Miami University seniors Lauren Lewis and Minh Nguyen won the BGA’s 2024 College Green Captain Award through their dedication to sustainability during their spring production of Puffs. They welcomed the challenge of this technically demanding show as a part of their senior capstone project that sought to investigate the current awareness of sustainability and sustainable production practices within Miami University’s Department of Theatre production season.

First, they gathered around 15 scholarly sources in an annotated bibliography to establish context for their project. With IRB approval, their next steps in their research involved surveying, interviewing, and observing the practices of Puff’s production team. The survey aimed to assess their knowledge of sustainability-related terms, understanding of their work’s impacts on the environment, and discover the barriers to sustainability in their specific production role and educational setting. The interviews allowed Lewis and Nguyen to have in-depth conversations with the survey participants about the already existing sustainable practices at Miami University, their lingering sustainability questions, and how they approach the balance between sustainability and artistic vision. Using the BGA College Green Captain Toolkit, they audited the sustainable practices of the production team during shops and production meetings.

During their opening night reception, they piloted composting and the Hefty ReNew Program in partnership with Miami’s Office of Sustainability. During the run of the show, they displayed infographics that touched on the sustainability “magic” of the show. During their time with this show, they began designing a guidebook to share with departmental leadership and students that outlines feasible steps toward production sustainability and answers questions asked to faculty during this project such as, “is it more sustainable to order from Amazon or drive to Cincinnati to shop?” It will also include information about community circular economy partners, such as Thread Up Oxford, with whom the costume shop has already built a relationship.