Design a temporary theatre

In September World Stage Design (WSD2013) will take place in Cardiff at the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama. It is a festival of performance design, which includes an exhibition of work by international designers alongside Scenofest. A full programme of workshops, lectures, seminars and performances will be open to industry professionals, emerging artists, students and the general public.

A key focus of the whole event is sustainability, from its planning, organisation and execution, through to the content of workshops, seminars and lectures. WSD2013 is committed to working towards achieving the BS 8901 Standard on Sustainable Event Management. There will be programming dedicated to the issue led by organisations including Julie’s Bicycle and Arcola Theatre.

Ian Garrett is leader of the sustainable practice group at WSD2013 and has recently been appointed as one of the world’s first professors of sustainable theatre practice at York University in Toronto. He said: “Theatre has a unique relationship to issues of sustainability; we build and tear down sets every few weeks, lighting a performance requires lots of power for short periods of time. But it’s also not just about going green; theatre is also where we can discuss the issues facing our world, and we can bring communities together in a shared experience. What we’re doing is bringing all of these complex ideas into sharp relief and I think that’s quite powerful for theatre artists and theatre audiences.”

One of the most interesting ways in which sustainability has taken the lead in this event is in the development of an international competition to design a sustainable temporal theatre space to be built within the courtyard of the Anthony Hopkins Centre (the former stables of Cardiff Castle). This venue will house the event’s sustainability programme and performances throughout WSD2013. The response to the competition has been exceptional with design submissions from across the world, including student and professional architects, designers and theatre technicians.

The competition and the building are a central part of the event, although the inspiration behind the concept came about by chance during the Prague Quadrennial 2007. Following a failed EU bid for funding to build a performance venue during this event, project leaders had to think quickly and creatively to create a performance space at little or no cost, using materials to which they had immediate access. Using scaffolding poles, rockwool insulation and cardboard boxes, a fully functional venue was built by students and professional volunteers, and became an accidental highlight of the entire festival. After the event the scaffolding was returned, the cardboard boxes were recycled and the insulation was distributed to homes and businesses in and around Prague. Sean Crowley, project leader explains: “There were no wasted materials from the cardboard box theatre – it even became a local distribution centre for the rockwool insulation that we used to build it. People from across the world became really engaged in the whole concept.”

When the team won the bid to host WSD2013 in Cardiff, they were determined to include the sustainable theatre venue which had played such a central role in 2007. They wanted to further develop the concept, and use the venue created to further explore sustainable practice. In keeping with the strong educational and collaborative nature of the event, they launched the sustainable design competition. The brief presented several challenges. With a limited budget and strict guidelines, the proposed structure must be weather and soundproof, and be designed using either existing and readily available building components, or alternative sustainable elements. The aim of the project is to provide a lasting impact on the discussion and practice of sustainability within performance design, as thousands of industry professionals from across the world will travel to Cardiff for the event.

Through the sustainable theatre competition, WSD2013 is determined to show these industry leaders, as well as emerging artists and students who will be the future generation of performance designers, producers and technicians, just how the industry can address this complex challenge in the way they know best – through creativity, collaboration and design.

Alice Cabanas is Marketing Coordinator atWorld Stage Design.