Designing through climate change: embedding an ecoscenographic framework into tertiary performance pedagogy

This presentation considers the shift of theatre and performance design towards an ecologically ethical approach to creation. Situated within the growing field of ecoscenography, our internationally collaborative teaching practice seeks to understand how our students – as makers and designers – can move together through climate change towards a sustainable future.We will share the process of and subsequent impact of embedding ecoscenographic thinking into the education of tertiary theatre students. As part of a Global Networked Learning initiative between York University (Canada), Griffith University (Australia) and Queensland University of Technology (Australia), twenty-five university students were trained in sustainable, ecologically conscious approaches to designing for live performance across 2021/22. Students were guided by professional designers and educators in scenography, sustainability and technology, working in partnership with the 2021 Climate Change Theatre Action (CCTA) project to produce seed design concepts for new climate plays for exhibition at the World Stage Design Festival in Calgary in August 2022.As ecoscenographers, we are deeply committed to reducing the environmental harm of our field, both in professional and academic settings. By encapsulating the “integration of an ecological ethic with performance design”, ecoscenography calls for “new approach to theatre production that overturns traditional production models” (Beer 2021 pp. 4, 18). Building on this call, our project sought to overturn traditional models of design pedagogy by employing the three cornerstones of ecoscenography—co-creation, celebration and circulation—in a higher education context. As a result, we noted a marked impact on students’ engagement with place and space, materiality, and a deeper engagement with community. This presentation will detail our pedagogical approach while sharing the outcomes of adopting an ecological ethic within the training of the next generation of theatre designers