Putting on shows is both a great creative opportunity and a source of pleasure for many Cambridge students. But the climate and ecological crisis is a growing problem that cannot be ignored. It’s bad news for many reasons but in part because, as far as Camdram is concerned, there’s no theatre on a dead planet. While this may not be an issue theatre can fix on its own — with live shows requiring huge amounts of time, energy, and materials — its impact can be quite significant. On the bright side, the innovation that the theatre community is famed for is a great tool for enacting positive change and getting audiences hyped about climate action.

“The Alliance aims to spark meaningful conversations and serve as a forum for people to ask questions and seek advice”

The ADC, Corpus Playroom and college theatre societies provide a unique opportunity for students to learn on-the-job, developing a huge range of skills in a space where they’re allowed to make mistakes. No-one is expected to be perfectly sustainable and, in honesty, with fairly limited budgets and resources, Cambridge theatre is already quite green in some respects (often making use of second-hand resources, for example). But there’s always room for improvement and, with over 100 shows a year, it would be great to make sustainability part of the culture here. We’d love to foster conversations so that those who go on to work in the arts industry (or any industry) will be aware of some of the problems and solutions for greener theatre, and can take that passion and know-how into their professional careers.

The sustainability movement has been slowly building within the industry, something student theatre can take inspiration from. The National Theatre has been leading the charge to implement change, committing to Net Zero by 2030. In addition to using solar energy for much of the building’s power, they’ve planted a rooftop garden with beehives, switched to reusable cups and, since May 2021, have started working towards the baseline standard of the Theatre Green Book, a resource produced to guide theatres on their journey to Carbon Zero.

But this kind of change needs to come from the bottom up as well as the top down. To help guide student shows towards being more environmentally friendly, we’ve established a new group, the Cambridge Theatre Green Alliance, dedicated to encouraging sustainable practices in the ADC and beyond. We’re working alongside ADC management and a range of student societies to make sustainability more easily achievable for everyone involved in the theatre.

“With over 100 shows a year, it would be great to make sustainability part of the culture here”

As for how we’re kicking things off? One of the largest issues stemming from the rapid turnaround rate of Cambridge shows is the constant need for different resources. We’re making it easier for all production teams to find out which resources are already owned by student societies and available for borrowing. We’re working alongside societies with their own props and costumes stores in order to compile a database of all borrowable items and where they can be found, making them far easier to access. 

We’re also aiming to reduce the amount of material that gets wasted every week at get-outs. We’ve introduced signs in the ADC workshop issuing guidance on how to paint responsibly, and on which kind of dismantled materials from set pieces are suitable for reuse. Through little actions like these, we hope to bring ourselves in line with the guidelines set out in the Theatre Green Book, which prescribe that 50% of a show’s materials should have had a previous life, and that 65% should be passed onto a new life after a show’s run has finished.

“This kind of change needs to come from the bottom up as well as the top down”

The Alliance aims to spark meaningful conversations and serve as a forum for people to ask questions and seek advice. We don’t have all the answers, but we’ve been working to compile some useful guides and resources to help make future productions more sustainable, available on our Linktree and Facebook. We’re always open to new ideas and collaborations, and lots of us are graduating this year, so people who fancy being part of the next generation of allies are welcome to hop on board.

Making theatre green doesn’t mean it’s only ever possible to stage minimalist Beckett productions devoid of set or costumes (though that would be interesting…) but hopefully, people might stop and think before designing a lighting rig with all of the parcans, or taking promo photos that accidentally crush a wildflower meadow. We’d like to see more eco-conscious set designs, Broadway-worthy costumes made of only recycled materials, and climate change plays that practise what they preach. And maybe, just maybe, we can help protect the planet so that the shows can go on!