The following resources will help provide a basis for research on ecologically-aware and sustainable theater. Eco-drama/theater is sometimes placed under the "environmental theater" umbrella, and the researcher should be aware that the latter term has been used for anything from site-specific or open-space performance, to 'theater as environment' without reference or concern for ecological or sustainable practice.
Included are: practical guides, databases, selected books and articles, artists and organizations and conferences symposiums, and exhibitions.
You may want to expand your search across disciplines through the following web guides:
Practical Guides
Jones, Ellen E. A Practical Guide to Greener Theatre: Introduce Sustainability Into Your Productions. Burlington, MA : Focal Press, 2014
HUNT STACKS-4 PN2053 .J623X 2014
Fried, Larry K. and Theresa May. Greening up Our Houses: A Guide to a More Ecologically Sound Theatre. New York: Drama Book Publishers, 1994.
HUNT STACKS-4 PN2053 .F74 1994
Contents: Part 1: Key Concepts for Going Green; Part II: What Can My Department Do? Part III:Materials, Products and Alternatives (a wide ranging discussion from make-up and shoe polish to special effects, office supplies, paints, etc.). Appendices include a list of common toxic substances, alternative suppliers and manufacturers, resources for technical and regulatory assistance and a bibliography.
Rossol, Monona. The Health & Safety Guide for Film, TV & Theater. New York: Allworth Press, 2000.
HUNT FA-REF-4 RC965 .T54 R668 2000
An introduction to facts, precautions and prescriptions on everything from attitudes and psychological stress to biohazards. Includes sections on fog, pyro and other special effects, theater crafts, materials, chemicals, machinery, shop safety, makeup, safety codes, laws and regulations, reproductive hazards, air quality and ventilation, humans with sensitivities and disabilities and more.
Touzeau, Jeff. The Green Musician's Guide: Sound Ideas for a Sound Planet. Cengage Learning, 2011.
Chapters: Environmental Issues We All Face and Changes in the Music Business. Establishing Sustainable Practices on the Road. Tools of the Trade: Sustainable Instruments, Equipment and Accessories. Sustainable Recording Studios
The following are some key texts with useful bibliographies and/or play/performance references.
Earth Matters on Stage :Ecocriticism in Theatre Studies Bibliography 1991-2014
Arons, Wendy and Theresa May. Readings in Performance and Ecology. New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, a division of St. Martin's Press LLC, 2012
Allen, Aaron S. and Kevin Dawe. Current Directions in Ecomusicology: Music, Culture, Nature. New York: Routledge, 2016
HUNT STACKS-4 ML3799.3 .C87 2016
Cless, Downing. Ecology and Environment in European Drama. New York: Routledge, 2010.
HUNT STACKS-4 PN1650 .E26 C54 2010
Contents: Greek tragedy -- Aristophanes' The Birds --From Menander to moralities -- Marlow's Doctor Faustus -- Shakespeare's A midsummer night's dream and The tempest -- From Renaissance to romanticism --Ibsen and Dhekhov -- Giraudoux's The madwoman of Chaillot --Brecht, Becket, and beyond -- a conclusion.
Kershaw, Baz. Theatre Ecology: Environments and Performance Events. Cambridge;New York: Cambridge University Press, 2007.
HUNT STACKS-4 PN1643 .K48 2007
Kershaw, Professor of Performance, School of Theatre, Performance and Cultural Policy Studies at the University of Warwick, and director and writer in experimental, radical and community-based theatre examines the political and environmental aspects of the performing arts and with an underlying question: "What are the challenges to theatre and purposes of performance in an ecologically threatened world?"
Lavery, Carl. Rethinking the Theatre of the Absurd: Ecology, the Environment and the Greening of the Modern Stage. London: Bloomsbury Methuen Drama, 2015.
HUNT STACKS-4 PN1650 .E26 R48 2015
Maranca, Bonnie. Ecologies of Theatre: Essays at the Century Turning. New York: Routledge, 1996.
