BWW Blog: Dalton Allison - An Eco-Friendly and Eye Appealing Set? Only at the Palace

Nestled in the lakeside community of Netcong, New Jersey sits The Palace Theater, home of the Growing Stage Theater. When attending a main stage production, you'll not only watch a high-quality show, but also see an elaborate set designed by Perry Kroeger and Stephen Fredricks. The only thing more astonishing than the set is what the set is made of-cardboard. You may be asking yourself, How can such a flimsy material be chosen as the main material on set? Executive Director Stephen Fredricks explains. "Honestly the inspiration came from the cost of buying wood. At the time the theatre couldn't afford sheets of plywood and other such materials, so we needed to find an affordable alternative. Perry Kroeger and I would visit all the area appliance stores on Thursdays - right after they had their deliveries for the weekend sales. Refrigerator and mattress containers were gold! We called it our weekly dumpster diving exercise. In time we discovered a company that sold cardboard in 4'x 8' sheets and then rest is history."

What's impressive about the cardboard is that not only is it easy to work with as an artistic medium, but also the lifetime that it lives at the theater. "On average a piece parsed down throughout the season, but if Perry and (I) know the show will be returning the following season or is a part of our company's canon we make sure that piece is built to last." says Fredricks.

It is rare for anything to last long in the world of theater, so for a simple piece of cardboard to last an entire season is rather impressive. Not only is it a cost saving matter, but also it helps the environment out. With reusing the cardboard, it stops the theater from contributing to the large amounts of packaging pollution in the Earth, which accounts for one third of all pollution on the Earth, according to the EPA. And when they can't reuse a piece? "Wednesday is recycling day here in Netcong and we're contributors to the cause!" says Fredricks.

When asked what his favorite cardboard creation was, Stephen Fredricks recalled vividly "I think it's the owl puppet that Perry created out of cardboard that had a base that looked like a log that fit over the performers arm for THE NEVERENDING STORY. In fact, that entire production had puppets and set pieces made of cardboard. It was magic and one of the reasons we chose to bring the production back for our 35th Anniversary celebration!"

You can see another wonderful cardboard set design currently on display at The Growing Stage this weekend, where Peter and The Starcatcher is in its final weekend of performances.