by Ian Garrett
The issue of sustainability stems from the needs of creating a sustainable organization, which is at odds with ecologically sustainable production.
Margo Jones opened Theater '47 in Dallas, Texas in 1947. Influenced by the decentralized European model and her work with the Federal Theater Project to create a national American theater, Margo Jones is single handedly
responsible for starting the regional theater movement ("Sweet Tornado").
As contrasted with the commercial world of Broadway, this model introduced the ideas of season subscriptions, community outreach, a resident artistic company, and board development. These are all hallmarks of every member of the League of Resident Theaters (LORT), the organization of the non-profit regional producing companies in America, and the Theater Communications Group (TCG), which facilitates the infrastructure of those LORT and smaller non-profit theaters that create the 14,000 non-profit productions annually.
Production is a large expense, and the limitations of presenting a stage show, as opposed to a film, where one might spent millions to present to 2,000 seats as opposed to as many screens with hundreds of seats each, can make recouping an investment take years. On the other hand the goal of non-profit theater and by extension,
regional theater is to fulfill a mission tied into its non-profit 501(c)3 status. As a charitable organization these
theaters provide a cultural and educational community service similar to that of a museum.
The economic and organizational sustainability of a non-profit regional theater is based on the ability to sell a season.
Ticket sales have never covered the cost of production. As a charitable non-profit, most theaters are highly dependant on contributed income. In 2006 contributed income was 48% of the budget of those 14,000 non-profit theaters.
Life Cycle Conservation for Sets and Costuming
These limitations manifest themselves physically in the available resources for the creation of a
theatrical production. While it behooves the theater to extend the life cycles of raw scenic construction
materials into as many future iterations as possible, the deconstruction or "strike" of each set on a regular basis
demands either disposal or storage. The one time expense of disposal as opposed to the sustained expense of
maintaining storage for highly specific items is much more attractive from a fiscal perspective. Costumes have
similar consideration.
Lighting, Sound and Video Costs
On the other side of the resource equation, the issues of lighting, sound and video involve fewer raw
materials, but require management of and storage space for a capital inventory of related technology. But as
technology for performance evolves and expands the energy resources necessary to produce at a professional
level increase and/or shift. Sound and video have experienced large advances in technology in recent years
that have increased energy efficiency of devices used while also seeing prices drop. But, they have also increased in fidelity and controllability in such a way as to create a larger demand for a larger variety of
devices. This leaves the question of the overall impact these advances have had on energy consumption for
these areas of design. However, the essential technology for lighting has remained unchanged since the
invention of the electric light.
Theatrical Luminaries
Large steps have been made in efficiency and efficacy of theatrical luminaries, but all other electrical
devices pale in comparison to the overall demand that the electrical loads of theatrical lighting. Quite some
noise can be made with a few Meyer Sound wide coverage loudspeakers, each having a peak load of 2.55kw
(Meyer).
Using methodology from the EPA and Solar Buzz, an online solar technology resource, one can convert the power consumption of this show into a number of equivalents. To produce the power to be able to provide the capacity for this show one would need to spend $1,347,527.40 for a solar array based on the national average of the price per watt of existing commercially available technology.
Running with all lighting intensities at full this design would create 10.88 metric tons of CO2 over the ten performance run of the show. This is equivalent to the yearly emissions of two passenger cars, the yearly
energy consumption of an American home, 25.29 barrels of gasoline and would require nine acres of pine to
offset. Simply using the conventional electrically grid costs $2,739.79 per hour and requires an HVAC system
to compensate for a thermal gain of 877,849.80 btu/hour.
Strides have been made to increase both efficiency and efficacy of theatrical lighting. The largest leap in both occurred in 1992 when Electronic Theater Controls (ETC) introduced the Source Four.
The Source Four not only included features that made huge steps in the usability of theatrical
luminaries, it also introduction new reflector and lamp technology. Due to filament design and the integration
into more efficient aluminized (now dichroic) reflectors, the High Performance Lamp or HPL is able to produce
the same luminous flux, or perceived power of light, as most 1kw lighting instruments with only 575w (ETC).
