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The first day I introduced sustainability in my Drama lesson of year 9 students, I was met with a rude shock. None of the students understood the reason why they had to learn SDGs and how sustainability was connected or even related to Theatre.

I heard questions like:

Sir, why are we doing this?

Sir, we have a lot of assignments and this is not related to the unit of the study.

Sir, how shall we connect Bertold Brecht and Augusto Boal to sustainability?

We were studying Protest Theatre zeroing in on Sarafina using techniques from Augusto Boal and Bertold Brecht as well as having dance and stage movements inspired by Complicite under physical Theater Movement. How would protest theatre be connected to Sustainability issues? Hahaha! Beautiful questions indeed.

Wait, during my training, I had gone through this; these exact questions mirrored what I had learnt. Some light was shed on the fact that Education lacks exactly what we need to make this world a better place, an awesome space just like we found it. We have taken so many years to destroy it, and the one place that can empower us in making it superb does not really care about it. So, if we were truly kind, caring and compassionate human beings, just like the ethos and core values in our institutions, why wouldn’t we create lessons, lesson plans and unit plans that help make the place we walk on a better place than we found it? Our planet- The Earth is definitely in dilemma!

And yes, this knowledge can be taught even in Drama and Theatre studies. Because think about it; everything we use for rehearsals and stage performances comes from natural resources that we deplete without care. We stage performances to audiences who believe in our intricate stories that have twisted plots and endings full of suspense. The audience loves seeing beautiful lighting on-stage, well-crafted costumes and props that are beyond our imagination. We are so engrossed in making our audience have fun and travel through a journey of impeccable catharsis that we even forget to inform them of taking care of their environment, wellbeing, their economy and definitely have policies within the society that create this awareness.

Ideas like recycling, sustainable energy, re-used water, recycled props and costumes, sound proofed stage spaces could be genius concepts seen in our performances that can enhance or inspire every individual’s (in the audience) in put in transforming their personal homes and spaces and hence together we walk through this journey of sustainability.

With that, I started my difficult process by introducing the concept of fieldwork and creating unique questions that would guide students to get the right answers around the connection of SDGs and theatre. What can we do in Theatre or drama for us to practice or carry out processes that enhance sustainability within the drama realm? The students’ feedback around costumes, props, lights and rehearsal processes was overwhelming. The students were later able to place all the SDGs within the Sustainable Compass with great ease.

Findings from the field work:

Teacher 1

• Recycle costumes for future plays
• Recycle stage material
• Create props from waste materials
• Create costumes from waste materials

Teacher 2

• Use solar lights for stage lighting
• Use smoking machines that can not harm human beings

Teacher 3

• Have themes of sustainability within the plays or the ticket sales can be projected towards groups dealing with sustainability hence empowering such groups
• Use papyrus reeds for props
• Use solar microphones and walkie talkies during productions and rehearsals
• Use soft copy scripts
• Project images scenes on stage instead of building set design for scene changes

Looking at this feedback from the field work, I was full of smiles. But wait, did all these teachers work and teach using these ideas and concepts? NO. Why? It is because we have left the concepts and ideas behind sustainability to other companies and NGOs. We think it is not our initiative to do so- it’s none of our business. The teachers know what to do to protect our resources and environment and ensure proper wellbeing for everyone but are quite concerned with the curriculum and teaching the subject, forgetting that these students are the future leaders and we need the world intact for them to even lead anyways. What can we do? Empower the leaders in our schools to take up the system thinking tools and reinforce them in all our classrooms and areas of knowledge. Let each subject teacher think of how to cover the SDGs in their subject and start with smaller practices of reinforcing sustainability ideas in our students. Once this becomes a practice in our lesson plans and unit plans, then it becomes a system that nobody can beat, and this way the practices will trickle down into our homes, our countries and the world at last. That means in our lesson plans, we will be able to see: Causal Loop Diagrams, Systems Iceberg, Behavior Over Time Graphs, Sustainability Compass and the System Triangle Games.

This led my students to carry out a discussion session in several lessons, asking themselves questions: if we carried out specific actions in Drama, productions or during our rehearsals, what would happen? They used the Causal Loop Diagram, and the product was amazing. By simply having a discussion with causes and effects, they were already empowering their minds with ideas about sustainability.

The attached images showcase their findings, and with that, they were ready to write their script, which will be a 15-minute performance that will capture sustainability practices but using techniques learnt from Bertold Brecht, Augusto Boal and Physical Theatre. The story will be told by a narrator to make it even more enticing, acted by a cast and watched by a live audience.

I am in awe as I wait to see how this will unfold and the response of the audience through a forum theatre session.