most of the time, we end up with left over materials. It’s a good idea to keep most things in stock in the theatre so we could use them for the next show, but sometimes that’s not an option. If another local theatre needs some leftover materials for their show, go ahead! Lend them a hand! Theatres should be more conscious on their use of materials and trash. We should absolutely be practicing better ways to reuse or donate our leftover materials. -Hailey Garza
I think that reusing whenever possible is really important. At my high school, we reused everything until it was far past it’s prime and while that was mainly due to budgetary reasons and not out of the goodness of our hearts, it really taught me not to throw things away. Even if because of that I’m a bit of a hoarder since you never know when the useless paper you just threw out a week ago needs to be used next week. It feels really wasteful to only use things for one show and then move on with your life. I understand that for things like wood, it’s a little harder to reuse because of the cuts and paint and holes, but you do get used to working around those conditions. Furthermore, I am a big believer in the power of donation, as my old theatre used to get a lot of our materials by taking the ones that other companies would have thrown out. Even posting on social media can find you someone that you can give your leftovers to, and thus you can support another group’s art!
8 comments:
I think theaters absolutely should be doing more to reuse or recycle. The challenge is coordinating that under such a short timeline. It also impacts every step of the process before getting to the stage. This summer, I worked on a new play called Ushuaia Blue about two environmental researchers. The scenic designer wanted to have ice bergs made from recycled trash that we could take to a recycling program after strike. This informed how we built and painted everything. As the production management intern, I took on ensuring the materials we worked with were conducive to recycling and finding a facility that would allow us to recycle. This is not an uncomplicated project. Finding a home for things that are less easily recycled is another layer of complication. An institution that is committed to more eco-friendly theater would need to go to great lengths to ensure that all of their materials had a home to go to after strike, and that there was enough time during strike to carefully deconstruct the materials.
In my high school theater, we almost always reused everything that we made. I was always so upset at the end of productions because I would always want to celebrate the end of a production by taking a huge sledge hammer to the set; taking out all my anger from preparing and running a show for the past few months. When my tech director would insist that we take it apart piece by piece, it seemed like so much extra work. What I didn’t realize until my junior year was that everything that we carefully unscrewed or tore apart, was resued for future productions. We were saving thousands of dollars per production, and trees, by not damaging materials and storing them for reuse. I think this article not only outlines the different ways to repurpose your materials, but the importance of actually repurposing them. While it may be more fun to take a sledge hammer to a set, the amount of money it wastes for the program is not.
I clicked on this article because I love using recycled or unconventional materials to make costumes. In high school I did multiple fashion shows where I made costumes out of unconventional materials. This article I really enjoyed because some the materials that were talked about I have used for my pieces of wearable art or have seen others use them. I used leftover wall paint skins for one of my pieces. One of my friends did a corset out of leftover tile from his parent renovation project before. I feel like its really cool as artists how we can adapt and find things to use that are not that expensive. The program that I was in was very big on that and I think it is an important skill to learn early on in this field. Being able to use materials that are leftover or free can expand ones artist growth by making that artists mind go out of the box.
I know the article was about making use of all the different ways to use the leftover renovation supplies, but what about the waste of material that you're replacing with the renovation. Like for example, I remember when my parents didn't want to hire someone to put laminate flooring in our house so my mom got me to do it for the family. And all of the carpet that we threw away was so wasteful, like we tried to use up all of the rolls of ugly carpet as much as we could like little beds for my dog or just covering up things in our garden, but even like the tack strips in the floor could probably have been reused too. Also like, all of the cut laminate floor that I made mistakes cutting angles into also probably could've been reused too!! See! Now I feel bad, I could've been creative about it, y'know?
I love seeing anything that promotes reusing and recycling materials. This article definitely focuses on mostly home renovation which has been such a popular thing within the past decade or so. I always want to ask people when the renovate why they are renovating. We all have this knack for chasing trends, especially when it comes to something so stylized as certain parts of your home. It would serve us all some good if we sat down with the idea of renovating and made sure it was something that we will enjoy for times to come and not just for the immediate year. The idea of timeless vs trendy limits on people's personal style at times so I do believe that one should do what they want but make sure it is something lasting. I also think we can always be more resourceful with how we source these materials and how we use them to ensure no waste happens and they are sustainable sources to begin with.
As someone that loves to build my own furniture and frequently cannibalizes my own furniture to make even more furniture, I will say that this article speaks to me. It's so cool building something and having this moment where you remember what this object was four cuts ago. It's like each piece of my furniture is the culmination of all the things that have been in my space before. And it's nice feeling like I am whittling my furniture down to the ideal forms that work for me throughout my life.
I think we throw things away far more often than necessary. Especially building materials. Downcycling those materials gives us more opportunities to use it and exercise our skills while also allowing us to get more mileage out of our money and lessen the impact our craftspersonship has on the earth.
Also who doesn't like a sick as hell table made from old wood that's been given a nice finish?
In this day and age, we should absolutely try to be reusing, repurposing, donating, or selling our materials. I know this article is about homes, but a lot of it can be applied to the theatre world. We build to not last long. Shows run for a few weeks or maybe even a few years, but we’re not building sets to be like houses. Most of the time, we end up with left over materials. It’s a good idea to keep most things in stock in the theatre so we could use them for the next show, but sometimes that’s not an option. If another local theatre needs some leftover materials for their show, go ahead! Lend them a hand! Theatres should be more conscious on their use of materials and trash. We should absolutely be practicing better ways to reuse or donate our leftover materials. -Hailey Garza
I think that reusing whenever possible is really important. At my high school, we reused everything until it was far past it’s prime and while that was mainly due to budgetary reasons and not out of the goodness of our hearts, it really taught me not to throw things away. Even if because of that I’m a bit of a hoarder since you never know when the useless paper you just threw out a week ago needs to be used next week. It feels really wasteful to only use things for one show and then move on with your life. I understand that for things like wood, it’s a little harder to reuse because of the cuts and paint and holes, but you do get used to working around those conditions. Furthermore, I am a big believer in the power of donation, as my old theatre used to get a lot of our materials by taking the ones that other companies would have thrown out. Even posting on social media can find you someone that you can give your leftovers to, and thus you can support another group’s art!
Post a Comment