Eco-theater Practices: Recycling in the Theater Space and Beyond
Moderated by undergraduate student Mary Liu
When: April 4 @ 5:30pm PST
About the Talk
In this panel, we will hear from the director of Broadway Green Alliance, Molly Braverman, and Nicholas Ponting MFA '21, on the topic of eco-theater practices. Ms. Braverman will share with us guidelines and useful toolkits promoted by Broadway Green and Alliance, and Nick will tell us about his experience with working with "trash" in his scenic design for the Fall 2021 production, Sotoba Komachi. Audiences are welcomed to share their thoughts and experiences and discuss dilemmas they might have faced with our panelists. We hope the panel will open our viewpoints on creating an environmentally-friendly theater space and enlighten us about what to do next to be greener.
About the Panelists
Molly Braverman (she/her) is the Director of the Broadway Green Alliance. She previously served as the Managing Director of Theatre Horizon, a non-profit professional theatre company in Norristown, PA. She has worked as a Stage Manager on Broadway, Touring Broadway, and regionally, having spent three years on the road with the National Tour of Wicked and continuing to serve as a substitute Stage Manager on Wicked and Hamilton.
Molly has lectured on Stage Management and sustainable theatre at universities and conferences across the United States and internationally. She currently serves on the Governance Working Group for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Film and TV Initiative.
She founded the Philadelphia Green Theatre Alliance, a regional chapter of the Broadway Green Alliance, and was trained by former Vice President Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader. She is a proud AEA member, recipient of the Dina Wind Fellowship for the Philadelphia Arts and Business Council’s Wharton School of Business Designing Leadership program, and graduate of Columbia University.
Nicholas Ponting MFA '21 is a scenic designer and performer based in San Diego. A recent graduate of the MFA program at UCSD, his design credits include: Uncle Vanya (Virtual), Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play (Virtual), Elektra, The Jefferson Middle School Monthly (WNPF '19), and An Iliad. Nick is a collaborator with David Reynoso’s theatre company Optika Moderna, and they opened up a studio together this fall at Liberty Station. Most recently, he was the associate designer on Teatro Piñata, an installation at The New Children’s Museum. Find out more about Nick at www.nicholasponting.com and @nicholasponting.
About the Moderator
Xiaoyu (Mary) Liu (she/they) is a second-year theater major in UCSD, minoring in art history. She’s an international student from Shanghai, China. She has been having fun in theater since a very young age and she loves experimenting in the theater space. She adapted, acted, and directed plays and musicals in high school, and participated in improvisational workshops in Theater Above (Shanghai). In the past year, she was involved in I and I and My Life - Que Sera, Sera (Theater Above workshop), Sotoba Komachi (UCSD), BlueBeard (Chinese Drama Club), The Kettle Overflows Past Midnight (Triton TV), and A Night of Tens (Company 157). She will be devoted to assist-directing Hells Canyon in the coming spring! For her, theater is the romantic side of life, the cure for melancholy, and an empowering voice for expression. She believes in the power of theater; therefore she is very passionate and excited to be on the committee of the “Moving (in) the World” Series. She hopes it will be an inspiring platform to exchange thoughts and spread the radiance of theater.