Environmental Stewardship in Post-Secondary Theatre

PACT presents Environmental Stewardship in Post-Secondary Theatre, a roundtable discussion taking place on Saturday October 5th, 1pm - 3:30pm ET.

Join us to learn about environmentally sustainable practices and resources targeted to post-secondary theatre programs in Canada. This virtual gathering will include presentations from post-secondary programs, professional theatres, and organizations working to address the climate crisis. There will also be an opportunity for discussion, questions, and breakout conversations specific to different roles/areas of study in theatre.

This event is organized by the Environmental Stewardship Committee's Post-Secondary Subcommittee. The roundtable speakers for this event are:

Tess Benger is an actor, singer, dancer, environmentalist born and raised in Toronto. She is a co-founder and Director of Outreach at the Canadian Green Alliance. Tess is passionate about working at the intersection of art and climate, and has increasingly become interested in and inspired by the power of community. 

Chantal Bilodeau is a Montreal-born, New York-based playwright who focuses on the intersection of storytelling and the climate crisis. In her capacity as artistic director of the Arts & Climate Initiative, she has spearheaded local and global initiatives for nearly two decades, engaging theatre and educational communities, as well as audiences in the U.S. and abroad, in climate action through live events, talks, publications, workshops, artist convenings, and a worldwide distributed theatre festival. Her work has been presented in a dozen countries and translated into French, Norwegian, Greek, and Portuguese. She is working on a series of eight plays that look at the social and environmental changes taking place in the eight Arctic states. She is a Creative Core member of the Laboratory for Global Performance and Politics. In 2019, she was named one of “8 Trailblazers Who Are Changing the Climate Conversation” by Audubon Magazine.

Écoscéno is accelerating the ecological transition by propelling the circular economy in the cultural sector. We offer solutions to improve the environmental impact of cultural production.

Ian Garrett is a designer, producer, educator, and researcher in the field of sustainability in arts and culture. He is also Associate Professor of Ecological Design for Performance at York University. He is also producer for Toasterlab, a mixed reality performance collective, and the director of the Centre for Sustainable Practice in the Arts. He has a research and performance design practice focused on ecology and accessible mixed reality technologies.

Anne-Catherine Lebeau is the co-founder and executive director of the social enterprise (NPO) Écoscéno since 2019. After more than twenty years of career in the circus and theatre world where she was at the heart of the creative process of dozens of productions with Robert Lepage, Wajdi Mouawad and at Cirque du Soleil, she completed a Master’s degree in Arts Management at HEC Montreal and launched Ecosceno to provide concrete solutions for the cultural sector in the face of climate change.

Hope McIntyre is an Associate Professor at the University of Winnipeg teaching performance, Business of Theatre, playwriting, and Applied Theatre. She is also an award-winning playwright, director and producer. Recently she co-chaired a working group on Environmental Stewardship in Theatre and Performance Education with CATR, resulting in a guidebook.

Ken MacKenzie has been a freelance designer and educator for the past 20 years. Ken’s award-winning set, lighting, costume, and video designs have appeared on stages across Canada, the United States and Europe. Since 2017 Ken has been the president of the Associated Designers of Canada and has been one of the founding members of IATSE local ADC659.?Since the fall of 2021, Ken has held a faculty position at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon teaching in the department of Drama.

Michelle Tracey is a scenographer and designer for performance based in Tkaronto. Her 11-year professional career has spanned the fields of theatre, opera, dance, film and live events. Michelle is a founding member of Triga Creative, a collective of designers exploring ecoscenography.

Please register for this event by Friday October 4th, to receive the zoom link. 

For any questions, reach out to pantheav@pact.ca.