Lighting & Sound

Set Goals. Set some goals for your own stage management procedures. Maybe you want to eliminate the use of tape, or you want your rehearsal rooms to be zero-waste.

• Also ensure you collaborate with your creative team to set goals for the production. SMs are instrumental in how production goals are set and realised. Ensure that they are realistic, manageable, and won’t place too much strain on you or your team. It is okay to start small!

Mesaure. Collaborate with your production designers and producers to record production materials as they are ordered so you can track your goals and streamline their end-of-show life. To do this, use this Production Materials Inventory template and see our End-of-Show Planning Principles.

• Ensure you are across all disposal requirements. As SMs are instrumental in disposal procedures, if a material is going to be too hard to sustainably dispose of, it needs to be flagged earlier rather than later.

• Try to distribute the load and recruit help with disposal.

• Obviously, the fewer disposal requirements the easier bump-out will be, so try to impress this upon designers when they are sourcing.

Discuss. Make sustainability updates and check-ins a standing item on all production meeting agendas. Get each department to share their goals, progress, and obstacles to encourage collaborative problem-solving.

Rehearse Locally. Where possible, try to preference rehearsal venues that are close to public transport, and have access to kitchenettes to make hot drinks and store/reheat food.

Rehearse Responsibly. Create an environmentally friendly rehearsal space.

• Don’t splurge on reusable coffee cups or water bottles for the team - most people already have them. Strongly encourage the team to bring their own.

• Ensure your venue has access to recycling and rubbish bins (separated recycling bins, and compost as well if possible). As RedCycle soft-plastic recycling programs are currently out of action (at time of writing in Dec 2023), encourage your team to use reusable containers wherever possible.

• Ensure heating/cooling is used for the minimum amount of time required, and always keep your cooling at 24 degrees.

• If catering, try to order more vegetarian options.

• Ensure stage lights are off whenever not in use.

• For rehearsal stage mark-ups, use chalk, rope, or even just random objects like shoes, instead of tape. For more tape alternatives see our Sustainable Materials Guide.

Print Less. Minimise the use of paper for printing scripts.

• For table readings, try to encourage the use of digital scripts (either on tablets or laptops) if the actors are comfortable with it.

• If your rehearsal script is still a work in progress, print it with page breaks for every scene or act. That way, if major edits occur, the entire script does not have to be reprinted.