Upcoming 'Writer 1272' sprouts eco-friendly theater project

Next week, even Seattle theater will be green. The Lee Center for the Arts will be presenting a student-run "greensquat" production of "Writer 1272."

The phrase "greensquat" essentially means the play will be squatting on the materials from the set of the last production, thus keeping with a "green" sense of sustainability.

Theater faculty adopted the greensquat production idea from recent master of fine arts graduate Steve Galatro.

"It's an exercise in eco-friendly theater, an experiment to see just how green we can go in terms of creating a production," Galatro said.

Typically a theater with limited storage space like the Lee Center is forced to throw away some of the costumes and set designed for specific shows.

For this production, the crew seeks to recycle as much as possible while creating and spending as little as possible.

"We're treating it as if we have a $0 budget," said stage manager Kacey Shiflet.

Rather than receiving a paper ticket, guests who purchase admission will be given a reusable grocery tote bag.

The theater received more than $7,000 in donated merchandise from local eco-friendly companies and plans to have a giveaway before the show. Galatro said there will also be a "free-for-all table where you can load up on products" before entering to see the performance. These products include soaps, organic teas, food products, recycled jewelry and more.

Excepting the playwright and director, the production is entirely student run. Students are acting as production designers, working the front of the house, handling promotions and building anything that needs to be built.

According to Galatro, the production's aim is to accomplish two things: Explore an eco-friendly experiment and support the work of local artists.

The local artist Seattle U chose to support is playwright and director Vincent Delaney, whom Seattle U has commissioned twice in the past.

After being informed of the "green method" restrictions, Delaney was given the opportunity to pick the play the students would use. After seeing the set, he decided on "Writer 1272," a play about the terror of getting into college and "the dark world of college admissions," Delaney said.

The play was written by Delaney and first commissioned professionally two years ago, but this will be Delaney's first experience directing it.

Delaney came up with the idea for "Writer 1272" while teaching in college and dealing with the issue of plagiarism. Looking up anti-plagiarism Web sites, Delaney came across a slew of dodgy sites offering to write papers for a price. It was then that he pondered the possible comedy in all of this.

"What if the customers and the workers who do this don't know it but are actually related to each other?" Delaney said.

Delaney thinks green theater is a practical idea.

"The recession has hit the theater [industry] really hard too, and it encourages artists to be really creative," Delaney said. "Here's what we got, how can we reinterpret it? This theater department is innovative about trying new styles."

Zachary may be reached at zdunn@su-spectator.com