Sustainable Design: Guthrie Theater Summer Camp for Middle Schoolers

Article by Becky Fillinger, photos provided

Photo: Eric Melzer

Art to Change the World, in partnership with the Guthrie Theater, invites students entering grades 6–8 to attend Sustainable Design — a new Guthrie summer camp about making art from recycled and found materials.

Do you know young people interested in theater or saving the environment? That may seem like an odd combination, but keep reading. The Guthrie Theater has a new offering in their summer camp line-up this year – Sustainable Design. Over a one-week period from July 10-14, the students will collect materials from the Guthrie’s backyard along the Mississippi River that would otherwise end up in a landfill or compromise our clean drinking water, and use them to create costumes, props and scenery. We spoke to Alli St. John, Education Program Manager at the Guthrie, and Barbara Bridges, Founder and Director of Art to Change the World, about this innovative summer program.

Q:  What was the impetus to create the Sustainable Design summer camp?

Alli St. JohnAlli:  As we began planning our 2023 summer youth experiences, we wanted to expand our offerings from last year. Our performance camps for middle schoolers are very popular, but we didn’t offer any non-performance-based camps for the age group. After meeting with Barbara Bridges and Kelly Frankenberg from Art to Change the World (ACW) to learning about their goals and values, we identified a summer camp as an opportunity to serve both organizations’ goals. Our inspiration came from the original Broadway production of Peter and the Starcatcher, which won multiple Tony Awards for its sustainable design work in its costumes, props and scenery. Our Sustainable Design camp will run in tandem with a middle school musical theater camp, creating production elements for those students to utilize in their final sharing at the end of camp. We know there are many young people passionate about climate change solutions, so we are excited to offer an opportunity to merge that initiative with the Guthrie’s mission to create exceptional theater with a commitment to our home in Minnesota.

Q:  Can you please tell us more about Green Theater? Will the Minneapolis Green Theater Alliance participate in the summer camp?

A:  Our lead teaching artist for the camp, Sadie Ward, is the Executive Director of the Minneapolis Green Theatre Alliance (as well as a member of ACW). While the alliance itself is not directly involved in the camp, Sadie brings with her invaluable experience as a theater designer and community organizer around the Green Theatre movement. Green Theatre, as a practice, prioritizes sustainable efforts to limit the creation of waste in the theater-making process. The goal is to use found or recycled objects or to provide a second life to previously used theater materials which would otherwise been thrown away

Sadie WardQ:  Do students need any background in theater or environmentalism to participate?

A:  All of our summer youth experiences are accessible for first-time theater-makers! While no experience is necessary to participate in Sustainable Design, we hope students will come with an interest in learning more about how to be cognizant of our individual and collective impact on our environment while gaining experience in theatre design fundamentals.

Q:  How will the week be structured?

A: Barbara and Kelly from ACW will join us the first day of camp to facilitate a workshop about their previous sustainable art projects. This will give students inspiration for what is possible before they go down to the Guthrie’s backyard which features the Mississippi River. Students will learn how to safely collect items from the river and riverbank that will be cleaned and used as crafting material for the week. The rest of the week will invite students to think creatively about how “trash” can become art. Another middle school camp, Making a Musical, will run in tandem with Sustainable Design. These camps will collaborate with each other, and by the end of the week, our design students will see their creations on the Guthrie stage in the final performance of the musical theatre camp.

Q:  What is your desired outcome of the week?

A:  Our hope for this camp is that students will feel empowered to make sustainable choices as artists and citizens of the planet. I also feel that it’s valuable to offer technical theater education opportunities. I hope that our students find an appreciation for the technical elements of the theater-making process- it takes more than actors to make theatre!

Q:  How do students register for the program?

Students can register by visiting the Summer Camps page on the Guthrie website. We also offer the option to add on a boxed lunch, as well as scholarships. I’m also happy to help families register directly if they need assistance or have any questions. Email me at alli.stjohn@guthrietheater.org.

Barbara BridgesWe also wanted to hear from Barbara Bridges on the project.

Q:  Congratulations on partnering with the Guthrie on Sustainable Design! When I read the program name, I knew that Art to Change the World must be involved. Please tell us how ACW will be involved in the summer camp.

Barbara: The Mississippi Watershed and Management Organization Stewardship Fund Community grant supported 10 people selected from the larger MWMO neighborhood population, to meet, collect trash along the Mississippi and participate in an immersive curriculum unit which was collaboratively developed by me and the participants themselves. So, we have experience in this type of creative, sustainable activity.

ACW will join the Sustainable Design Guthrie summer camp and talk about the making of the Mississippi River Pearl. Kelly Frankenberg will lead a Land Message in a Bottle activity and a river pick up. The middle school participants will collect objects to incorporate in their stage and costume camp during the week of July 10-14.  

Q:  Will these students be the youngest you’ve worked with at ACW? 

Barbara:  Yes, the Sustainability Design project will be ACW’s first programming project with middle schoolers. I was a K-12 art teacher for 20 years, and Kelly was also a teacher. We are excited to discover sustainable design possibilities with the Guthrie summer camp students.

Q:  Do you have other partnerships on the horizon?

Barbara:  Oh yes, ACW is a collective. We currently have partnership projects in motion with Haven Housing, Harriet Tubman and Emma Norton Transformational Housing facilities, Solar Arts Studios, Grand Hand Gallery, the Mississippi Watershed and Management Organization (MWMO), and are in design stage discussions with several others. Follow our calendar of events at Art to Change the World.