HUNT STACKS-2 PN1861 .M36 1996
An anthology of reflections, criticism and performance/play analysis by (and one interview with) Maranca (a.k.a. publisher of PAJ: Performing Arts Journal) from the mid-seventies to 1995. The anthology means to document Maranca's embracing "recognition of an ecosystem as part of a cultural system and of natural history as inseparable from the history of the world." Partial contents include essays on the Gertrude Stein, The Mus/ecology of John Cage, Robert Wilson: Dramaturgy as Ecology and The Forest; The Autobiology of Rachel Rosenthal; Despoiled Shores: Heiner Muller's Natural History Lessons; Theater and the University, Garden/Theater and Isak Dinesen. History, memory, ecology (social, political, theatrical and the earth), the body (self, social, as text, a continent, Gaia), geography, territorial expansion, ethics, landscape, place, the pastoral, international culture and events, war, gender, oppression, nuclear theater, spectacle, religion, spirituality, shamanism, theater and the everyday, plate techtonics, chaos theory, aging, decay, planned obsolesence and sports are some of the concepts discussed or introduced.
May, Theresa Joette. Earth Matters: Ecology and American Theatre. Ph.D. dissertation, University of Washington, School of Drama, 2000. Recommended for anyone interested in understanding some basic concepts about culture and the environment, and how the American theatre has represented and participated in perceptual and cultural constructs that 'have brought us to our present environmental crisis.' May, a playwright, director and author traces American theatre through "the closure of the frontier, the beginning of the conservation movement, the New Deal era, the rise of post-consumer culture and the 20th century green revolution" mainly through the following plays or musical theatre, and brings them within cultural historical, industrial, political, scientific, and literary context; good wide-ranging interdisciplinary bibliography.
The author focuses on the following plays to advance her thesis:
(John)Augustin Daly. Horizon (1871) ; William F. (Bill) Cody. Wild West (1883-1906); William Vaughn Moody. The Great Divide (1906); David Belasco. Girl of the Golden West (1929); Federal Theatre Project's Living Newspapers Power (1937) ; Triple-A Plowed Under (1936); Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Oklahoma (1943); Arthur Miller. Death of a Salesman (1949);Samuel Beckett. End Game (1958); Raisin in the Sun (1959); Living Theatre's Frankenstein (1965); Lanford Wilson Angels Fall (1982); Robert Schenkkan. The Kentucky Cycle (1993); Anne Galjour, Alligator Tales Lynn Riggs, Green Grow the Lilacs.
Simon, Ronal T. & Marc Estrin. Rehearsing with Gods: Photographs and Essays on the Bread and Puppet Theater. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing Co, 2004.
HUNT STACKS-4 PN2297 .B7 S56 2004
An amazing collection of photographs taken from 1983-2003 by Canadian photographer Simon who first attended Bread and Puppet Theater in 1979; and written by Estrin a puppeteer, writer, cellist and activist. The black and white images give an excellent sense of how powerful theater can be when spectacle is performed with the heart and in the land.
Roth, Moira, ed. Rachel Rosenthal. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press. 1997
HUNT STACKS-4 NX512 .R68 R3 1997
An anthology of writings on and by the "grandmother" of performance art and ecofeminst; includes interviews. Rosenthal's concern about healing and human relationship to the earth is a main component of her work: "All of Gaia dances in harmony and we humans are the only ones out of step."
Schechner, Richard. Environmental Theater : An Expanded New Edition Including "Six Axioms for Environmental Theater." New York : Applause, 1994.
HUNT STACKS-4 PN2297 .P4 S3 1994
First published as Environmental Theater ( New York, Hawthorn Books, 1973).
Presents theater, life and ecology as symbiotic, interconnected "complex systems of transformation." Contains a good bibliography for anyone interested in researching environmental theater in terms of explorations of space, participation, nakedness, performer, shaman, therapy, playwright, groups and director. The author is responsible for introducing the term and concept "environmental theater" in this new light beginning in the 1970s.
Sullivan Jr., Garrett A. The Drama of Landscape: Land Property and Social Relations on the Early Modern Stage. Stanford: Stanford University, 1998.