Future strides, within the same product line included the introduction of a 375w lamp and continued
improvements of reflector and optic technology. But, as far as these strides advance the state of the art, each
lamp is still an incandescent source and is still losing 90% of the energy consumed to heat, as opposed to the
30% -40% of fluorescents.
- The Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007, has mandated phasing out the sale of incandescent lamps by 2014 (United States).
- Australia has passed a similar ban to phase out incandescents by 2010
- Ireland plans to by 2009
- Both Brazil and Venezuela both started to phase out incandescents in 2005 without an outright ban.
- California has proposed beating the United States deadline by having banned incandescent sales by 2012 (Kurtzman 1), but even before these bans began, California enacted Title 24 in 1978, most recently updating the standard in 2005, which requires high efficiency lighting in all new construction.
While homes, offices, and retail space will see noticeable differences with this legislation, fields requiring specialized lighting devices will be relatively unchanged. Tom Littrell of ETC remarks, "Most of the energy stuff - ASHRAE, California's Title 24, etc. exempts "portable" lighting, i.e. stage fixtures that you re-hang every now and then, from the watt-per-squarefoot guidelines that govern the rest of the buildings.
Fluorescent, Compact Fluorescent (CFL), High Intensity Discharge (HID), Light Emitting Diode (LED) and more are all viable for a number of applications. Many of these technologies have been incorporated into instrumentation for theatrical applications as well, but there are a number of hurdles that prevent lighting suppliers and theaters from
changing.
Control is the largest issue. Theatrical applications primarily use large banks of high capacity resistance
dimmers coupled with computerized control consoles using the DMX 512 standard to provide designers with
extensive control over luminaries in a light plot.
- Fluorescents and HID lamps require ballasts to be used with the alternating current (AC) that our electrical grid is based upon and this change in resistance in the dimmers damages both the ballasts and the lamps.
- Dimmable fluorescent technology is fairly new and uses specialized ballasts and require two separate powered connections, one for power and the other for dimming control.
- HID lamps are themselves not dimmable, but fixtures have been designed to use them with a mechanic douser that reduces the about of luminous flux that escapes the instrument.
- LED lights are photon-emitted semiconductors and AC power causes them to flicker since they only allow electricity to flow in one direction. They also require voltage to be dropped from the standard 120v American standard and must be dimmed through specialized magnetic ballasts. To provide control for these newer technologies would mean not only replacing lamps and luminaries but also the electrical infrastructure of a theater, costing tens of thousands of dollars.
The ability to accurately represent color is measured by the color-rending index (CRI). Incandescent
light has a CRI of 100, and reproduces all visible color accurately across the spectrum. Alternatives are able to
match this benchmark, the best of these technologies having CRI in the low 90s, while an HID lamp like a low
pressure sodium lamp may be nearly zero.
Many LED fixtures are touted for their ability to produce most any color through color mixing of red, green and blue diodes, occasionally packaged with whites diodes. While this does produce color accurately when reflected off a surface, this light has wide gaps in the spectrum created by the severe spikes in each LED's color.
But benchmarks aside, the most concrete barrier is cost. Most non-profit theaters maintain an inventory
of lighting instrumentation. The price from B&H Photo for a Source Four is about $325. ETC manufactures an
HID version of this lamp that uses a specialized ballast and lists for $750, also from B&H Photo.
The costs of building new inventories of lighting instruments without industry standard resistance dimmer racks are huge when dealing with hundreds of fixtures. The cost difference for instrumentation alone based on these published prices is nearly $100,000 without purchasing the necessary dousers form dimming or considering the costs of electrical and control infrastructure. Any theater that already has an inventory would be even harder pressed to expend the additional amount while also give their existing inventory over to obsolescence. Many well
established theaters have already invested in changing over their inventories to Source Four instruments in the
last decade and would find a change over of this scale especially hard.
The success of the Source Four is due to the fact that it puts more light on stage with
less power and less heat gain. LEDs were embraced because they offered accurate color mixing, have
extremely long lamp lives and draw a fraction of the power of conventional incandescent instruments while
producing negligible heat. The benefit is not just on the electric expense for lighting, but also reducing the
burden on resource hungry climate control. Though new efficient, power-saving lighting technology does result
in environmental benefits, the bottom line has always been the primary concern.
