Interview with Jessica Simmons

In this interview, Jessica Simmons, a student at the University of Leeds who is in her final year of an MBiol in Biological Science, shares insights into her work, inspiration, and advice for those new to sustainable theatre production.

Can you tell us about your work and where your inspiration for your work comes from?

I’ve always been involved in theatre and in climate activism, but my interests collided when I saw the play ‘The Trials’ by Dawn King at the Donmar Warehouse in 2022. It’s a play about young people in a future where they are given the power to act as jurors for adults who have committed climate crimes in the past (our present). 

It presents quite a bleak possible future but allows space for young actors to talk frankly about topics such as climate justice, climate anxiety and anger at those in power not listening to young voices. Not only does this play talk explicitly about the climate crisis, but it was also produced sustainably, influenced by a resource called “The Theatre Green Book” and requests that all productions of the text do the same.

As soon as I saw it, I knew it would be a great piece to direct with a university society and I was keen to take on the challenge of directing with the Theatre Green Book in mind. I directed the first ever amateur production and second ever UK production of The Trials in February 2023 with Leeds University Union Theatre Group at stage@leeds. 

What is the Theatre Green Book and why is it important?

The Theatre Green Book isn’t the only guideline out there for sustainable productions, but it is the theatre industry standard and an incredibly useful tool. It outlines three strands of sustainable theatre: buildings, operations and productions. For me as a director and technician, I am generally only interested in productions as I don’t ever really have control of things like the building’s electricity and heating, but these three strands make it pretty wide use for lots of people in the industry.  

The basic premise for sustainable productions is that you calculate if all your props, set, costumes and scenery had a previous life, and if they are going to have an afterlife at the end of the show and work out the percentage of each. There are then three bands that you can aim for, with the highest being 100% has both a previous and an afterlife. It also includes things like avoiding harmful materials, using-energy efficient tech, avoiding last minute deliveries and looking more at the sourcing of raw materials like wood.  

For me, the most important take away from the Theatre Green Book is that you always need more items to have an afterlife than had a previous life, so your show has a positive impact. 

For The Trials we achieved the intermediate band with at least 75% of materials having a previous life and 80% having an afterlife. This meant that all our costumes and set was borrowed/ hired from costume stores, cast members wardrobes, theatres and the banners/ old climate posters in the set were borrowed from Youth 4 Climate and Students Rebellion Leeds. Then props were found from places like ebay, people’s own homes, storage from previous shows and all food eaten on stage was vegan! 

What were your key learning lessons from The Trials Production?

I think the main thing I learnt was sometimes a little bit of limitation can make you think of creative solutions you never otherwise would have. In The Trials, there is a short scene that needed snow. My first idea was the obvious cut up white paper as confetti, but that has to be flame proofed and thrown away each night as its unsafe to keep throwing the accumulated dirt from the floor at actor’s eye levels.

The sustainable solution we ended up using was hiring bubble guns from another theatre society who had just brought them for Grease the musical and creating this gorgeous lighting state to make snow that appeared for the brief scene and popped by the time the fantasy moment had passed. 

Photography credit: Abby Swain. Lighting Designer: Megan Murphy  

I think that the hardest part of it is giving all materials an afterlife. Having worked a lot in student and community theatre, we’re very good at acquiring things second hand to keep budgets low, but most of the time we don’t think about the afterlife of materials and often don’t have the storage space for pieces.

It takes a bit of forethought and planning, but it’s so important to think more about where things are going once the show is over and collaborate more to share materials because the current way the theatre industry runs is inherently unsustainable. This is why I’m really excited for Project Matter so that the resource for sharing and reuse is there and can help facilitate so many more items having new afterlives! 

How has your interest in sustainable theatre production evolved over time and have you got a vision for where you'd like your work to go in the future?

Since directing The Trials, I’ve run workshops on using the Theatre Green Book and production managed a show by it. I’d like to keep running workshops and keep these conversations going in whatever way possible because making art that has a positive impact on the world around us is so important!  

I’d also like to be (and see others be) more ambitious with the scale of shows they do by the Theatre Green Book. The Trials is a one act play set across one day in two locations, so staging it sustainably wasn’t too hard. I’d love to see the sparkly, bigger budget professional musicals taking steps towards sustainability too, and get involved in that myself.  

What advice would you give to someone new to sustainable theatre production?

It’s all about planning and small steps in the right direction, don’t let perfection be the enemy of progression!  

I think costuming can be a good place to begin because we all use charity shops, our friends’ wardrobes and apps like vinted, ebay and depop to buy second hand clothes for ourselves, so think about if you can get costume items from there too! And for more difficult or period specific pieces, theatres like Leeds Playhouse, stage@leeds and York Theatre Royal often let you rent costumes. 

Planning is also incredibly important. If you think about the props, set and costume you need early then you can see if anyone you know has those items, or investigate where to get them second hand. This also avoids the last-minute deliveries during show week which are not only unsustainable, but incredibly stressful! 

Finally, have you got any future events or workshops that people can get involved in?

The next workshop I am running, “No Theatre on a Dead Planet: A Theatre Green Book guide to creating sustainable productions”, is on Thursday the 6th of June 2024 at 1:30-2:30pm in Leeds University Union Room 2. No knowledge required and all are welcome! 

If you have any questions or if you just want to chat about sustainable productions, please contact jess_simmons@icloud.com