grant from The James Irvine Foundation

Mo`olelo received word that we’re being awarded grant from the Creative Connections Fund of The James Irvine Foundation! The monies will support the commissioning of a new play by Chantal Bilodeau that addresses the intersection of race, class and the environment. You can read about the grant here.

mike lawler

Mo`olelo owes a lot to Mike Lawler, the man behind the ecoTheater blog.

Back in 2007, he was one of the first journalists to write about Mo`olelo’s GREEN Theater Categories and Sustainable Guidelines, and he attached a name to the work we do at Mo`olelo: solving for pattern. I had never heard of this phrase before I e-met Mike. Solving for pattern is a concept coined by Wendell Berry. It’s the idea of taking a holistic approach to solving problems and minimizing the creation of new problems. Mike wrote an entry on his blog in August 2007 describing Mo`olelo’s approach as solving for pattern. Finally! Mike helped Mo`olelo with something we had been struggling with for a long time: how to explain that our commitments to paying Equity wages to local artists, representing diverse communities on stage, engaging in in-depth community outreach and education programs, and discovering ways to create theater that doesn’t cause long-term damage to the environment were all fueled by the same fire: our mission to serve our community.

Mike has a number of new and wonderful projects he’s engaged in now. You can read about them here.

I consider Mike a driving force behind the authentic green theater movement. Keep your eye on him if you want to know the latest in this area.

Cheers to Mike!
Seema

Dramabiz: The Eco-Friendly Theatre of the Future

This is in the April 2009 issue of Dramabiz….
http://www.dramabiz.com/pulse.htm

The Eco-Friendly
Theatre of the Future
“Greening” operations can reduce your carbon footprint while still delivering stellar productions—and help keep your audience and staff healthy

By Mike Lawler

According to the U.S. Green Building Council, buildings are responsible for 72% of electricity consumption, consume 40% of our raw materials, spew 38% of all CO2 emissions, create 136 million tons of construction waste, and use 15 trillion gallons of water per year in the United States alone.

Green buildings, on the other hand, consume 26% less energy while emitting 33% fewer greenhouse gases. The USGBC also estimates that if “half of new commercial buildings were built to use 50% less energy, it would save over 6 million metric tons of CO2 annually for the life of the buildings—the equivalent of taking more than 1 million cars off the road every year.”

Now take a deep breath – because those are significant numbers that should give us pause. But it does not mean we should all go out and start looking for a green architect and a wealthy donor. Not yet, anyway. Rebuilding from the ground up is not the first step. Efficiency and green building experts agree that the first and most important thing you can do is improve conservation and efficiency within your current operation and facility.

What Makes It Green?

“An ecologically responsible theatre is one that does more with less,” explains Michael Crowley, Producing Manager of 9Thirty Theatre Company in New York City, one of the only companies in the country to be founded on the principle of green theatre practices.

While Crowley’s idea of a green, eco-responsible theatre company is direct, what makes a theatre green remains a complex question. “We’re still working on defining it,” says Seema Sueko, Artistic Director of the eco-friendly Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego. Mo’olelo received a grant from Theatre Communications Group (TCG) this year to pursue their green mission and to “research and develop a tool to measure the environmental impact of theatre, helping the industry to make choices that do not damage our communities.” They are partnering with Brown & Wilmanns Environmental Consulting on the project to develop a “Green Theatre Choices Tool kit.” “Hopefully,” Sueko says, “this will help us answer that question.”

read the rest here: http://www.dramabiz.com/pulse.htm

From DramaBiz April 2009

DramaBiz April 2009

kadmus arts

Check out Michael Johnson-Chase’s interview on Kadmus Arts about greening in the arts, green jobs, Solar One and Solar Two:

http://kadmusarts.com/podcasts/?p=918

Theatre and the Environment

Theatre and the Environment Panel

(And an excerpt of a work in progress)

 

Martin E. Segal Theatre Center

The CUNY Graduate Center,

365 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10016-4309

 

April 23^rd, 2009, 6:30 pm

 

 

Join us on the evening after Earth Day to explore what theatre artists and production staff are doing to meet the extraordinary challenges of climate change. At a time when local, state and federal governments are setting goals for reductions in carbon emissions, holding public meetings to solicit public recommendations for adapting to rising sea levels; when businesses are beginning to talk about renewable energy, closed-loop waste streams, and innovative mobility systems; what are we doing in the theatre?

 

This event will explore theatre and the environment from two perspectives: the process of making theatre, and the theatre we make.  On the process side, we will explore building performance and renewable energy, facilities management, closed loop set design and construction and intelligent recycling. On the content side we will see an excerpt of a new play by Shelia Callaghan. Directed by Daniella Topol, we will learn from her how this multimedia theatre piece about water has been shaped through her consultations with scientists at the Department of Environmental Conservation. We will also reflect on Bill McKibben’s lament that the theatre lags behind other art forms in grasping – and mining – the full artistic potential of this issue.

