Since May of this year the Creative Communities Department has been supported by three amazing students from Lancaster University. Sami (FASS internship), Holly (FASS Internship) and Joe (MAKE Placement) worked across various projects such as Young Company, Prime Time and Young Carers as part of their ongoing study. Now as that time sadly comes to an end they each reflected on their work at the Dukes with some insightful blogs.  

Joe Tresise - MAKE Placement 

Hi, I’m Joe and for the last few months I have been working in the Creative Communities department at The Dukes on a funded work placement. Not being particularly theatrically based, I was assigned the project of updating, and maintain the departments Monitoring data and information. Whilst most would roll their eyes at this task, I was instantly invigorated to get started as I am hoping to pursue a career in Data Analytics and Data Science. Being in my third year of my degree at Lancaster University, this placement could not have come at a better time as it has provided with me with not only tangible work experience but also the platform to test my ideas in a supportive and inspiring team environment.

My first proper task involved analysing all of the previously collected monitoring data and organising it into one specific folder to make it easier on myself in the future. I had numerous discussions with the other members of the Creative Communities team about the design of the current monitoring form and how we could make this more accessible and easier for our customers. As such, I left my first proper day of work in the office and began to research into form design which was not what I thought I would be doing after my first day! Lots of internet sources talked about easy-to-read fonts, and making sure all boxes went down and not across as this made it easier to read. So that’s what I did, I applied this into the new iteration of the Creative Communities monitoring form so chances are that if you engage with the Creative Communities department at the Dukes in the future, a practice I would recommend, then you’ll will end completing one of these forms. Fun right?!

As part of my time in the department, I got stuck in and met with all of the main groups that the Dukes’ engages with such as the Young Company, Prime Time, the LOYNE, Lancaster Young Carers. I found this experience to be insightful and humanised my approach to processing their data since I could put faces to names. This is one of my key takeaways from my times at the Dukes, the importance of being person-orientated when making decisions based off of data which I feel is lacking in certain businesses and business practices around the world. Seeing the people that directly benefitted from the work of the department definitely stressed the importance of the work but also was a great motivator to strive for the best in terms of quality. Working in this department, and within the world of theatre in general, taught me that theatrical communities are so important to people and that they deserved nothing but the best. For groups such as Prime Time, and Lancaster Young Carers, this exposure to the world of theatre provides a sense of escapism and distraction which should be seen as invaluable for strengthening our wider community as a whole.

One events which stuck out during my time with the Dukes were the launch of the Windrush Generations exhibition in the Dukes Gallery. The Windrush Generations exhibition was a labour of love for the department, and it is clear to see why. The exhibition featured striking portraits of Windrush descendants and interspersed this information about the Windrush generation. My part in the organisation of this event was minor but I created the evaluation forms, both in-print and digitally, for the event and on the launch day made a poster to be displayed in the gallery with a QR code which allowed visitors to leave feedback.

The skills I developed  and my experiences within my time at the Creative Communities department will stay with me for life and provided me with the opportunity to gain actual hands-on experience with real data, the application of which was reliant on my ability to interpret it and present it to the rest of the team in a way I deemed the clearest and most understandable. In short, my time here was never dull and I will be forever thankful to the Dukes for this opportunity and to the rest of the Creative Communities team for engaging me and being so supportive during my time with them! 

Holly McIlwain - FASS Internship

During my time as a Creative Communities Assistant for my internship with The Dukes, one of the main projects in which I have been involved is the Prime Time project. As stated by Charlie Brown, The Dukes’ Older Peoples Coordinator, “Prime Time is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and aims to improve health and wellbeing in people 65+ by offering a range of new and creative opportunities.  The weekly drama-based sessions are attended by approximately 40 people in both the Lancaster and Morecambe areas. We are currently just over halfway through the 3-year funding period and so far the ongoing reviews and evaluations of the project have been very favourable, with many participants stating that their involvement in Prime Time is the highlight of their week.  We have also launched a monthly film club, had a variety of masterclasses and one-off workshops and been on several trips to other theatres.”

