The Dukes is to present outdoor walkabout theatre again in the summer of 2013.

Overwhelming support for what became the biggest event of its kind in the UK means the show will go on in Lancaster’s Williamson Park next year. We are taking a break from our park productions this summer owing to our commitment to stage and tour our homegrown Lancashire witches drama – Sabbat – to commemorate the 400^th anniversary of the witch trials in the city.

 Financial challenges also played their part in the decision not to present a park show this summer as it is our most expensive event to produce. However, such has been the demand from the public and the encouragement from our funders for outdoor theatre to be re-instated that we have reviewed our options and the show will return in 2013. The title will be announced later this summer.

 The Dukes director, Joe Sumsion said: “Last summer we said Merlin would be our last outdoor walkabout theatre show for the foreseeable future. Since then, we have been overwhelmed by the positive response to our park shows from the public and artistic community which we’ve had at the forefront of our mind when planning for the future.”

 As a registered charity, we receive core funding from  the Arts Council England, Lancashire County Council and Lancaster City Council.

 Jane Beardsworth, North West regional director of Arts Council England said: “We’re delighted to be supporting The Dukes’ park production, which is returning in 2013. The Dukes is one of the Arts Council’s 85 national portfolio organisations in the North West – a portfolio that has been shaped by five shared goals that make up our 10-year vision of achieving great art for everyone. We’re also looking forward to the revival of Sabbat this summer and we congratulate The Dukes for breaking new ground by taking this production on tour to new audiences.”

 Lancashire County Coun Mike Calvert, cabinet member for adult and community services, said: “We are very pleased to see the return of the Dukes promenade performances planned for 2013. As well as being hugely popular with local people and visitors alike, the promenade is a significant event in Lancashire’s cultural calendar and receives national acclaim. Established fans of the Dukes promenade performances and new visitors are in for a real treat, and we wish all those involved with the productions every success in the future.”

 Lancaster City Council’s cabinet member with responsibility for tourism, Coun Ron Sands, said: “The park and the shows combine to provide a unique experience that local people enjoy and take pride in. Importantly too they attract national media attention, positively raising the profile of our district and enticing many new visitors to the area as a result.  The city council is delighted its park will once again play host to these wonderful promenade productions.”

We are calling on all those who value the park show to support a major fundraising drive which will supplement its core funding. Over recent years, we have significantly increased our earned income and support from corporate sponsorship and our Friends scheme but we aim to build and develop on this success.

 Joe Sumsion added: “As the pressure on the public purse increases, our challenge is to find new ways to increase investment in The Dukes and to encourage more people to play their part in supporting us. The fantastic public reaction to the park shows, combined with progress we are making in other areas, is giving us the confidence to plan ambitiously for the future – and that future will include nationally recognised walkabout theatre in Lancaster’s beautiful Williamson Park.”

Calling all young bands, singers, djs and mcs – The Dukes needs you! 

Opportunities for young people aged 13-19 to perform at a new series of live music nights in Lancaster are available now. Two gigs which have already taken place at Barton Road Youth and Community Centre have proved a hit and there are four more to follow including an Indie/Rock Weekend on March 16-17 and an Urban Night on April 20 both at DT3. 

The Dukes Creative Learning Department are now looking for young performers to take part in future gigs. Anyone interested will be invited to attend a workshop led by More Music to get them performance ready.

 This is a great opportunity for new bands, emerging artists, djs and mcs to pick up tips and perform in front of other young people.

 Anyone interested should email creative learning director, Guy Christiansen, at creativelearning@dukes-lancaster.org

Paintings of a prestigious production of The Tempest starring Sir Patrick Stewart could cause a stir when they are displayed here at The Dukes for Lancaster’s Season of Shakespeare this month. A selection of works by acclaimed artist Alan O’Cain, which were first exhibited in London, will be on display in the gallery from February 20-March 11. Painting the Tempest is the result of Alan’s creative collaboration with the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 2006-7 production of The Tempest.  

Alan’s original sketchbooks will also be displayed in the Rare Books Room at the university which is hosting the British Shakespeare Conference from February 24-26. During the conference, he will discuss the creation of his artworks inspired by The Tempest as one of a panel of speakers talking on the subject of Imaging Shakespeare.

