Less is more in UK Theatre and Dance ‘Season of Sustainability’
LEXINGTON, Ky. (Sept. 4, 2024) — When audience members settle into their seats for a theatrical performance, they are focused on the action on the stage, whether it’s unfolding drama, the fluidity of dance or the whimsy of musical theater.
They rarely think about the materials that went into bringing the production to life: the wood used for set pieces, material used for costumes, even the paper used to print the programs they hold in their hands.
In its 2024-25 season of offerings, the University of Kentucky’s Department of Theatre and Dance is putting a spotlight on reducing that level consumption. The schedule of five productions carries a theme, “Season of Sustainability.” Not only is the programming centered around the overarching theme of conservation, but behind the scenes, there will be efforts to minimize impact on the environment through practices like repurposing set pieces from previous productions, recycling costumes for materials and creating digital versions of what would ordinarily be printed programs for the audience.
Susie Thiel, newly appointed chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, said the idea for doing a season centered around sustainability originated with the former interim department chair Peter Allen Stone.
“He was really looking into sustainability and the second he brought it up, all the faculty jumped on board, and we talked about the different plays and ideas,” Thiel said.
In 2023 the department received a matching Improvement Grant from the Office of the Vice President of Research to upgrade the lighting system in the Guignol Theatre to an energy-efficient LED lighting system. This was an impetus to examine consumption practices across the board.
“Historically, the theater industry has been wasteful, and we need to do better. Many resources are used and often wasted to produce a theatrical play or dance concert.” Stone wrote in an October 2023 article on WholeSum.com, an online publication of UK’s Office of Sustainability. “Productions rely on wooden sets, costumes, scripts, furniture, lights, lighting gels, cables, paper programs batteries and sound equipment, to name a few.”
The season opens Oct. 17 with Erika Dickerson-Despenza’s “cullud wattah,” a story of three generations of Black women living through the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
“There were quite a few plays written about this and this is this is one we were really interested in,” Thiel said. “And it really looks ahead and it looks in the past, and it really brings the issue to light.”
Also on the season calendar is a dance concert titled “Dancing With the Environment.” Thiel said it will explore the five classical elements: earth, wind, fire, water and aether (outer space).
“We have five choreographers, and each of them has selected an element they’re going to focus on,” Thiel said. “I told them that the dance can explore an environmental issue or it can be creating this beautiful dance about water, for example. It can be whatever the choreographer and students want to create within that element.”
Thiel is one of the choreographers and chose earth as her element.
“I’m looking at trees and the relationship between humans and trees throughout time,” she said. “Everyone has seeds of information and ideas, and with dance it really evolves as we go.”
The overall goal of the season is to integrate sustainability into the department’s culture, ensuring it is observed and practiced in future seasons, and to make theatre students aware of sustainable practices they can carry with them into their professional lives beyond campus.
“We’re bringing in an expert on sustainability within the theater to meet with our students, provide workshops, classes, instruction and dialogue about how we’re doing things, and how we can evolve and become more sustainable,” Thiel said. “I feel like we’ve always done a good job with this, but this is really an opportunity, for us in theatre and dance, to foster discussions and conversations about our ever-changing world.
“She’s also meeting with our faculty as a whole, and then everybody on the production team,” Thiel added. “She's actually going to walk through our spaces and look at our costume shop. We want to do it right, and we really want to make sure that we’re not just saying ‘Season of Sustainability,’ but we’re actually making it part of what we will do moving forward.”
2024-25 UK Theatre and Dance — “Season of Sustainability”
“cullud wattah”
by Erika Dickerson-Despenza
Oct. 17-20, 2024 | Briggs Theatre
“As You Like It”
by William Shakespeare
Nov. 14-16 and 21-24, 2024 | Guignol Theatre
Dance concert: “Dancing With the Environment”
Feb. 7-9, 2025 | Guignol Theatre
Stqged reading: “An Enemy of the People”
by Henrik Ibsen
Feb. 21 and 22, 2025 | Briggs Theatre
“Urinetown, The Musical”
Music and Lyrics by Mark Hollmann
Book and Lyrics by Greg Kotis
April 10 - 13, 2025 | Guignol Theatre
To purchase tickets, visit singletarycenter.com.
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