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ABOUT US

Ramps On The Moon is enriching the stories we tell and the way we tell them by normalising the presence of deaf and disabled people both on and off stage.

Led by New Wolsey Theatre, Ipswich, Ramps on the Moon brings together a collaborative network of six National Portfolio Organisation theatres: Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Nottingham Playhouse, Leeds Playhouse, Sheffield Theatres and strategic partner Graeae Theatre.

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Together we:

Share learnings between partners and across the industry – you can find some of those lessons here, work with the ‘Agents for Change’ within each partner theatre, make productions that reflect society back at itself, educate audiences on what to expect and ultimately give the industry as a whole, permission to take risks.

Please watch our Director for Change Michèle Taylor talk about Ramps on the Moon in the video below. You can watch without captions here and the BSL version here.

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We know there isn’t one way of making a sea change.

We also know that the work we do as a collective will enable theatre buildings and workforces to break down barriers to those who may think theatre isn’t for them.

Each organisation has committed to a programme of organisational change including:

  • Embedding deaf and disabled people throughout their organisations.
  • Putting access and inclusion on the agenda of all meetings.
  • Creating long term employment and training opportunities for deaf and disabled people
  • Committing core production expenditure to the project, alongside the specific additional project funding.
  • Acting as a hub within its own region to disseminate experience, information and good practice.

Ramps on the Moon Productions

Every year, one of the Ramps on the Moon consortium partners leads on the production of a large scale touring piece of theatre which is creatively exciting and ensures everybody has a place both on and off stage.

The commitments that Ramps on the Moon partners make for each production are:

  • A roughly equal mix of deaf, disabled and non-disabled performers within a large cast.
  • An epic piece of ensemble theatre, likely to include music, which will appeal to a
    mainstream audience.
  • A production with an extraordinary, and eye-catching, scale and ambition.

  • Integrated accessibility, in terms of audio description, BSL interpretation, captioning and audio description included in the aesthetic and embedded creatively in the production from the very earliest stages.

"As someone that is registered blind, I don't want to go to the theatre and see, a sighted actor and a sighted director tell me how difficult life is for a blind person..."

Ben Wilson, Agent for Change, Sheffield Theatres
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Integral to the creation of each production are the following:

  • A casting process that allows all theatres in the consortium to contribute to and learn from.
  • An integrated creative team of deaf, disabled and non-disabled practitioners.
  • Learning and development opportunities for deaf and disabled people to enhance their skills in theatre production (creative assistant opportunities).
  • Toolkits developed for audience development and participation programmes to increase deaf and disabled audiences and participants.
  • Comprehensive evaluation processes and sharing of best practice between consortium partners and across the industry.

We’re looking forward to creating more work very soon. Due to COVID-19 restrictions we had to put our most recent tour of Oliver Twist on hold, but that hasn’t stopped us from sharing lessons learned and stories amongst partners. You can find useful resources here that we hope will help your productions, audience development, recruitment, casting and marketing campaigns too.

Agents for Change

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Agents for Change support partner theatres to achieve organisational change by:

1.

Embedding deaf, disabled and learning disabled people throughout their organisations

2.

Putting access and inclusion at the heart of the organisation

3.

Creating long term employment and training opportunities for deaf and disabled people

4.

To ensure opportunities for deaf, disabled and learning disabled theatre makers

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Ramps People

Meet our team of Agents

If you'd like to get in touch with Ramps on the Moon, please use the form below and we'll direct your enquiry to the appropriate person. If you have someone in mind, here are the key contacts for you:

Aisling Gallagher

Head and shoulders photo of Aisling Gallgher - Agent for Change. Aisling is a white person and is smiling at the camera, is wearing a red tshirt and has blonde curly, shoulder length hair.

Michèle Taylor

Michèle Taylor profile picture

Jamie Beddard

Jamie Beddard profile picture, Jamie is smiling and looking directly at the camera. You can see his head and shoulders, he is wearing a light brown tshirt.

Ben Wilson

Ben Wilson

Paul Wilshaw

Paul Wilshaw profile picture

Bethany Steventon-Crinks

a black and white image of Beth who has short blonde hair, glasses and is smiling directly into the camera
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About Us

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There are going to be plenty of ways to get involved with An Agent for Change across the country as more Agents for Change positions are created more opportunities will arise. This is an exciting time for the development of access and this is your chance to get involved!

If you would like to submit an article from elsewhere, blog post about an experience you have had (positive or negative!) or even a video of something you have seen that helps tell our story of change, you can do it here. Please make your stories compelling and shareable, relevant and provocative, and we’ll do the rest.

Enter the title of your article. Try to keep this descriptive yet short.
Enter a short introduction to your article, summarising what the article is about.
Enter the link to your content. If the content is not currently available online, please user a suitable sharing service, eg Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox etc