Alan O’Cain has been a full-time artist since 2003 and as well as working with the RSC, he has exhibited paintings inspired by writers at the Hay Festival and artworks for Glyndebourne Opera. In 2008, he was artist-in-residence in Edvard Munch’s preserved Ekely Studio and since then has been developing ambitious projects inspired by Munch’s life. In 2013, Alan will attempt to place an illuminated outline of Munch’s house onto the roof of a tower block in Sunderland, the town where he was born. Alan also enjoys exploring the limits of portraiture and has created works based on encounters with several important people from the worlds of art, theatre, music and literature including Sir Patrick Stewart, Sir Bob Geldof, Sting, Seamus Heaney and Ken Russell.

 Painting the Tempest runs from February 20-March 11 at The Dukes gallery which is open from 10am-11pm, Monday to Saturday. Please call the box office on 01524 598500 to check opening times if you’re making a special journey as occasionally the space is closed to the public. 

With 2012 well and truly upon us, our Film Programmer, Johnathan Ilott, takes a look back over the past year to see what the top 10 selling films of 2011 were, how our audiences reacted to the screenings and what’s on the horizon for 2012.

In many ways 2011 was an odd year for the cinema programme at The Dukes. There were a lot more hits and misses than usual; films tended to either be smash hits or fail to find an audience, with very little in between. The “middle ground” was also sparse in terms of audience reaction. Several big independent hits proved to be cinematic marmite, The Tree of Life, Melancholia and Kill List in particular evoked undying devotion from some, and hatred from others.

Also on the sparse side for most of the year was mass appeal World Cinema. Perhaps one of the greatest disappointments overall in the Top 10 best selling films here was the lack of world cinema with only The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest making the grade. While French comedy Potiche and Spanish thriller The Skin I Live In both gained respectable audiences, we never found that one breakout hit akin to Coco Before Chanel or last year’s The Illusionist. However, with the wonderful French film The Artist and Norwegian thriller Headhunters on the horizon this will hopefully prove to be only a momentary blip.

Filling the gap, we had a fantastic slate of UK produced films in 2011. The King’s Speech, spurred on by Awards glory, word of mouth and from genuinely being a great film, proved to be one of our biggest hits in over a decade. Submarine, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Jane Eyre and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy also all proved to be massively successful with audiences, while other britpics Senna and Never Let Me Go narrowly missed out on a place in the top ten.

Perhaps the odd one out from all the British films and the list in general is the last Harry Potter film. Unusually for us we booked the film on release date for a lot more screenings than usual in order to make up for a quiet summer. Not our usual programming, but it did provide an interesting change in pace with lots of new audience members coming through the building, and lots of staff members experiencing butterbeer induced sugar rushes.

The remaining spaces in the top ten are filled by three very different films from the US. You don’t quite know what to get from Woody Allen nowadays but his latest Midnight in Paris has been charming audiences up and down the country, Lancaster included. The aforementioned The Tree of Life made the list with the film not facing much competition in the quiet summer months, while ballet horror Black Swan is another film which was helped along by Award nominations and favourable word of mouth reports.

So here is the top 10 selling films at The Dukes in 2011 going by the number of tickets sold:

1. The King’s Speech
2. Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 2
3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
4. Jane Eyre
5. Black Swan
6. We Need To Talk About Kevin
7. Midnight in Paris
8. The Tree of Life
9. Submarine
10. The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet’s Nest

Last month, The Dukes reached its 40^th birthday.

To mark the occasion, freelance photographer Darren Andrews was invited to capture A Day in the Life of The Dukes at 40, on the anniversary itself – November 18.

From the housekeepers, box office, bar  and front of house team who make sure The Dukes is a welcoming and comfortable place to everyone behind the scenes whether technicians, wardrobe staff and stage management or the marketing department, secretary and finance manager, everyone has had a part to play in our success over the past four decades.

 But The Dukes is more than two theatre spaces, a cinema, gallery and café bar, it has another important centre also in Moor Lane, known as DT3, where young people, those with learning disabilities and others forging careers in the performing arts have their home.

 And across town, The Dukes is still fortunate to have a separate workshop space where the dreams of the designers become reality and from where sets for other companies are built. The workshop also accommodates The Dukes extensive archive which records everything staged since that momentous opening day in November 1971.

 The Dukes 40^th anniversary day was a busy one.

 Preparations and rehearsals for The BFG were in full flow and local schoolchildren were invited in to give their feedback on the show so far.

 Meanwhile, in the gallery, a local events planning meeting was held, just one of dozens of meetings and courses run by outside organisations at The Dukes during the year.

 Over at DT3, a project was underway in the editing suite and Lancaster University Theatre Group were in technical rehearsal for a future show there.