 

Panelists include Gideon Banner, actor and founder of the Green Theater Initiative; Bob Usdin, founder and CEO of Showman Fabricators; Benno Van Noort, LEED-certified director of facilities at the New Victory Theatre and The New 42nd Street Studios; NYC Director Daniella Topol; Marda Kirn, founder and Executive Director of Eco-Arts Connections in Boulder, Colorado. Seema Sueko, Artistic Director of Mo`olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego, and Ben Todd, Executive Director and fuel cell technology expert at the Arcola Theatre in London will participate via a Skype feed (as a way to lower our carbon footprint).

 

This program is co-curated for CUNY by Michael Johnson-Chase, a former theatre professor, international program director at the Lark Play Development Center, producer and writer. After a stint as a solar installer, he is currently developing Green Collar Job training programs at Solar One; an environmentally focused arts and education center in NYC soon to feature New York City’s first net zero carbon classroom and performance facility.

 

American Theatre at 25

American Theatre magazine turns 25 years old in April 2009. For their 25th anniversary issue, they asked 25 theater artists from across the country to imagine what might happen in American theatre in the next 25 years. From their article:

AT25: An Eye on the Future

The American theatre’s next 25 years, as envisioned by the forward-thinking artists who will accompany us there

By The Editors
What do you imagine might happen in the American theatre over the course of the next quarter-century?That’s the question we asked 25 theatre artists (26, counting the team at the helm of Big Dance Theater) to address on the occasion of American Theatre’s 25th-anniversary issue. Their answers, which wend their way through the following 16 pages, make for a lively, sometimes unsettling, frequently funny, persistently inspiring read.

Who are our commentators? They’re richly accomplished folks-directors, performers, designers, writers, dramaturgs, producers and curators of new work. All have demonstrated something special in their approach to the art and craft of theatremaking that convinced us they have not only vision and foresight about the field they’ve chosen, but the tenacity and commitment it will take to realize their aspirations over time.

Our artistic future, we figure, belongs to people like these. Here’s a chance to glimpse that future through their eyes.

Read their projections here.

green meeting

Jeannie, Jason, Eric, Charlie, Mike

Mo`olelo recevied the MetLife/TCG A-Ha, Think it, Do it Grant in late 2008 and today held a half-day meeting to begin the nitty-gritty of the grant work. Mike Brown and Eric Wilmanns of Brown & Wilmanns Environmental Consulting, Costume Designer Jeannie Galioto, Lighting Designer Jason Bieber, Scenic Designer David F. Weiner, LEED AP Charlie Bishop, 10th Avenue Theatre Landlord Jeff Cotta, and Mo`olelo Artistic Director Seema Sueko all participated in today’s meeting. We discussed the Brown & Wilmann’s Green Choices Toolkit methodology and how it might be adapted to the design aspects of theater. More coming soon on this…

A-HA!

Mo`olelo is pleased to report that we received our first national grant which will advance our greening initiative. Funded by MetLife/TCG, the press release announcing this award is pasted below…

Hooray!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                      CONTACT:     Linda Jacobs

September 15, 2008                                                   212.609.5900, ext.255, ljacobs@tcg.org

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

“If at first the idea is not absurd then there is no hope for it.”  

—Albert Einstein

 

MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program: Think It, Do It

First Round Recipients Announced

 

 

New York – Theatre Communications Group (TCG) announces the inaugural round of recipients for the MetLife/TCG A-ha! Program:  Think it, Do It. 

 

From the private sector to the public sector, from engineering to the environment, and from the arts to the sciences, the need for innovation and creativity is generally agreed upon as keys to success.  Support for new ideas and experimentation, however, is not readily available.  To fill that void in the professional, not-for-profit theatre field, MetLife Foundation and TCG partnered to create the A-ha! Program designed to foster creative thinking and action among TCG member theatres.

 

“As the field grapples with our country’s changing demographics and seeks new ways to create work that not only informs but strengthens bonds among diverse communities, it seems important to support research and development as well as risk-taking in the field,” said Teresa Eyring, TCG executive director.  Along with MetLife Foundation, we have now created a program that will allow member theatres to dive into new ideas and experimentation with the understanding that even failure can be instructive.”

 

The A-ha! Program, has two components (and theatres can only apply to one). Think It grants (up to $25,000) give theatre professionals the time and space for research and development; and Do It grants (up to $50,000) support the implementation and testing of new ideas.  The program supports risk-taking, reflection, experimentation and the development of creative strategies.  It is hoped that the larger field will benefit from new best practices that emerge from the program.

