So, on top of all the other challenges we face as a small regional theatre company, we now have to face Covid-19. 
This is going to be a death knell to many theatre and film production companies. With (quite nessecarily) theatres closed, and film productions shut down, and us all encouraged to at the minimum socially distance, and if ill (even with a cold) to self isolate. 

As with all other businesses and organisations, it is down to us to help set a good example and not only look after our cast, crew and audience members, but also on a wider scale, to not break the reccomended methods for keeping people safe. 

We have lost our main funding source - the market where we have our book stall is closed. 
Theatres are closed - so we have no shows in rearly spring therefore no Spring earnings for cast & crew 
We cannot meet to make films for festivals - social distancing. 

This does not mean we are finished. FAR from it. We are adapting and developing new temporary ways of working. All work is now happening online. 

- We are rebooking our shows for a time that hopefully life will be starting to get back to normal. 
- We are rehearsing and meeting online using a video-conferencing system called Zoom. (many thanks to the people on Women+ In Theatre for reccomending). Until it is safe, there will be no meetings in person. 
- We are setting up online broadcasting, so that we can live-broadcast Zoom-based readings and other creative work on a "pay what you can" model. 
- We are finding ways that our people can offer their skills online, for a small fee just over UK minimum wage), helping them raise some money for the time being. 
- We are working on funding bids, networking, and preparing all sorts of things to build company publicity, funds (ultimately to find ways to fund full wages for all cast and crew as opposed to profitshare), developing further expertise by online and book study, and networking.   
- We are writing new scripts & training manuals, making new costumes, repairing equipment, and doing all those tasks that we didnt have time to complete before, that can all be done from home with no physical interaction. 
- We are keeping a safe locked online network for our cast and crew to chat and interact, with friends from our productions - helping keep all our mental health together at this incredibly stressful time.

Ultimately, however upsetting and stressful (and absolutely heartbreaking) it is, we will survive this. We will even have developed new things,and  when things are able to get back to normal, we will have used this time as well as possible. We will have the technology to reach many more audiences via online broadcast. We will have maintained interaction and operation.  We will have developed and grown many things. We will be ready to hit the ground running. 

For now, please stay at home if you possibly can, keep well and safe, look after those around you, follow social distancing advice, and do not, whatever you do, give up. This storm will pass. Decide that you WILL emerge victorious, just as we have decided. 

As a general rule, theatre can generate a huge amount of waste - paper from printing, materials from props/ costuming and sets....
When I looked online for useful tips, I found a lot of tips for theatre venues, but not so much for production companies who are not based in any one building. I have seen brilliant things, like the Watermark theatre in Ivybridge, where the building is solar powered, but I have seen less for companies like us.

On a good note, for the simple reason of economy, we have to be eco-friendly. We wouldnt be able to afford to buy in brand new costumes, and new materials for sets and props. Not if we expected to earn any profit from the shows to use to pay our cast and crew. So, by force of circumstance, we have to use second hand items and remade items.
Despite doing high-grade historical and classical theatre; behind the scenes the vast majority of the things we use, are second-hand; we have learned over the years to remake, reuse and recycle.

Charity shops, freecycle, freegle and similar sources become our primary way of being able to create the costume and props for our shows. Very little of such items are bought new, other than consumables like paint, or glue. This is nessecary to save money, but at the same time, also means that most of our shows are created with recycled materials.

Other single use consumables have to be bought new; paper, ink being the promary ones for printing posters, scripts, marketing, letters, etc. In those cases, anything left over can be recycled.

Fundraising wise, we also recycle. We have table top sales to raise funds for rehearsal space- most of the items we sell are either unwanted items  (books/ bric-a-brac/ DVDs etc) cleared out from home, or crafts made from recycled items.

Electrical items get turned off when not in use - so we are saving  both power and money.

Because of having limited "show storage" at our rehearsal hall, consisting of a cupboard, each actor has a costume bag. We have recently made actors tote bags from spare fabric, for actors to keep thier costumes in, rather than using plastic carrier bags.

So, here is what we do with items after a show.

COSTUMES/ FABRIC
We make costumes to last. Unless it is something which has had to be dirtied or ripped apart, costumes are washed and stored away for future use, next time we do a show set in the same historical period.
If something is not worth keeping, there are other uses;  clean fabric can be torn up and saved as cleaning rags. "Dirtied" fabrics  can be washed and put in the green recycling box.

Buttons saved from old items that are being thrown away, are donated to The Naked Sheep, a family-run eco-wool clothing business in Cornwall who in turn help us with advertising.

PAPER & PRINTING
Some paper (posters/ flyers) printed on a single side can be kept as scrap paper for making notes on the blank side; the rest goes into the green bin for recycling.

Items that are useful for paper crafts are given to a local card-maker, to be used in making one-off greetings cards.

We save used ink cartridges for our fundraising and send them off to a company who give us a small donation for each cartridge they can recycle.

SET
If we have set pieces which we are not able to store, they are offered to other grassroots theatre companies, for a small donation, to be used again.

PLASTIC CONTAINERS
If plastic containers have contained food and or something else that is nothing toxic, we save them to grow plants in, to sell on our fundraising stalls for the team. Any surplus gets offered on Freecycle or again put in the green recycling box wherever possible.

BATTERIES
The vast majority are recharagable. Where they are not, one of our team takes them to a recycling point.

As a result, we are proud to say that due to a mixture of nessecity of recycling to be able to simply afford things, and through higher motivations as well, we have almost no landfill wastage from our shows.

I would be ever so interested in other companys approaches to how they recycle and reduce waste.

Laura