 And as night fell, The Dukes cinema was screening two films – 40 years to the day since the first event at the venue – also a film – took place.

Keep your eye on our blog as we will be posting follow ups to a day in the life of The Dukes with features on each of our staff members. We will be giving you a sneak peak of what goes on and a chance to get to know the familiar and not so familiar faces that all contribute to the success of The Dukes.

Coming to The Dukes in Spring is Snookered, a subtle, complex, entertaining and truthful play about the inner lives of young Asian men. Writer Ishy Din did a Q & A for Tamasha, the company presenting Snookered. Here are his thoughts on the show and becoming a playwright.

What inspired Snookered? Is it autobiographical at all?

There are certainly parts of it that are autobiographical, I think that to make any character honest and real one needs to put ones own experiences, both emotional and physical, into them but then you also have to make the piece dramatic so once the characters were in place I had to find a journey for each character that would heighten the drama.

Because it’s a world that I know really well finding inspiration for character and story was pretty straight forward and I’d always wanted to write something about working class northern British Asian men.

Of course, we know that Snookered emerged after you took part in the Tamasha Developing Artists new writing course – tell us about your journey to Snookered.

Luckily for me a number of things happened around the same time, of course firstly I was on the Tamasha writing course in London, not knowing many people meant that on an evening I would return to my backpackers hostel and out of sheer boredom I’d write short scenes which were usually set in a pub/bar (my hostel was above a pub in Camden) – that’s when really the idea came to me about writing something about some friends playing pool and getting drunk.

The playwright Philip Osment who was a tutor on the course set us a writing exercise where two characters had to use a word from a list he had put up on the board in each line of dialogue they spoke, if I remember correctly one of the words was “black” and somewhere in the list was the word “dignified”, it was at the time of the Barack Obama’s campaign for the Democratic nomination, I chose to write a scene where two guys argue about whether Barack is a Muslim or not, this really cemented the idea of who my characters would be and what their world view was.

I mentioned my thoughts to Sudha Bhuchar, Tamasha’s Co-Artist Director and she suggested that I read Christmas by Simon Stephens, for anybody that hasn’t read it, early on in the play one of the characters uses some really profane language. Having experienced very little theatre I believed that the same constraints applied as those in television as to what your characters could say. After reading Christmas I realised that actually I could have my characters say whatever they wanted as well.

I then re-wrote some scenes where I imagined how my mates would talk if they were in a pub getting drunk and playing pool, we work shopped a scene and on the scratch night and it received a really positive reaction.

At the end of the course Tamasha asked me to write a full length script of the idea and I returned North and started to write, after the first draft Tamasha decided to develop the script further and I was introduced to the lovely Lin Coghlan, together with Sudha and the three of us set about shaping what Snookered is today.

With discussion and questioning of the characters, the story and the structure Lin and Sudha cajoled me into digging deeper into all the elements of Snookered. I think that there were 3 full re-writes and the about 6 versions of the last scene.

I’d come down to London, have a meeting and return energised and ready to go, that usually lasted until I logged on and then I’d think F*$K! how am I going to do this?

But somehow with Tamasha’s support we managed to come up with a piece that I feel all of us can be proud of.

Why do you write?

A friend of mine Steve Chambers once told me that there are only really three moments in writing, the first is when you get the gig, the second when you finish the 1st draft and the 3rd when somebody performs it. I totally agree.

A majority of my time is spent staring at a blank page, chain smoking and thinking why the hell am I doing this? And I think it’s because the stages before and after the chain smoking insomnia are incredible. The process of developing and idea that’s came from perhaps something you have read, or seen or heard or just something that’s popped into your head into something that’s fully formed, with characters, and back story and a plot, a beginning, a middle and an end is a complete buzz.

Working with actors and directors is another reason for writing, I’ve realised that it’s a collaborative process and being open to other ideas and insights adds to what you are trying to do and that process is something I really enjoy.

Who inspires you?

Homer Simpson!

Do you have any advice budding writers?

Learn your craft, (I’m doing this at the moment and I’m assured it never ends), read as much as you can about creative writing, (I found The Crafty Art of Playwriting by Alan Ayckbourn one of the more practical guides).

Try to attend as many courses, work shops and seminars that you can. Free ones are the best!!

You never know when somebody will tell you something that may not necessarily be true but is really useful.

And be prepared for rejection, at least 50% of the gigs I’ve went for have ended up in me being rejected.

