When the Jean Duceppe theater company received the Grand Prix 2023 from the Conseil des arts de Montréal earlier this month to honor its half-centenary and its creative renewal, co-artistic director David Laurin challenged the hundreds of cultural professionals present at the lunch-gala to ask them to take the turn of eco-responsibility together. “That’s what concerns us the most,” he said.
In both senses of the term: ecology makes the young management of the theater eco-anxiety and, in order not to remain inactive in the face of this real danger, this same eco-conscious management opts for concrete solutions.
“Let’s go back to the basics of what a theater is,” says David Laurin, whom we met a few days ago at his company’s premises at Place des Arts. “We try to be a mirror of our society and to be a leader at all levels, including as a corporate citizen, if I may say so. Eco-responsibility, we want to practice it and we want to talk about it on stage. »
He gives the example of the production Oil by François Archambault presented last year. The play is about climate change and the company wanted to stage it in a consistent setting, minimizing waste. “We didn’t get there and it’s absurd,” says the director very honestly, mentioning that the regular change of water in the large pool on stage, to clean the waterproofing canvas out of a security obligation for the actors, harmed the green certification. “Sometimes we fail, sometimes we succeed. »
Harold Bergeron, production manager at Duceppe for 23 years, knows something about it. “Before, all our sets ended up in a 40-yard container,” he says. It made you cry. In recent years, the material has been recovered and redistributed. »
Duceppian productions are now designed, produced and evaluated according to the recommendations of the Theater Green Book. According to the scales of this ecological reference bible designed in the United Kingdom, 50% of the materials of a creation must come from reuse or recycling and 65% must return to the cycle of reuse.
The accounts are made every time at Duceppe. Responsible sourcing accounted for 68% of the sets in mom, success of the current season, and 80% of the lot has been put back into circulation. For accessories, the score exceeds 94% in both cases.
For show time, 90% of the decor elements came from an eco-responsible supply and 84% of the batch is returned to the reuse warehouses. The design allowed the reuse of the floor, the doors, the ramps, the staircase on wheels. Two-thirds of the costumes, 260 items in total, came from thrift stores. The patina of the decor used a chalk paint, reputed to be much less damaging. In the end, Duceppe paid a measly $10.85 in eco-responsibility compensation. The equivalent of the cost of a beer at intermission (in a reusable glass, please!).
Everything can be accounted for, including the transport of teams and spectators of an entertainment. The reflection now focuses on the tours. The journeys are designed and offset by carbon credits. “We don’t want to stop touring, but we are aware of the issues,” summarizes Mr. Laurin.
Mr. Bergeron points to the lighting. Too many rooms in Quebec are still equipped with energy-intensive incandescent spotlights. “There is a catch-up to be done to get to have LED lamps everywhere,” he says. Just us, we must have 500 lamps. »
Duceppe also wants to reduce the source by not overproducing creations, rather by lengthening the production cycles of his own and of pieces already seen elsewhere as part of his En rappel series. “We would like to stop the shows after 24 performances. We want to be able to set up in Quebec or Ottawa with our plays and receive plays from other theaters so that in the end, when we let go of our decor, we have exploited it to the fullest. »
The arsenals of Écoscéno
The dead scenographies go to Écoscéno to revive there. The warehouse-boutique founded in Montreal accompanies Duceppe like many other companies at all stages of its green approach. Ecodesign occurs from the beginning of a project and ends with a complete assessment.
“We realized that everything we do in our personal lives was canceled out by certain practices in our professional lives,” explains Anne-Catherine Lebeau, general manager of Écoscéno. She works with three other co-founders from the circus, scenography and digital worlds (Isabelle Brodeur, Jasmine Catudal and Geneviève Levasseur).
Mme Lebeau built the green business in culture project for his master’s degree in arts management submitted to HEC in 2019, drawing inspiration from circular economy models, while Ms.me Catudal was mounting an exhibition for the Quadrennial of scenography in Prague on the waste generated by culture. They launched Écoscéno the same year by occupying part of the former rehearsal premises of the Compagnie Jean Duceppe, in the east of the city. An army surplus store rents half the space. The rest (3000 square feet on the ground) is used to store everything that is recovered on certain stages after productions.
It’s the Alibaba’s cave of the theatre, version second hammer. The elements arrive from everywhere and mix together in a heterogeneous assembly: chairs from the Ancien Régime from Duceppe are next to floor boards from Just for Laughs placed next to display cases from the Stuart Museum or pieces of used linoleum. Pieces of old sets should not be reused as such for copyright issues.
Cultural leftovers are given to Écoscéno, which resells them at half price, or even less. Everything is weighed on an old Cirque du Soleil scale to assess in tons what does not end up in the landfill.
Reuse seeks to minimize (partly destructive) recycling. It requires rigorous and consistent planning. For example, you have to design removable sets with ecological materials or refrain from buying equipment from too far away or simply deliver by Amazon.
This whole green process requires training. “It’s the key to success,” says Anne-Catherine Lebeau. Craftsmen need to change their ways. “Pros do tests on different materials (including mycelium) and ecological products (including paint). Écoscéno offers training.
A project is being developed with the National Theater School and another with museology. “Many people ask to do internships here: they have just finished their training, but feel the gaps. In addition, young people are very worried and want to take concrete action. “Like the Duceppe team, what.
The warehouse, which opened in October 2019, took off in force and quickly made it possible to serve 350 customers in the various departments. The pandemic then hit the performing arts hard. Public funding was used to take off, but it is slow to lead the whole thing in a structuring way. The nonprofit needs grants for half of its annual budget of one million dollars. Services have therefore been partially interrupted for a few months. An agreement with the governments could well restart the machine this fall, but nothing is bolted on yet, and Écoscéno could end up in a landfill of beautiful projects…