WHO WE ARE
Caravan Theatre is a company of creatives who thrive on bringing social issues to the forefront of minds through innovative and challenging theatre. Using our fully mobile, self-reliant converted caravan as our theatre space, we specialise in engaging young adults with hard-to-discuss subjects, such as sexuality and mental health. Harnessing the power of theatre, we aim to illuminate and then electrify our audience into discussion and debate.
Since we began touring in 2015 we’ve toured to over 21 Universities and engaged over 6000 students.
Thanks to the support of Universities, in 2019 we received our first Arts Council England grant. This enabled us to make some much needed caravan refurbishments, making our work far more accessible and developing us as company to become more sustainable.
NEWS
COVID-19 and Caravan Theatre
We have taken the sad but necessary decision not to take the caravan out on tour during 2020. The safety all of our performers and audience are always top priority so for us, it's just not possible.
However, we still want to be working with Universities and engaging students so we're going digital. Universities can now lease each of our films for 1 month (or more) to include as part of their digital engagement around the subject matter, whether that’s part of a training/information session or as a provocation for further discussion. Although this experience isn't live (or in a lovely caravan) I believe each film can still make a significant impact. Also, very sadly a lot of the themes we’ve been discussing over the last few years have become even more pertinent over the last 4 months, especially mental health and hate crime. Prices start from £200 for 1 film for 1 month.
We'd love to help your University with any existing campaigns especially around Consent, Mental Health and Hate Crime. Please do get in touch for more details. If you'd like some further information, please do get in touch.
Touring 2019/20
For 19/20 academic year we had all 3 of our plays touring simultaneously: Can't Touch This, The Time of Your Life and Ninety Four Thousand.
During 6 weeks in September and October we toured to University of Westminster, University of Leicester, De Montfort University, University of Reading, University of Sussex, Plumpton College, Royal Holloway, University of London and University of Essex, reaching over 1,200 students. That means we've engaged over 6,000 students since we began touring 2015!
We turned up, performed 8+ plays a day, created a buzz around the caravan and most importantly, engaged students on those difficult subject matters and provided key information about how their University is supporting them. We also got some incredible comments up on the caravan!
CAN'T TOUCH THIS
Can't Touch This debuted in 2015 and it's had some amazing and powerful reactions along the way. It's a short, sharp look at sexual harassment and consent on a typical night out for students, and what it takes to say no and to be heard.
THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE
The Time of Your Life follows Alex as he battles with stigmas around mental health problems at the same time as trying to identify his own illness. Through the play we aim to open up a dialogue and use it as a platform to disseminate information.
NINETY FOUR THOUSAND
Our brand new play Ninety Four Thousand will be having it's full tour this year after it's successful debut at University of Birmingham. This play concentrates on identifying hate crime and the serious ramifications of small actions of hate.
BBC SOUTH - 27TH SEPT 2019
BBC South was at University of Reading doing a feature on mental health at Universities. As part of raising awareness for mental health issues Caravan Theatre was there with our play, Time of Your Life. Reading University has had us on their campus for three years, helping raise awareness for mental health, consent and hate crime.
ACCESSIBILITY
For our 2019/2020 tour we focused our energy on making our work accessible and thanks to funding from Arts Council England were able to make this happen. This was a much needed step forwards for Caravan Theatre.
d/Deaf and hard of hearing: For those who are hard of hearing or are deaf but with English as their first language, we provided scripts of the plays to be read simultaneously to watching the play. For students or staff who are Deaf (whose first language is British Sign Language) we provided an iPad to watch a BSL interpretation of the play alongside a filmed version of it. This filmed version was also available to watch online through a password protected system.
Wheelchair users: We created an alternative playing space suitable for wheelchair users. This was a blackout marquee, which was situated next to or nearby the caravan and that the play was also performed in. It was fully equipped with its own sound and lighting system.
Blind or visually impaired: We were able to offer live audio description on all performances.
The caravan was also slightly more comfortable – no more wooden benches but instead soft cushioning to help cater for anyone with back pain or general discomfort.
‘The work they do is so vital to allow for mass engagement amongst the student body – not just here at Leicester. They challenge views and improve knowledge and understanding in the most accessible and engaging way. I have had countless students say to me that they wouldn’t normally enjoy theatre but not only did they enjoy the performance, they took a lot from it.’ Harriet Smailes, Wellbeing Officer, University of Leicester
'Completely dynamic, fabulous…I think an incredibly important message but done with enormous artistic credibility in an amazing space.'
Annie Eddington, Theatre Practitioner, University of Essex