The weekly creative sessions are aimed at bringing those 65+ together to build friendships, enhance creative skills and maintain physical, emotional and social health in later life. The sessions, run by skilled freelance facilitators, cover a wide variety of theatrical and creative topics, ranging from improvisation, to dance and movement, to Shakespeare and more! My role saw me working alongside the Morecambe group, assisting the facilitator and getting to know the vibrant group of creatives who attend weekly. I would aid the facilitator in engaging the group in initial physical and vocal warm-up exercises before we would begin on the plan for that week’s session. My role would often adapt depending on the focus on the session, which saw me getting directly involved in some activities, or taking a step back and becoming an observer to assist members in others. A particular favourite activity of mine was one in which the participants were each given a ‘status’ between one and ten, then provided with a scenario through which they could improvise a scene. This saw them performing highly comedic scenes with improvised characters, ranging from a group of detectives to a crowd of school children, which created an energetic and entertaining workshop! I found that group activities such as this are also especially useful for less confident group members, as they allow everyone to get involved together without feeling as though they are being singled out to be watched, therefore I found this to be a very useful activity for encouraging involvement and enhancing team spirit within the group.

Overall, I found that by working with this group, I was able to develop my overall skills of workshop facilitation by observing a professional practitioner at work, then getting practically involved to apply these techniques. This involved strengthening a wide range of skills, from simple and practical communication skills, such as maintaining a focus on volume and vocal clarity when providing instructions so a group can all clearly hear, to the more complex, including swiftly and compassionately adapting activities to the needs of different group members. This could include converting a movement activity into one that can equally be performed from a seated position, to aid the safety and enjoyment for participants. Additionally, this project developed my understanding of how an effective workshop session runs. The Prime Time sessions are always an inclusive and collaborative environment, whereby the facilitator and members work together through the games, exercises and performance materials to create a sense of community and equality. This breaks down barriers between the session leader and the group, ensuring that all participants feel valued, and it is one of the key skills which I feel I will take away from my time on this project. Alongside assisting the weekly sessions, I also attended a meeting of the Prime Time advisory board, where members can discuss opinions on how the project is going and offer suggestions as to how it can continue to develop in the future. This provided me with a wonderful insight into how the members themselves find the Prime Time project benefits them and their community, affording me a better understanding of which elements of the sessions are most effective, and which could be creatively developed to better aid the specific requirements of the group and its individual members.

Also, preparations have been in full swing for The Duke’s annual Park Show, which for 2024 is Alice in Wonderland. An exciting element of the show this year has been the involvement of a Community Chorus, consisting of some members of the Lancaster and Morecambe Prime Time groups. The Community Chorus affords Prime Time members the opportunity to perform for the public, taking on characters including detectives and Wonderland ‘Card Guards’, guiding an audience through visible clues during the promenade portions of the show and assisting the ‘Queen of Hearts’ in key scenes. To prepare for this, Prime Time members have been working on Alice in Wonderland themed exercises in their weekly sessions, and the members participating in the show have been attending on-location rehearsals within Williamson Park in Lancaster. I have been assisting with this, not only by aiding the themed sessions in Morecambe, but also by attending the on-location rehearsals, relaying instructions to the group and ensuring that all Prime Time members feel comfortable and confident in their roles and responsibilities for the show. This has aided my understanding of how workshop facilitators adapt their approach to assist within preparations for performance, transforming skills of workshop leadership into helpful support to ensure safety and fun is had by all performers, backstage crew and public audiences.

Overall, I have found my experience working with Prime Time and the Alice in Wonderland Community Chorus to be hugely rewarding! Witnessing a community group who can be so often overlooked and undervalued come together to build friendships, enhance their creative mindsets and strengthen their self-belief has been an enriching experience. Also, hearing the stories of each Prime Time member, and why the group is so important to them, has allowed me to appreciate the vital nature of increasing access to arts initiatives in all areas of the wider community. Alongside this, working on the project has also strengthened my own skills of theatrical facilitation and has afforded me with the invaluable experience of working with a brilliant group of individuals. It has been an experience which I will never forget!