HUNT STACKS-2 PR658 .L35 S85 1998
A study of human relationships to the land, (concepts of landscape, land "management", society, space, identity) in 16th and 17th century English drama in reference to the country estate, roads, maps and the city. The introduction contains a good discussion on landscape as a human construct. Plays discussed include Arden of Faversham ; Woodstock (1592); Shakespeare's Henry IV (1597), King Lear (1605), Cymbeline (1609) , and Richard II (1595); Richard Brome's A Jovial Crew (1641); Thomas Heywood's Edward IV (1599).
Szerszynksi, Bronislaw, Heim, Wallace and Waterton, Claire. Nature Performed: Environment Culture and Performance. Oxford ; Malden, MA : Blackwell Pub./Sociological Review, 2003.
Produced as a result of collaborations and conversations during "Between Nature: Explorations in Ecology and Performance" the first major international conference for theatre and ecology held at Lancaster University, UK. Center for the Study of Environmental Change and Department of Theater Studies.
Selected Journal Articles
Research Hint:
Try browsing PAJ: Performing Arts Journal for articles with consistent and wide-ranging themes on performance and the environment, ethics, politics and society. Available in paper at Hunt Library and full-text html or PDF articles are available to Carnegie Mellon users through Project Muse, 1996-present.
American Theatre
Theatre and Climate Change
This special issue explores the practical and ethical dimensions of the theatrical response to, and responsibility for, climate change.
Art Environment Ecology. High Performance. 10:4, 1987, 22-59.
7 article special section on performance and eco-theatre. A classic special issue and perhaps one of the first performance journals to dedicate an issue to the environmental crisis.
Theater and Ecology Theater, Spring Summer 25:1. 1994
6 article special issue.
Erika Munk: A Beginning and an End: Green Thoughts; Una Chaudhuri. "There Must be a Lot of Fish in That Lake" : Toward an Ecological Theater; John Bell. Uprising of the Beast: An Interview with Peter Schumann ; Elinor Fuchs. Play as Landscape: Another Version of Pastoral; Gabrielle Barnett. Performing for the Forest ; Sheila Rabillard. Fen and the Production of a Feminist Ecotheater.
Other Articles
May, Theresa. Theatre in the Wild: Rediscovering the Spiritual Purpose of Theatre Through Stories that Give Meaning to Existence from In Context: A Quarterly of Humane Sustainable Culture issue "Earth and Spirit" (IC#24), Late Winter, 1990.
Brief article online about how ancient theater played a "crucial, spiritual purpose within the community" rooted in a deep connection with the land.Rundle, Erika.
Performance and Evolution. PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art 27:2 (2005) 114-119.
Review of Jane R. Goodall's book Performance and Evolution in the Age of Darwin: Out of the Natural Order ( London and New York: Routledge, 2002).
Jacobson, Lynn. Green Theatre: Confessions of an Eco-reporter. American Theatre, 8:11, February 1992, 17-25.
Cless, Downing. Eco-Theatre, USA: The Grassroots is Greener.
TDR: The Drama Review, 40:2, Summer 1996, 79-102.
Essays
Hollywood's Next Green Generation (in GRIST 8/09)
May, Theresa. Greening the Theater: Taking Ecocriticism from Page to Stage
The Green House Edinburgh Fringe Festival: Zero Waste 2019
Theatre and Resistance Symposium
Articles from Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Series
Laboratory of insurrectionary imagination
This website is currently an archive of activism and insurrection. One of their experiments was the Action-Adventure Game Lab for Climate Justice.
Artists and Climate Change:Building Earth Connections
The Arctic Cycle uses theatre to foster dialogue about our global climate crisis, create a positive vision of the future and inspire people to action.
ASLE: Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
Founded in 1992 "to promte the exchange of ideas and information through literature and other cultural representations that consider human relationships with the natural world." Hosts a website with news and information about ASLE, educational resources including a syllabi database, and numerous blogs. Also holds a biennial conference and regional symposiums.
Broadway Green Alliance
"An industry-wide initiative that educates, motivates, and inspires the entire theatre community and its patrons to adopt environmentally friendlier practices." Carnegie Mellon School of Drama is piloting the the BGA "Green Captain" program in 2017 to help reduce its ecological footprint especially for productions.
CSPA: The Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts
Founded by Ian Garrett and Miranda Wright in 2008; gathers and distributes information and develops initiatives to enable sustainable practices while maintaining artistic excellence."
