April 2022 - Parks & Recreation - 12

WE ARE PARKS AND RECREATION
The 'Carnival of Ruin': Raising the Curtain
on Public Sustainability Efforts
By Jason Lang, MS, CPRE
W
hat if we could engage an entire community with an artistic
experience that simultaneously elevated sustainability
awareness? Three West Chester University professors -
maria urrutia, Gretchen Studlien-Webb and Constance
Case - had long championed sustainability efforts in their personal lives
and envisioned a theatrical performance with sustainability at its core.
From this vision, the " Carnival of Ruin " was born.
The play follows a carnival barker,
Charlie Boggs, as he arrives in town,
carelessly littering before leaving without
a thought of what he left behind.
He is met by a fortuneteller, who speaks
of his imminent doom if he does not
begin understanding the errors of
his ways. In the final, emotionallycharged
scene, Charlie ventures down
to the polluted water's edge to find
the love of his life, a mermaid named
Virginia Waters, covered in single-use
plastics and garbage while writhing in
pain. That's when he finally gets it. A
lifetime of living without sensitivity to
his environment has caused Charlie
to lose the love of his life.
The Making of the
Carnival of Ruin
The creativity of the " Carnival of
Ruin " experience began with the
performance dialogue, but sparkled
like a million bright lights in the
costuming and staging. Echoing the
message of sustainability, every performer's
costume was made from
100 percent post-consumer waste.
Echoing the " Carnival
of Ruin " play's message
of sustainability, every
performer's costume was
made from 100 percent
post-consumer waste.
For example, the mermaid's tail was
made from recycled green soda cans
and Charlie's vest was woven from
soda can tabs and fabric scraps. Every
carnival has a big top, and this
one was made from 8,000 single-use
plastic bags that were braided into
" plarn " (plastic yarn) before being
woven into white and red panels
over the course of 350 hours.
To accomplish an experience of
this magnitude in a public setting,
the " Carnival of Ruin " creators
partnered with the East Goshen
Township Department of Parks and
Recreation, a gold-level certified
sustainable community in eastern
Pennsylvania that serves 18,000 residents
and has a well-documented
history of delivering outside-the-box
programming. " Carnival of Ruin "
debuted in the park with two free
public shows. Park and recreation
department staff went to work, getting
the residents excited for the performance
and enlisting residents to
donate their " garbage " that would
become art. Department staff collected
everything from plastic bags
to soda cans to cat litter containers
that would anchor the big top posts.
To keep the momentum going and
to further drive home sustainability
education, a series of six public
service announcements (PSAs) was
created. These starred Charlie and
the township director of parks and
recreation, and covered topics, like
" Recycle this, not that " and " Keeping
our streams clean starts in our front
lawns. " These were quick-hitting nug12
Parks & Recreation | APRIL 2 0 22 | PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
PHOTO COURTESY OF EAST GOSHEN PARKS AND RECREATION
April 2022 - Parks & Recreation

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