Sammi Ladds - FASS Internship

Young Company is a wonderful opportunity for children ages eight to eighteen to get involved in the performing arts, and it has been an incredible honour to assist in the facilitation of these sessions. As someone who attended their own local youth theatre, I know how important extra curriculars like this can be to a child’s development. Even if they don’t end up taking an interest in drama and following that path, the hour and a half spent having fun and learning new skills each week with friends is crucial to building their confidence. I wouldn’t be the person I am now without my youth theatre, and I have only grown more confident since getting to be a part of this young company.

The skills I have developed during my time with the Young Company are incredibly invaluable. I helped to run the drama club at my high school for years, so getting to enhance those skills in such a professional environment has been a wonderful experience. Seeing how The Dukes operated for its young people was very enlightening, the care given to each Young Company session was astounding and could be seen in the kids’ enjoyment of their time with us. This is why I would love to see them more involved in things like the Park Show, or even getting them a few more experiences during Young Company term time like the Summer School offers once a year.

The main part of my role was helping to facilitate our weekly sessions. I would lead games like Buzzy Bees or Splat and then take on a group to supervise during activities. At the start of the term, before our change in practitioners, the kids were working towards a group sharing, and I had a group in each session that I would help to direct. My favourite was our youngest group who were performing a script about sentient crayons in a box. Whilst it could sometimes be a bit of a challenge keeping them focused on the task, watching them come up with ideas and begin to put them into practice was so rewarding – and very entertaining. I also loved getting to know the older kids better in their smaller groups, divided off from the main cohort they were able to come out of their shells more and it was lovely getting to watch their confidence grow in themselves and their skills.

Working with our freelance practitioners was a great experience too. Getting to collaborate with them on the structure of the sessions and come up with a plan that would – hopefully – keep the kids interested and enthusiastic. It was a little difficult to motivate them without the sharing event to work towards, so it could be a bit hit-and-miss from week to week. However, finding the right game for the kids was like hitting the jackpot. One of our more sneakily educational games, The Bus, was about teaching the kids what it was like to have an objective as a character. We would give each of the kids a secret objective they had to carry out during the improvised scene on the bus. For the secret vampire, it was obviously best if nobody could guess their aim. But for the vampire hunter, they needed to know who the vampire on the bus was. It was a real test for me as well, having to come up with fresh and unique aims for every child each time we played, but it helped to keep my creativity flowing.

The Bus became an unexpected favourite of the groups, them begging for just one more round every time we said we had to move on. This was another skill I developed within these sessions. Time management was supremely important to make sure we could fit everything we needed to fit in into the hour and a half. So, it was up to me to keep track of time and make sure one task wasn’t eating up all of our session without giving it such little space that the kids couldn’t learn anything significant from it.

Another part of my job was helping to facilitate the Alice in Wonderland workshops we did onsite at local primary schools in partnership with Lancaster House Hotel. These sessions were a bit of a challenge as we were working in unfamiliar environments and were limited by the size of the spaces we were in. It was all about thinking on our feet to ensure they ran as smoothly as possible to give the kids as much as we could. Helping them to devise their own Mad Hatter tea party scenes was so much fun, and it was greatly rewarding to bring a bit more creativity into their school. We also brought Sam the Dog along with us too which was an experience in and of itself. Of everything I have got out of this internship, my turn in a mascot costume was the most unexpected to say the least.

I have loved my time with Young Company. This was the part of the job I was worried about the most as I love working with children, but I find it hard to tell if I’m actually any good at it. The groups were so welcoming, however, and so enthusiastic. I had so much fun with them all that I could hardly believe I was getting paid to do it. I will miss working with them sorely, but I am so grateful for the skills I have learnt alongside them and for the Dukes giving me the opportunity to do so.