EMOS: Earth Matters On Stage
Established in 2004 in an "effort to bring focus and development to "ecodrama" an emerging genre of theatre." Produces the Ecodrama Playwrights Festival and Redwood Festival of New Plays
Evergreen Theatre Society
Live children's theatre to educate audiences about science, nature and the environment.
iLAND: Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art, Nature and Dance
Dance research organization investigating "the power of dance, in collaboration with other fields, to illuminate our kinetic understanding of the world...cultivates cross-disciplinary research among artists, environmentalists, scientists, urban designers and other fields." Offers residencies and holds an annual iLAND Symposium.
Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival
Showcase films and performances on the environment.
Go Green With Wolf Trap (Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts)
The Living Theater
Socially conscious theater since 1947. Web site includes descriptions and scripts of productions, an historical overview and bibliography. Holds workshops.
Mabou Mines
Avant-guard theater since 1970. Web site Lists its many productions (with some descriptions). Has artist residency program.
Here's on example of an eco-theatrical production:
Animal Magnetism (2000):
" Take one environmentally-sensitive chimpanzee, add a rhinocerous with shady business dealings, stir in a generous dollop of live music, plenty of animation and you have the recipe for Animal Magnetism, a raucous love story. Cheri (the chimp) and Tin Tin′s passion plays out on the ground--often amidst giant cartoon projections of themselves--as well as in the air. They soar and swoop and swoon in awe-inspiring aerial pas de deux. More than a love story, Animal Magnetism is also an allegory. It points out our species′ insatiable appetite for destroying natural reasources and the glaring disparities between the first and third worlds. this socio-political- erotico live-action cartoon is one you won't see on Disney anytime soon!"
San Francisco Mime Troupe (not pantomime)
This is ensemble theater specializing in social and political satire, begun as an experiment of the Actor's Workshop in 1959. Mime is meant here "in its classical and original definition, ‘the exaggeration of daily life in story and song.” The website includes a schedule of events, history, an archives, extensive activist links, and information about internships and workshops.
Theatrecrafts.com: Entertainment Technology Resources: Sustainability
Resources, sustainable theatre companies, venues and some external links.
Wan Smolbag Theatre
Writes and produces a large number of plays, drama sketches, and participatory drama workshops providing a greater understanding of social and environmental issues in the South Pacific.
Conferences, Symposiums, Exhibitions
ASLE: Association for the Study of Literature and the Enviroment
Holds a biennial conference
EMOS: Earth Matters on Stage Symposia
http://www.earthmattersonstage.com/
enterchange: Performance and Nature (curated by Wallace Heim)
Between Nature: Explorations in Ecology and Performance (2000) was the he first international transdisciplinary conference / performance event to explore ecology and performance
Was the first U.S. national conference on sustainable practices for the performing arts in 2012.
Art in the Public Interest
"A non-profit organization that supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists." This link describes past projects and publications, and archives the communityartsnetwork api news from its inception to 2010. Contact information is provided.
Bread and Puppet Theatre
Founded in 1962 by Peter Schuman; Obie Award winning. One of the oldest non-profit, self-supporting theatrical companies in the U.S; addresses social, political and environmental issues through spectacle and other productions. As of this writing, there is no official web site. A search on Bread and Puppet theater in any search engine will bring up numerous web sites. Try beginning with the following:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_and_Puppet_Theater
Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Network, Seattle, WA (no current website)
Non-profit organization "dedicated to improving the quality and effective use of environmental media."
Ecocentric: Overground Physical Theatre Company (website not currently known)
"Ecocentric is an experimental performance that brings together dance, theatre and video artists from all over the world to consider the notion of mankind homecoming to the Earth. The play tells the story of nine contemporary women through allegory, fantasy, and postmodern wit. Even though the women live in the same urban apartment building, managed with mysterious doorman, singing elevator and mythical garbage-collector, they are unaware of each others existence. Trapped in their consumerist lifestyles, they have reduced their communication to absurd speech, movement, and sound, which serves as a symbol of the artificial reality in which they exist. The stage ignites with Balkan musical folklore, cosmic rhythms, and modern and ritualistic movements to depict the womens travel through real and imaginary spaces. As the characters understand that they have abandoned true identities for false goals, they grow into vessels of true wisdom and happiness.Eccocentric,is the ecology of consciousness – the broken link between man, nature, and the spiritual."
