About
"We are the HandleBards, cycling Shakespearean actors who carry all of our set, props and costumes on the back of our bikes, performing extremely energetic, charmingly chaotic and environmentally sustainable Shakespeare plays across the UK. The HandleBards began with a sense of adventure, a love of Shakespeare and a nifty little pun. Since four fearless friends (Paul Moss, Callum Cheatle, Tom Dixon and Callum Brodie) pedalled Twelfth Night to twenty UK venues in 2013, we have grown to become an internationally renowned theatre company, bringing our uniquely irreverent brand of Shakespeare to audiences all over the globe."
Mission Statement
"The HandleBards aim to create high quality and accessible theatrical productions of classic texts which tour to communities across the world, with environmental sustainability and adventure at the heart of everything that we do."
Ways that the HandleBards has already practiced “green” theatre
"The main thing would be the fact that we (generally) travel from venue to venue on bikes! However, we're always striving to do more. Main focus at the moment is finding green alternatives to other travel (as we do fly, use vans etc. on occasion), and how we can advocate for greener travel for our audiences. On top of this, we print as little paper publicity as we can, relying a lot on digital media, and we recycle set, props and costumes as often as we can!"
Ways that the HandleBards has already used their productions to highlight local or global ecological issues
"We advocate for greener travel and healthy living, and are pushing for audiences to have a closer connection to their environment by attending more outdoor events."
What are the HandleBards's eco-theatrical goals and aspirations for the future? What do they want to work on and achieve? What kind of help and advice would be useful to them?
"We are hoping to set up a large scale tree-planting scheme, focused around the building of an outdoor theatre space in Sheffield. In this way we hope to give a home to 'greener' theatre, and give people a closer connection to the natural world by staging exciting and interesting events in these environments."
