Mike Lawler is a writer and theater artist. His life in the theater has found him toiling in the trenches of technical theater, including as a master electrician, scenic carpenter, shop foreman, stagehand, scenic painter, crew supervisor, stage manager, and even dog wrangler.
After spending many years as a technician in theaters throughout the United States, and writing a book on technical theater (Careers in Technical Theater, available from Allworth Press), Mike has settled into a life of theater that is driven by the community in which he lives. He is a founding member of Wisconsin Story Project, the Production Manager for Children’s Theater of Madison, and is internationally recognized for his writing and research in the area of environmentally conscious theater production. He has been writing on the subject since 2006.
Stumble It!
ecoTheater 
Mike-
Fabulous blog! Keep it up!
Marcus
Thanks Marcus. Keep reading!
MIKE~
I’m currently writing a paper about the Future of Theatre Going GREEN, and without much information on the topic, your website has been an enormous help! Thank you for caring about our earth and spending so much time researching how we can apply it to our Art. In hopes of your approval, your name and helpful information will be sighted in my paper and discussed in my Grad. “Contemporary Trends In Theatre” class at the University of Southern Mississippi. It will basically be an outline of the research you’ve already conducted as a means to introduce a specific prospective as to where theatre may or SHOULD be heading. Spreading your information to my collegues will hopefully trigger a spark that will make them want to make changes in our own theatre! If you would be willing or have the time to answer some questions, I would love to include a Q&A with you! It should probably be mentioned that I am an actor and by no means a writer. Also, this informattion is incredibly new to me.
Sincerely,
Devon James
USM Performance Grad
Hi Mike
Thanks for your blog…its great! just discovered it and look forward to reading more…your topic is a central concern of my work. am going to the UK/ europe in june – july in summer to visit family and am looking for ecotheatre projects and organisations to lend my skills to. any suggestions?
Mike,
wonderful, wonderful blog… A minor suggestion. Would it be possible to have your feed display the entire post rather than just the excerpt? As more and more people read through Google Reader and bloglines, I think it’s important that ALL your thoughts get transmitted in the feed. And the best part is… it doesn’t waste more paper. Or perhaps create an alternate feed so people have the choice?
thanks for writing.
Nick,
I’ll see what I can do. Thanks for the suggestion.
mike.
Dear Mike,
I am a theatre consultant at Theatre Projects (we did Overture Center in Madison) and have contributed articles on sustainable design in theatres (the American Theatre and Auditoria articles on Portland Center Stage). I have been working with Gideon Banner to spread the word about GTI within the theatre design and construction industry, and I would like to similarly reach out to Ian Garrett on the west coast. Is there any way you might forward my contact info?
Thank you kindly – and thank you for developing this terrific resource,
Keith Gerchak AIA
After leaving the comment above, I’ve not only connected Keith with Ian, but have also arranged for Keith to participate in a Q & A here on ecoTheater — look for it in the coming weeks. It should be interesting and informative.
Came across your blog from a link in the Guardian article yesterday. I’m interested to follow your posts in future!
I’m a theatre blogger as well–on the topic of costume craft artisanship–and though my blog doesn’t typically address eco-issues on a regular basis, i’ve got at least one post that i think might be of interest to you, on the challenges of running a dyeshop in a drought state and what sort of conservation measures you can employ to reduce water usage:
http://labricoleuse.livejournal.com/40063.html
Mike,
I just discovered your blog and am so grateful to you for writing it. I’m the new head of a high school theater department and am beginning to create a plan for greener theater there. All the resources you’ve gathered here as well as your own insight and commitment are inspiring. Thank you so much. I’ll be visiting often!
Barbara
Greetings,
My name is Bill Hawthorne, and I represent maacenter.org, a leading web resource for asbestos exposure and mesothelioma cancer information. Our organization is dedicated to increasing awareness of the terrible health consequences of asbestos exposure through the distribution of the best informational materials and public outreach efforts.
I found your site through a search and decided to contact you because of its high environmental and green presence which is extremely important in our movement. Your viewers are extremely savvy and motivated. The promotion of how buildings should now be built using sustainable green products to avoid asbestos and mesothelioma as well as the awareness of past buildings and preventative steps in avoiding asbestos exposure are extremely important. My goal is to get a resource link on your site/blog or even to provide a guest posting to be placed.
I look forward to hearing from you. Please feel free to check out our website. Thank you for your time and consideration.
Bill Hawthorne
bhawthorne@maacenter.org
MAA Center is now on Twitter – follow us @maacenter
Hi Mike,
Awesome blog. Have you ever heard of Carrotmob? It is a way for a small business to go green. One of NYC premier sketch/improv theater’s, The PIT, home to talent from the Daily Show, SNL, and The Office, is going green through a Carrotmob. Basically, consumers are going to the theater for one night where the theater sets aside a percentage of sales for energy efficiency upgrades. The owner of the theater Ali Reza Farahnakian, says that it is a great way to improve the business’s efficiency.
I was wondering if I could post a more detailed story about the event for your readers. Carrotmob.org is part of a larger organization called Virgance.org
Thank you
Andrew
I apologize for posting this inquiry on your comment section, but I am interested in working with you to place advertising on your site. We are a secondary tickets broker web site and would be interested in pursuing a number of options. Our most common form of advertising is a small text ad with three to five links embedded. We have a variety of tickets to shows, concerts, and sporting events and would choose the links that are relevant to your site. We are open to a variety of other forms of advertising as well, including a banner ad and hosted articles.
Please respond if you are interested. I look forward to reading your response.
I wanted to thank you so much for all the helpful information and links you have on this blog concerning EcoTheatre. I recently had to write a research paper on a theatre practice and chose to this topic. This was a humongous help to my sanity and a giant time saver.
Hayleigh
Great Blog!! I’m interested in raising awareness and advocating for green performing arts, and yours is the best resource I’ve found on the topic. I’d love your advice on the best ways to approach advocacy for eco theater!
How can I get your contact info to send a survey being done by my Communications class?
Mike,
As the TD and designer for Dominican University in Chicago, I’m interested in trying to participate in our campus’ sustainability initiative but am not finding a lot of practical help. I’m seeing a lot of policy stuff and good intentions but is there a web forum (or could there be a web forum) where we can all put our heads together and re-invent the wheel together by sharing practical advice like what rechargeable batteries seem to work best in wireless mics, where we are recycling old batteries and materials, what materials we are using to replace the old tried and true materials and techniques we grew up with, that sort of thing.
Any thoughts?
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