Set Design Balances Aesthetics and Environment

If you walk onto the stage in Wright Theater between now and late November, you will see black and gray floor panels attached in a grid-like pattern to form the foundation for the upcoming production of “Pentecost.” What you may not realize is that the exact same flooring travelled to Atlantic Stage in New York City twice and adorned Seeler Studio Theater the spring before that, recycled for a total of seven productions in three years.

Behind the flooring rest shelves full of used materials like these panels, ready to be resized and remade into the next scenic creation.  These resources come from even more expansive storage barns packed with saved set pieces from as long as 13 years ago.

The practice of the set designers and technical directors in the Department of Theatre is to reuse and recycle during every step of the production process. Professor of Theatre Mark Evancho, who is designing the demanding set for “Pentecost,” explained that due to budget limitations and the College’s remote location, recycling begins as early as in the conceptual stage.

“I am always looking in the trash, in the environment,” said Evancho. “I’ll go down to the recycling center, see something and think, ‘Hey I can use that.’ And I’ll grab it.”

“That’s the nature of theater,” he added. “You start realizing what you can do with [the materials]. You remake them.”

During the construction process, the opportunity to make environmentally conscious decisions heightens. Associate Technical Director Jim Dougherty explained that taking advantage of these opportunities serves a large role financially as well as environmentally, citing the dual benefit of mulching all plain wood under a foot long.

Other practices the department follows that fall into this category include using wood chipped off of younger trees instead of cut from taken-down trees, using digital projections to cut back on actual set pieces and lining the floor with Celotex, a fiberboard used to deaden sound that is highly decomposable and made partly from recycled sources, such as recycled waste glass and aluminum.

Celotex is one of the three primary fiberboard products that the department uses, along with Homasote, which uses recycled consumer paper to make a board that is both recycled and recyclable, and Masonite, which serves as a green alternative to plywood. These materials serve as efficient replacements for plywood and other less decomposable options when possible so that the sturdier materials can be preserved and used for a longer period of time.

Despite the practice of reusing, the department will not keep using materials if they are discovered to be harmful.

This was true for the dry pigment paint they used ten years ago, which they boxed up when it was shown to be carcinogenic. They now use water-based paint for almost all of the their projects. The only oil-based paint used in productions is spray paint, which has not been replaced because its visual effect cannot be created using a water-based option.

While the production team recycles and uses a range of environmentally friendly materials, they recognize that there are restrictions that do not allow them to take advantage of every green option. PVC lumber, for example, is made to last longer and therefore waste less wood, but it is too expensive to be practical for the College. Foam, on the other hand, is not green, but it is light and easy to carve, so it is a valuable resource that the team cannot afford to replace.

Evancho explained that the Theatre Department looked into replacing the lights in Wright Theater with light emitting diode (LED) lights but found that this idea would have jeopardized the aesthetic success of the lighting because the light quality of LED bulbs is “harsh” and the lights vibrate if they are dimmed.

“LED isn’t at a point technologically as an art form for us to take advantage of it,” added Dougherty.

Evancho also noted that the actual set construction is separate from the conceptual design knowledge students are exposed to in Scenic Design I (THEA0111).

“We very rarely talk about the materials,” he said. “We talk about the thinking that goes behind them.”

Evancho added that a basic understanding of the materials available and their advantages and disadvantages would benefit students as they progress in the department and tackle productions of their own.

“It would be a great thing if students became aware of what they are using,” he said.

Emily Sarich ’16, who took THEA0111 last fall and is currently stage managing the upcoming student production of Cock, agreed that a knowledge of the materials behind the idea would help her have a more complete understanding of set design.

“We focused more on the conceptual aspects of scenic design than the practical aspects,” said Sarich. “I think its important to learn about the materials we would use because knowing what you can make things out of really affects what you can make. It affects the aesthetics.”

“Figuring out the materials that we can and should use both to save money and be environmentally friendly is definitely an important part of that,” she added.

Both Evancho and Dougherty stressed that, while they try to stay conscious of the environment when considering supplies, the aesthetic value is their primary concern.

“We’re trying to get ourselves into the green world,” said Evancho. “But it always becomes going green versus doing what we need to do to enhance the play.”

“Sometimes it works out, but sometimes we have to choose the aesthetics”, added Dougherty.

The primary role of the setting and the lighting in a theater production is to provide a visual depiction of the world of the play, and sometimes this image does not lend itself to the greenest design option. However, through the increase in digital technology, the budget constraints and the ideology to create through reconstruction, theater design at the College lends itself in a grand sense to an environmentally friendly product.

“If you had the million dollar budget, you would lean on it,” said Evancho. “By not having all that money, you use the mind and creativity to make it work. And that’s inherently green.”