Ecoscenography

Abstract

This special double issue of Theatre and Performance Design – dedicated to Ecoscenography – comes at a pivotal moment in time. As I write this today, world leaders are gathering for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, a meeting that is widely accepted as the world’s last chance to avoid catastrophic climate change. Leaders from across the globe are being asked to fundamentally change their ways of doing things. To commit to jettisoning older, outmoded technologies that damage our environment, and embrace new approaches. In turn, they are being asked to focus on the possibilities these new approaches bring with them, to see them not as a risk, an inconvenience or a constraint, but as an opportunity. This special double issue of Theatre and Performance Design is a microcosm of this broader global necessity. The edition invites theatre and performance makers to interrogate and critique the practices of the past and explore the opportunities that arise from this ecological turn. Ecoscenography includes theories and practices which bring an increased awareness of broader ecologies and global issues to performance design. In our call for papers, the editors and I asked for a diverse range of articles that explored emerging practices and philosophies related to ecoscenography. This included an interest in how theatre makers are rethinking their processes and aesthetics for an ecological paradigm: one that promoted environmentally and socially conscious ways of making. The issue asked, ‘How is ecological thinking evoking new materials and processes for theatrical design?’; ‘How are practitioners and scholars critiquing and enhancing the social and environmental advocacy of our field?’; and ‘What new aesthetics are being revealed?’. While architecture, product design and fashion have long demonstrated how a sustainable ethic can lead to new practices and aesthetics, we are yet to fully grasp what a socially and environmentally conscious approach entails for the performing arts. The articles in this special double issue reveal the diversity of ecological practice in scenography across the globe, from North America to Australia, Europe and India. They feature innovations across disciplines of set, costume, lighting and sound design, both within and beyond traditional theatre contexts. In addition to the inevitability of energy and waste reduction, the authors demonstrate what an ecological approach to scenography does – how it influences ways of thinking and working to seize the potential that this new era of environmental uncertainty demands. While many of the authors readily admit to the challenges of pursuing a sustainable path, they also hint at what the future holds for scenography that embraces more ecologically, socially and politically engaged ways of doing things. What was once a niche interest of a handful of designers worldwide is now becoming a burgeoning subject across academia and practice. This transition has been eagerly awaited and I am honoured to be able to highlight the work of those at the vanguard of this movement. The double issue opens with ‘In Words and Chairs: Making Meaning of Sustainability, Equity and Circularity in American Theatrical Design and Production’ by Sandra Goldmark and