Leave the Light on for Me and Climate Change
“Conversations about the climate crisis are largely confined to the white middle classes. People with learning disabilities and autism are often left out of these conversations along with other community groups.”
This year sees the exciting development of Mind the Gap’s next touring production, Leave the Light on for Me – a new outdoor family theatre show which will be touring to UK festivals in the summer. This playful, creatively accessible show will invite audiences to engage with universal human stories about climate change, make the issues feel relevant and encourage hope for change and act as a call to action.
Discussion around climate change is everywhere at the moment, including right here at Mind the Gap. We have been facilitating discussions between staff, artists and students to gain a better understanding of the subject and how we all need to play our part to reduce the impact that we’re having on the planet.
“Conversations about the climate crisis are largely confined to the white middle classes. People with learning disabilities and autism are often left out of these conversations along with other community groups. For this show, Mind the Gap is exploring the climate crisis from the perspective of those who are left out. We are going to work with lots of different people to look at the climate crisis together and present our responses in the show. By doing this, we are turn ourselves from indifferent receivers to active players.” – Joyce Nga Yu Lee, Artistic Director
Mind the Gap has signed up to the Theatre Green Book Sustainable Productions baseline standard for Leave the Light on for Me, so we’ll be designing our set and costumes by re-using, recycling and repurposing. We’ll also be thinking about travel and how we can reduce our carbon footprint on all aspects of the production.
Artists involved in the production have also started to make real changes in their own lives too:
“I have stopped eating as much meat and I am not eating red meat at all. I check the country of origin of food products and only buy things that are produced in the UK and Europe, and I don’t eat dark chocolate anymore because of its carbon footprint.” – Alison Colborne
“I have reduced the amount of time I spend in the shower, I only fill the kettle for one cup of tea at a time, I have turned the temperature of the heating down to 17 degrees and I only put the lights on when it’s dark.” – JoAnne Haines
We are working with some great people and organisations on the project to help us deepen and inform our thinking on climate change:
- Friends of the Earth to signpost resources to help us understand how we can better protect the natural world and find solutions to environmental problems.
- Jen Dyer from Priestley International Centre for Climate, University of Leeds on a research programme, capturing the voices and ideas of people who are normally left out of climate action conversations.
- We are taking part in the Julie’s Bicycle programme for International Touring and Environmental Responsibility.
As part of the project, we are offering workshops to groups to find out what they think about climate change. If you are interested in booking a workshop for your group, please contact Jess Boyes using the contact form below.
Leave the Light on for Me is an Unlimited Commission.
