Greening Theatre Landscapes—Sustainable Australian Theatre Production

Abstract

As sections of the population become increasingly aware of the threat of environmental degradation, more theatre professionals and organizations are becoming concerned about the particular negative impacts (i.e., the carbon footprint) theatre productions leave. In recognizing, the theatre industry’s response to climate change and its potential to encourage change in climate behaviours, it would be hypocritical perhaps to disregard how applying ‘green’ practices in producing theatre is way of promoting climate action. This chapter therefore offers a discussion on ‘green’ production practice and draws on ‘green’ initiatives from an Australian theatre industry perspective to support the discussion. Many Australian theatre artists are implementing ‘green’ processes and encouraging sustainable practice futures in the performing arts. This chapter discusses how theatre can promote sustainable production practices. The chapter refers to organizational sustainable production processes and while furthering discussions on the Climate Gothic from an artistic perspective, it examines the sustainable production processes surrounding a unique Climate Gothic play, Water Wars (2011) by Elaine Acworth.