Mike Lawler is a writer and theater artist. His life in the theater has taken him around the United States and found him toiling in the trenches of technical theater, including as a master electrician, scenic carpenter, shop foreman, stagehand, scenic painter, crew supervisor, stage manager, and even dog wrangler. After years of working in regional theaters across the country he now lives in Madison, Wisconsin with his wife Dawn and their two cats, Sophie & Jana (aka Belos, El Diablo Blanco, and Nudgenator), where he is now the production manager of Children’s Theater of Madison.

His first book, Careers in Technical Theater, is now available from Allworth Press.

Mike has dubbed his current project ecoTheater , which finds him striving to bring a stronger ecological ethic to the theater. He has spent more than a year interviewing theater leaders, managers, technicians and visionaries about the idea of a more sustainable theater. He hopes to compile the information he is gathering for his second book–a project that aims to bring together art and sustainability for the good of both the artist and the communities in which they work. To keep up with Mike’s ongoing notes on the project check out Mike’s evolving blog, ecoTheater, and check out the ecoTheater April-July 2007 Archives page (before it moved to WordPress). Also, look for his essay this September in American Theatre on the subject of sustainability in theater production.