Mason Gross Theatre Productions Have Become More Environmentally Friendly, Thanks to This Senior

Maya Ramdayal is drawn to what she calls the "world-building" aspect of theatre - creating the sets that serve as the habitat for the characters in a play.

As a set design major at Mason Gross School of the Arts, she also has been able to prioritize the environmental impact of her designs, thereby "world-building" in an additional way.

"We throw away a lot," she says. "It's kind of impossible to save everything. Building our own shows, you learn how much waste can happen, but also how much you can recycle."

The Rutgers-New Brunswick senior gets credit for making sustainability part of the planning process for theater at the university, influencing both Mason Gross faculty and her fellow classmates.

"Maya is the first person who really made it a priority and wanted to take action," says David P. Gordon, chair of the theater department and associate professor of scenic design. He says Ramdayal brought the issue to his attention, and he has become more eco-conscious because of her influence.

Sustainability, Ramdayal says, can involve "simple things like using stock platforms when we can." Those platforms because such platforms have interchangeable legs and can be used and re-used at various heights.

Sustainable sourcing for materials, she says, is also key: "We have fabric scraps from a previous show; can we use it? Or can we buy second-hand fabric?" Wood, another material in high demand by set designers, is easily damaged, but Ramdayal said the careful use of screws can prevent pieces from breaking. Mindful care of floorboards from the set Ramdayal designed in her junior year for "God of Vengeance," by Sholem Asch, a main stage show at the Philip J. Levin Theater, resulted in their later use as material in class.

"Being wasteful," she says, "is outdated."

For Rutgers Day, April 25, Ramdayal designed the set for a performance of For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf," by Ntozake Shange. For the set, Ramdayal repurposed textured paper from an earlier production. The cast also used recycled scripts. (Show time is 4:30 p.m. at the Little Theater on the Douglass campus.)

Her classmates agree Ramdayal is leaving her mark at Rutgers, having reshaped the approach to theater.

Ben Levie, lighting designer and senior at MGSA, recalled the painstaking process of selecting appropriate LED lights that would fit their budget as well as their sustainability goals. "I never would have thought to do this if not for Maya, but it turned out the research I needed was so accessible, I just needed to want to look," he says.

"I think that was the biggest thing she gave us, just a reason to try this way of doing things. There were always the tools and the capability, and the team was so on board as soon as she brought it up, but nobody would have put those ideas into action without Maya,'' he says.

Gordon, the theater department chair, says he has been impressed with Ramdayal's growth as a designer over the past four years. "She's really soaked up everything she's learned here," Gordon says, "and has turned into a seriously good designer who not only is able to understand very easily how physical and visual elements work on stage, but also how they and she, as part of the collaborative process, work with all the other parts of the production and the design."

Ramdayal learned about sustainable theatre production during her semester abroad in London in fall 2024, when she and other Mason Gross students studied at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre and the Lyric Hammersmith. "It lit a spark in me," she says, recalling a presentation from a sustainability advocate in London. When she returned to Rutgers and began designing for a production of Hurricane Diane by Madeleine George, a comedy about Dionysius' attempt to save the world from climate change, Ramdayal took the theme of the play as a sign and kept sustainability in mind.

She found resources and guidance through the Broadway Green Alliance, a New York-based organization which aims to reduce the environmental impact of theatre on Broadway, college campuses, and elsewhere. Ramdayal decided Rutgers needed to participate in the initiative, so she became trained as a collegiate Broadway Green Captain.

A guest speaker from the alliance at Ramdayal's Theatre Colloquium class helped spread the message to her peers. "After that talk, interest grew," Ramdayal says. "Sometimes it felt like I was the only one who cared, and then so many people reached out, it was validating."

For her final production, Ruined, by Lynn Nottage, at Jameson Theatre on the Douglass campus in April, she mostly used recycled wood to construct the bar run by the main character. Paints for the set were donated by another scenic shop. Gordon praised Ramdayal's stylized approach to the set for "Ruined" and noted the versatility of the bar, the main physical piece on stage. "The bar breaks apart and can be re-figured into multiple configurations that can then turn it into other spaces and suggest other things," Gordon says, "and that makes the setting much more fluid."

Ramdayal hopes that future students can continue sustainable set design after she graduates. Gordon says there is already interest in following her example. "I'm feeling optimistic that we'll be able to keep this going and sustain Maya's original vision," he says.

She has several recommendations for students who'd like to learn more and do more to help the environment and encourages students to take some of the classes that shaped her vision including "Upcycling: An Artistic Response to the Environmental Effects of Fast Fashion," taught by Denise Wagner, and an online course, "Introduction to Environmental Arts."

She said students also can pursue a minor in Creative Expression and the Environment, through the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences' department of Human Ecology.

Ramdayal intends to continue this mindful approach in her professional life, beginning this summer with a New York City run of Julius Caesar, by Dead Horse Productions, which will be set in a garden.

She says she initially felt awkward being known as the eco-conscious set designer on campus. But now she owns it. "At first it was weird, like, 'Maya is the sustainable person,'" she says. "And now I'm like, 'Yeah, I am. And now you're thinking about it. It's on your radar.'"