Theatre Green Book is an international initiative of theatre professionals and sustainability experts, which connects theatres across Europe with the goal of establishing common practices for making theatres sustainable. The initiative’s guiding text is newly available in Czech.
In terms of sustainability, the Theatre Green Book divides theatre operation into three key areas: productions, buildings, and operation. Detailed and, crucially, also practical recommendations have been developed for each of these areas. Theatre Green Book helps bring the massive, seemingly insurmountable task of sustainability down to smaller, individually manageable steps, and it assigns their completion to responsible sections. For example, for the first area, Sustainable Productions, the basic goal is to make at least 50% of decorations, props, and costumes for a production from recycled or sustainable materials. To make sure this goal is achieved, the directors, set designers, and production need to work together.
That said, theatre sustainability is not just the matter of the materials that can be seen on stage during a performance. It involves everything, from the transportation of staff, performers, and audience members to energy consumption in the buildings, the stage technologies, waste management, or even the food in the theatre café. To ensure success and coordination across all these areas, Theatre Green Book offers various tools and suggestions. Perhaps the most essential tool is the material inventory, which allows the theatre to follow where the materials used in a production come from, what their carbon footprint is, and how they will be used after the closing night.
The National Theatre joined Theatre Green Book initiative in 2023 and throughout the 2023/2024 season, it will, along with nine other European theatres, participate in a pilot project that will map the process of making a specific production from the perspective of sustainability. The National Theatre has chosen the production of One More Minute, directed by Anna Klimešová, to be its contribution to the project..
You can learn more about the Theatre Green Book HERE or at the initiative’s official website.