The Detroit Opera House and University of Michigan faculty and students will collaborate over the coming years to find ways to make the opera house’s productions more sustainable. The collaboration aims to make the opera house’s productions use less resources and be better for the environment, without compromising artistic quality.
Sarah Oliver, n associate professor of theatre and drama at the U of M School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, and Shelie Miller, a professor of sustainable systems at the School of Environment and Sustainability, will collaborate with graduate students and the staff of the Detroit Opera House on the project. It is funded by a grant from the Graham Sustainability Institute.
Oliver said she is excited to see her team’s work featured in the opera house’s programming in the opera season that starts next year.
“The really exciting thing, I think, with this project is that it's built into Detroit Opera's season during '27 and '28, where it's going to be themed on sustainability,” she said. “So that means that there is an opportunity for implementation.”
The theme for the current 2025-26 season is “America.” The theme for 2026-27 will be “Faith,” followed by a “Sustainability” themed season in 2027-28, where the work from the collaboration will be piloted.
Oliver said beyond looking for ways the opera house can use less resources, the collaboration will also share the message of sustainability with audiences.
“We're not only looking at waste and logistics and energy use, but we're really looking to see how the sustainable practices within production and how we can offer them solutions for that, but also tell the narrative and the story to their audience,” she said.
Oliver and her team will be looking at all aspects of the opera house’s production, she said. Once they get a full picture, they will look to see where improvements can be made, and then will present their findings to the Detroit Opera House team.
“We are going to look at everything from how sets are built, operations within the opera house, logistics, of course, of running a historic building, but how could they shift their practices within like reuse and modular sets, efforts to collaborate and co-produce with other opera companies,” she said.
“It's not just behind the scenes work, it's going to be shared widely, which I think is really exciting,” said Oliver.
Editor's note: The University of Michigan holds Michigan Public’s broadcast license.
