Meet the Associate Artists

Our Associate Artists are new, mid-career or established artists and companies who are developing and making theatrical work in the North West of the UK. Over a period of 18 months, we at The Dukes support those artists to reach their goals and aspirations.

Here are our new Associate Artists!

Theatre maker and writer

Andy Smith is an acclaimed theatre-maker based in Lancaster. His most recent works include the plays The Preston Bill (2015), SUMMIT (2018), and  COMMONISM (2018), made with the Norwegian artist Amund Sjølie Sveen. He has also recently collaborated with Irish company brokentalkers on HEROES OF TOMORROW, which appeared as part of Dublin Theatre Festival this year. Andy has also collaborated with the theatre maker Tim Crouch since 2004, co-directing (along with Karl James) a number of Tim’s plays including An Oak Tree, The Author and most recently Truth's A Dog Must To Kennel. 

For the last six years he has been developing a longer form project called PLAYS FOR THE PEOPLE. Rather than be performed by actors for an audience, these short works are for audiences and groups of people to meet and read together. Each play aims to present ideas, questions and dilemmas around their themes, encourage discussion between participants. The latest and most ambitious of these works, created in collaboration with Lynsey O’Sullivan, is A CITIZENS' ASSEMBLY, which tells a story about a group of people meeting to discuss the climate emergency.

He is a part-time lecturer in theatre practice at the University of Manchester.

Ruth Cockburn & Keith Taylor 

BLACK LIVER are performance artist and poet Ruth Cockburn and comedian and musician Keith Carter. Ruth is from Blackpool. Keith is from Liverpool. Hence - Black Liver.

Black Liver have been a professional touring company since 2021; They have gained a reputation as being one of the most in demand companies on the rural touring network, they won the BBC Radio 4 Drama Award in 2024, The Children&Young People Now Award in 2024 and were nominated Best Theatre Production for their latest play, ‘Rogues’ Gallery’ at the Buxton Arts Festival in 2026. Their number of bespoke commissions range from Spot On Lancashire, The Library Project, Arts Alive, The Literacy Trust, Head Start, Blackpool’s Art B&B and Showtown Museum.

They were commissioned to run the first comedy festival for Blackpool in 2025, are comedians in residence for Showtown Museum and have been asked to perform ‘Rogues’ Gallery’ alongside famed artist, Linder, for her retrospective at The Grundy Art Gallery this year.

Black Liver’s main objective is a full night of entertainment and so create shows that are satirical, fun, socially relevant and reflect the audiences they tour to.

As heard on BBC Radio 4 and seen on BBC 1 and Sky TV.

'One of the most exciting theatre companies to come out of Lancashire' Spot On.

Helen Katamba & Jez Mort

Common or Garden Theatre are a new theatre company formed to produce original plays made in Lancaster with local actors and artists.

We are fans of folk music and folk arts and believe that theatre has been and can continue to be a folk art itself.  We hope to perform shows that move audiences, are socially relevant, and are appealing to people of all backgrounds.  

DROVE is Common or Garden Theatre’s first production and will be performed by eight local actors and explores life in a northern village. It is a live audio performance with music and sound arranged by a local musician and is influenced by folk songs and legends.

Jez first drafted DROVE in 2021 and it has been reworked and developed extensively including feedback from local actors, as well as audience members who saw an extract of it at Blastfest at The Dukes in June.

Helen became an actor in 2015. Her credits include; The National Theatre, Fiery Angel, Disaster Plan, Northern Stage, The Dukes, The Lyceum, The Traverse, Citizens Theatre, BBC, ITV and Baby Cow.  DROVE is Helen’s first full length show as director which she is excited to be bringing to her home town.

We are grateful to have received support for DROVE from public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.

Drove will be performed at The Storey from 18-20 November. Tickets £10/pay what you decide, available from Trybooking.com https://www.trybooking.com/uk/...

Artist and Creative Practitioner

Emma is a Lancaster-based artist/creative practitioner, who has a wide range of professional credits for directing, writing, performing and facilitating. Emma has particular interests in Shakespeare, verbatim theatre, audio drama, all-famale theatre and new writing and she has devised and directed countless shows with professional performers and community groups, which have been performed in theatres, libraries, castles, stately homes, parks, festivals, on street corners and more. She has also adapted a range of texts for performance and written a number of short and full-length plays. Passionate about inclusive theatre, she has worked on projects/performances in a wide range of community and other settings, including with young offenders, the Gypsy Romany Traveller community, the homeless, care home residents and resettled refugees and asylum seekers. She is Head of Outreach for Blackpool-based inclusive theatre company TramShed Theatre and Lead Maker for Lancaster Fun Palace. More details of her work can be found at www.elartproductions.co.uk and/or by following @elartpro on instagram and ELART Productions on facebook.

 founder of URBANconceptz Theatre

Ryan Harston is a multidisciplinary artist, performer, and director creating bold, physical, and visually driven work at the intersection of theatre, dance, hip-hop, and technology.

With more than 20 years as a professional performer, Ryan’s practice has been shaped by an unconventional mix of disciplines from breaking, contemporary dance and parkour to puppetry, mask, circus, and spoken word. He is interested in what happens when these forms collide, using physicality not simply as movement, but as a way of telling stories, revealing character and exploring identity.

Ryan is the founder of URBANconceptz Theatre and has created and directed work for theatre and screen, working with artists and organisations including the National Theatre, Barbican and Eclipse Theatre. His performance credits span theatre, television and film.

His current practice is increasingly centred on creating ambitious, socially engaged work rooted in lived experience. He is the creator of STOLEN, a new immersive physical theatre work exploring transracial adoption, identity, culture, belonging and the complexities of being shaped by both who we are and how others see us.

writer, actor and theatre maker

Laura is a writer, actor and theatre maker originally from Wigan. Most recently, her play 'Spring' was awarded ACE R&D funding and she's continuing to develop it through her theatre company, Rootstock Theatre. She has an MA in scriptwriting from Manchester School of Writing and is a long term associate practitioner with experimental theatre company imitating the dog. Laura has also written & performed her own work - Decision Makers, a play about the UK benefits system, and Lost in Memories, a piece about dementia, supported by the Wellcome Trust. 

Laura is interested in examining our relationship with nature through the medium of theatre, which she explores through both her scripts and her Substack, ‘The Gardening Playwright’. Laura is so thrilled to become an Associate Artist at The Dukes and looks forward to developing her work and practice there. 

Theatre maker, artist and facilitator

Miranda Prag is a theatre maker, artist, facilitator and boat dweller with a practice that spans performance, installation, sculpture and sound. Her work looks at big themes on a minute scale, unpacking the building blocks of everyday life and questioning concepts that are often taken for granted. Her show An Attempt to Lose Time toured throughout 2023-2025 and won Best Theatre in the Adelaide Fringe Weekly Awards 2024. She is co-founder and director of Mainspring Arts, an organisation that facilitates projects, spaces and communities made by, with and for neurodivergent creatives.