Green Marketing and Ecological Sustainability
It is only recently with the explosion of "green" marketing and the spotlight that has been shone on
environmental issues that the development of lighting technology has been reframe by ecological
sustainability.
ETC has recently begun running print ads that claim, "It's easy being green!" This marketing
campaign is for the same Source Four that was recently marketed for its cost saving potential. The technology
has evolved since its introduce 16 years ago, but not for the sake of being "green".
Coemar, another major player in the market, began a similar campaign for its LED products. And again, this is not for the sake of being "green". The lessened environmental impact is a result of responding to the desire for operational cost benefits and coincidentally aligns itself with current marketing trends. Regardless of one's feelings on shifting marketing for existing products from the intentions of a product's design to unconscious benefits revealed by shifting focus on global issues, the benefits are still real.
Platinum LEED doesn't mean energy efficient operations
Portland Center Stage recently completed a new theater for themselves that received Platinum LEED
certification. This is a stunning achievement for PCS, but even with a "green" building, they are trying to figure out
how to make their productions "greener". They have made big steps in maximizing their resourcefulness in
scenic and costume design, based partially on their sustainable goals, but also on the necessity of fiscal
efficiency in being a non-profit theater. They are an all Source Four house as well.
How can we increase ecological sustainability without jeopardizing organizational sustainability?
Demand exists for improvement, but no changes will be undertaken without the ability to justify the expense.
Theatrical operations players and providers
Phillips recently purchased Genlyte, a collection of theatrical lighting companies including major control and
dimming powerhouse Strand Lighting, the creators of moving lights Varilite, and LED revolutionaries Color
Kinetics. The largest manufacturer of energy efficient compact fluorescents is now horizontally integrated into
all of theatrical lighting.
Mike Lawler, writer of the ecoTheater blog and long time theatrical designer/technician,
points out that most people working in theater have a college degree and many have master's degrees. If
sustainability and the efficiency of resources is integrated in all fields of high education for theater those next
generation of theater artists being pushed to be innovative in aesthetics and storytelling could be doing so with
maximization of available resources in mind.
Expanding the budgeting process for production beyond raw
materials to include intangible resources lighting energy could not only push lighting designers to make better
choices, but allow them to do so with the intention of shifting freed up funds to newer technologies and
expanding their visual vocabulary.
Theaters Working on Sustainability Improvements
- The California Institute of the Arts School of Theater has begun to integrate sustainability instruction into its curriculum and in coordination with facilities has been working to develop new strategies for more sustainable production.
- Mo'oelo Performing Arts in San Diego has started building a new model for a small non-profit theater company and has been rewarded with a partnership with LORT heavy the La Jolla Playhouse.
- New York Theater Workshop is set to break ground on a new LEED certified shop this summer.
- Actor Gideon Banner has been working to fund his Green Theater Initiative in New York City;
- Sharon Swingle has created thegreentheater.org as a discussion board for ideas on how to make theaters more ecologically sustainable in Northern California.
- The Electric Lodge in Venice, California, a largely solar powered facility has grown two local Los Angles Theater heroes, Joel Shapiro and Justin Yoffe, a cultural supervisor for the city of Santa Monica. They have developed a one-page standard called the Arts Earth Partnership (AEP) for small to mid-sized performing arts companies to build eco-friendly practices in their operations and offices.
- In coordination with Miranda Wright, a second year grad student at the California Institute of the Arts and the Law Firm for Non Profits, I have started to create a venture called the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts.
A number of other projects and groups are in the works or just emerging and rally around not an idea of strict environmentalism but a combined ecological, organizational, economical
model of sustainability.
SOURCE: Digested version of "The Ecological Sustainability of Theatrical Lighting"
by Ian Garrett
MFA3 Lighting Design & Producing Student, California Institute of the Arts
Presented at the "Constructed Light, Constructed Meaning" Visual Culture Graduate Student Conference
April 12, 2008, St. Louis University
