The commonly held definition of the verb “upcycle” goes something like “to reuse something in such a way as to create an item of higher value than the original.” (I am especially into upcycling textiles, because they’re hard to recycle and because I can sew.)
In today’s climate crisis, we upcycle to manage resources more responsibly and to keep things out of the landfill. We can repurpose, buy secondhand, buy sustainably manufactured products, make do with less, and use up the mountain of crap we already have. We can avoid exploiting people and natural resources by reinventing and redesigning things that are already made.
In theatre, we can upcycle, too. We can certainly engage in sustainable production practices, but we can also upcycle the cultural gifts other storytellers have already given. So many great stories have been told. Some have endured, and others have been discarded. Sometimes we have good reasons for discarding a story. Do we strive for redundancy? Should I describe how racist our classical canon is? Yet we have problems when we forget about—discard—something just because it’s old. We have a cultural landfill. We throw cultural assets in our landfill that we could save and pass down. Even good things degrade.
What consequences do we suffer as a result of filling our cultural landfill? Well, I do wish more people still learned how to sew; that’s one skill many have discarded. Unfortunately, some of our other losses are much more frightening. All we need to do is check out our students’ skill levels in reading, writing, math, speech, listening, and social-emotional well-being. If, after looking at how our students are doing, we are still brave enough to ask how our teachers are handling things, that’s scary, too.
Please take this leap with me: the arts can mitigate these losses. Studies have shown it repeatedly. Personal experience has engraved it on my heart. Students don’t succeed when there’s an absence of creative expression in their lives. Students who make it a habit to read, question, enact, problem-solve, play, feel, risk, and strive do better. Theatre offers us a venue for all of these and more.
Theatre has that rare ability to combine learning with music, art, literature, poetry, dance, design, psychology, engineering, and communication. It encourages students to voice their truth. It’s the ultimate tool. American theatre has problems, and sometimes it drives me crazy, but I do know its transformative power.
Many people apply the proverb “There is nothing new under the sun” to all forms of storytelling. (By the way, that phrase is borrowed from the King James Bible, which is borrowed from Latin, which is borrowed from Hebrew, so that whole legacy almost proves its own point.) Yet in making and doing theatre, we preserve tradition and innovate simultaneously. In reality, we already upcycle plays.
Life on this spinning rock is too changeable and unpredictable for that proverb to resonate. We have so many original, bright, clever, innovative contemporary writers. I’m not sure I’m one of them, but 1) my experiences have set me on this path, and 2) I have faith in our younger generations. I hope my past, and our collective stories, will embolden and empower present and future creators.
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