 

“MetLife Foundation is proud to partner with TCG to support creative thinking and innovation in theatres,” said Sibyl Jacobson, President and CEO MetLife Foundation.  “We believe the A-Ha! program will strengthen the filed and promote new models and best practices.”

 

The Think It recipients are Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company in San Diego, CA and Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company in Washington, D.C., with alternate status awarded to Round House Theatre in Bethesda, MD and Dell’Arte International in Blue Lake, CA . The Do It recipients are Theater Grottesco, in Santa Fe, NM and The Playwrights’ Center (TPC), Inc in Minneapolis, MN, with alternate status awarded to American Repertory Theatre Company in Cambridge, MA .

The projects break down as follows:

 

Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company will research and develop a tool to measure the environmental impact of theatre, helping the industry to make choices that do not damage our communities.

 

Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company will send its staff on 1-2 week sabbaticals to shadow professionals working in analogous jobs or fields to help provoke new thinking about their work at the theatre.

 

Round House Theatre would research and develop an “e-field trip” to expand its Student Matinee Program through simulcasts and web-based workshops.

 

Dell’Arte International proposed researching and investigating the development of a retired theatre workers community, which would impact the field of theatre as a whole.

 

Theater Grottesco will create a state-of-the-art intimate performance venue for smaller, not for profit organizations by inviting partners to invest in downtown Santa Fe property through a Limited Liability Corporation (LLC).

 

The Playwrights’ Center (TPC) will take its cue from the film industry. TPC will create a professionally produced web trailer series, available by free download in an audio-visual gallery on its website.

 

American Repertory Theatre would introduce Band/A.R.T., in which local bands would be commissioned to write original pieces of music in response to five A.R.T. productions.

 

The process and progress of these recipients will be chronicled on the TCG website, www.tcg.org.

 

Panel members were Michael Johnson-Chase, Consultant, GlobalHamlet Consulting (New York); Jason Neulander, Founder Artistic Director emeritus, Salvage Vanguard Theater (Austin); Victoria Nolan, deputy Dean of Yale School of Drama and Managing Director of Yale Repertory Theatre (New Haven); Brad Stephenson, Director of Projects and Marketing, Center for Arts Management and Technology; Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburg) and Mark Valdez, National Coordinator, Network of Ensemble Theaters (New York).

 

 

# # # # #

 

 

MetLife Foundation was established by MetLife to continue the company’s long tradition of corporate contributions and community involvement. The Foundation supports programs that improve education, promote health, encourage parental involvement and family engagement, and help revitalize neighborhoods and stress accessibility and inclusion. In recent years, a focus on Alzheimer’s and aging issues has been added.  MetLife Foundation stresses education in all its programs. Recognizing the vital role the arts play in building communities and educating young people, the Foundation contributes to arts and cultural organizations across the United States, with an emphasis on increasing opportunities for young people, reaching broad audiences through inclusive programming, and making arts more accessible for all people.

 

 

Theatre Communications Group’s (TCG) mission is to strengthen, nurture and promote the professional, not-for-profit American theatre. TCG initiatives include a variety of artistic, management, international and advocacy programs. Its many publications offer a national resource for reference, opinion and debate on theatre and the performing arts today.

ECOBAGS® are here!

Night Sky Associate Producer Shera with her Mo`olelo ECOBAGS®

 

For the past couple years, we would sell Mo`olelo t-shirts at our productions. It was a great way for us to raise more funds to support our operations and spread the word about the Company. As our supply of t-shirts dwindled, we began to explore what we could sell instead that would be more in alignment with our greening initiative. The Board unanimously approved the idea of a canvas bag and assigned Board member Caroline McKoen to research vendors, printers and supplies to determine what would make a ‘green bag’ truly ‘green.’ She spent a month and a half diligently investigating this. She looked at the source of the bag (where did it come from?); what was it made of (organic cotton, grown under fair-trade conditions or recycled scrap fabric, sweatshop free?); how were the bags transported to the printer (by ship? by air? by truck?); how were the bags printed and what kind of ink was used (water-based?); how much do the bags cost?; and what kind of philosophy and customer service did the vendor offer?

In the end, we selected a 100% certified organic cotton bag from ECOBAGS® (www.ecobags.com). It is 19″ wide, 15.5″ tall, 5″ bottom gusset with 22″ handles. The cotton is grown under fair trade certification with growing and factory conditions inspected. The bags were shipped from India, then printed with water-based inks by ECOBAGS®. They were then shipped via UPS to Mo`olelo’s office.

They cost Mo`olelo $6.78 each, and we are selling them for $10 each. You can buy one at the show, Night Sky. If you can’t wait until then and would like to get your paws on one of these as soon as possible, call the office 619-342-7395 and schedule a time to swing by and shop.

 

You can read more about Mo`olelo and ECOBAGS® here: http://blog.ecobags.com/2008/08/moolelo-performing-arts-company-their.html