Precipice Theatre Society/Company
Was an environmentally-focused theatre company based in Banff, Canada. Archives may be available from this site.
Databases
Try beginning with following indexes and databases to find plays and related information on the environment and the performing arts. You might start by using keywords that express various concepts and derivatives of the words environment including environment, ecology, nature, land, sustainable, 'place in literature' etc., paired with words like theater/theatre, performance, performance art, events, dance, music etc.). Ask for additional assistance: Mo Dawley. For more resources link to Drama: Basic Resources
Ashden Directory of Ecology and Performance
The Directory was an online magazine supporting performing arts engaging with ecological themes and was active from 2000 – 2013. It is now online, but archived. It holds a database of theatre and performance productions from 1893. There are features, a news page and timeline. The associated blog was Ashdenizen, focussing on culture and climate change.
International Bibliography of Theatre and Dance with Full-Text
The online edition of the scholarly International Bibliography of Theatre.
Performing Arts Periodicals Database (formerly International Index to the Performing Arts)
Articles covering the arts and entertainment industry - including dance, drama, theater, stagecraft, musical theater, circus performance, opera, pantomime, puppetry, magic, performance art, film, television and more.
Coverage: 1864-current
Play Index Online
Cites plays in published sources (1949-present) by subject, author, title, style, genre, cast type and more with plot summaries and musical, cast and scenery requirements. Includes one-act plays, pageants, plays in verse, radio and television plays and classic drama. Links to selected full-text plays on the web.
To see if a play in Play Index is accessible via Carnegie Mellon Libraries check Cameo (library catalog).
To request a play for the University Libraries play collection contact Mo Dawley.
Plays and Streaming Performance Online
Full-text plays online available to Carnegie Mellon users and also linked in Cameo (library catalog).
As of this writing, the subject indexes of these databases don't indicate plays on the environment as such, but words within the text of the plays are fully searchable. For example, a keyword search on "nature" in Asian American Drama reveals a number of scenes from various plays referring to concept of "nature."
Contemporary World Drama
New work from Alexander Street Press existing playwright partners alongside work from up-and-coming playwrights from around the world, including recently produced world premieres and previously unpublished works from every continent.
Twentieth Century North American Drama is a growing full-text database, currently containing 850 plays including the complete works of major playwrights as well as plays by emerging playwrights. Searchable by keyword, author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theaters, and companies. Additional information on playwrights, theaters, companies, productions and performances is included along with a selection of playbills, posters and other ephemera.
Asian American Drama
Contains the full-text of 250 plays by Asian American playwrights. It is searchable by author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theatres, and companies. The database also contains playwright biographies, details on productions, theatres and theatrical companies, as well as production photographs, selected playbills and other information related to the plays.
Black Drama
Contains the full-text of 1200 plays by black playwrights. It is searchable by author, play title, characters, scenes, subjects, years, productions, theatres, and companies, including related resource and biographical information.
Drama Online
1550 plays: classic to contemporary; L.A. Theatre Works audio plays; Globe on Screen streaming video, more....
Medici.tv
Offers filmed concerts performed by today’s greatest names in classical music, archive movies, inspiring documentaries on performers and composers, educational programs, and master classes.
North American Women's Drama
over 1,500 full-text plays by women from colonial times to the present. Allows in-depth browsing and searching; includes detailed information on related productions, theaters, production companies and and more. Plays were selected by the Alexander Street Press editorial board using recognized play bibliographies and in consultation with other scholars and playwrights.
Ontheboards.tv
High-quality films of full-length performances by current provocative artists working in dance, theater, music and other forms.
A Community-Powered Learning Library and Alternative News Center For People Who Want To Change The WorldLinks to over 3000 films available online for free. The goal of this resource is "to provide citizens of the world with the information and perspectives essential for creating a more just, sustainable and democratic society." An extensive subject list allows you to focus in on your areas of interest.