What does the future hold for Ishy Din? What else are you working on now? Tell us about future projects!

I’m so glad you asked that question! Hahaha.

Well… I’m just about to start writing the 1st draft of my next play Approaching Empty for Tamasha, hopefully the second in a trilogy I’m writing for the company.

I’ve just been announced the Pearson Writer in Residence at the Manchester Royal Exchange, which is really exciting, it starts in the New Year and I’ll be working closely with them in developing a new play and learning my craft throughout next year.

I’m at the early planning stages of a radio play that I’m developing with Clive Brill at Pacificus Productions

And I’ll be working with Tees Valley Arts on a project with young people up here in Middlesbrough.

At some point in the future I’d love to try and write a something for TV and perhaps a movie but at the moment I just want to get my 3rd moment and see Snookered being performed.

Thanks very much Ishy!

In January our Senior Youth Theatre will be performing Shhh! in Lancaster Library.

Last month the group headed out to the Library to take some photos and get a feel for the space where they will be producing the play.

“We took loads of interesting photos to capure the amosphere of the library in use, and we also took ideas from watching members of the public using the space. We considered how we would ensure that our performance would make the most of the space, and also what challenges it would bring.

“We are excited about creating a site specific piece of theatre, making the library space into a theatre, and are especially pleased about the brightness of the space. We also considered how the mobility of the bookshelves would make them ideal to use as pieces of set. Kriss Foster also helped us to make a promotional film for The Dukes website which you can watch HERE. Stay tuned for more updates on the development of Shhh!”

You can find out more about Shhh! by clicking HERE

Playing landlord and landlady in our production of Two are real life husband and wife, Kieran Buckeridge and Ella Vale. They took some time out from rehearsals to give us an insight into their lives…both real and pretend!

Where did you meet?

Kieran: We met in 2006 during Private Lives at Theatre by the Lake in Keswick. The funny thing is that we were cast as a comedy duo as I’m 6ft 2 and Ella’s 5ft. At a talkback after one of the shows, someone asked if we had been cast to look ridiculous on purpose. My parents were there and it was the first time they had met Ella!

Is this the first time you’ve played a married couple on stage?

Ella: Yes.  We’ve actually found it helpful as we have a kind of shorthand with each other and there was no need to spend time getting to know one another which you do when meeting other actors for the first time. However, we know each other so well that we’ve  had to be careful not to be too rude if we think one of us is doing something wrong because we would never behave that way if we didn’t know the actor playing opposite us.

Have you been taking your work home with you?

Ella: During the early days of rehearsal, yes, because there was so many lines to learn and we found ourselves discussing the play but working in the same job we tend to do that anyway.

As well as playing Two’s landlord and landlady, you take on a variety of other characters too. How challenging is this?

Ella: We’ve both played multi-role parts before but because this is a two-hander, it’s much more intense and we’re having to change character very quickly.

Kieran: This play slips from high comedy to tragedy very swiftly which is a challenge but it’s really fun too.

Which of the characters are most like you?

Ella: Fred and Alice because they are quite a genuine couple but are silly with each other and we recognize that in us.

Have you ever worked in a pub before?

Kieran: We soon realized that we’re probably the only two people in the entire company who’ve never worked a bar which is really unusual for actors.

Ella: I had a waitressing job once and was really terrible. I was always dropping things and got completely muddled using the till!

Where’s your ‘local’?

Kieran: The River Head in Marsden in West Yorkshire, not far from Holmfirth where they used to film Last of the Summer Wine.

Two is set in 1989, what do you remember of that era?

Kieran: I was 12 so was probably wearing a shell suit and dayglo laces. I remember Bros being big at the time.

Ella: We didn’t have a television so my Eighties references are pretty non-existent! I was 7 in 1989 so was probably wearing different coloured socks and t-shirts that changed colour.

How do you feel about acting in The Round?

Kieran: We’ve both worked in the round quite a lot and really enjoy it.

Ella: I love to see the audience when I’m acting, it’s what it’s all about. I think it’s a lovely idea for the set to be a fully operational bar where the audience can buy drinks before the play as it will do a lot of the work on creating a good atmosphere for us.

Ahead of our two weeks of screening Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II from release date on July 15th, we’ve been coming up with ideas to transform our foyer into everything Harry Potter!

Jon on the bar has searched far and wide for the best recipes for Butterbeer, and the other day we had a tasting session to work out which was yummiest (and most like what we imagined from the books!)

Jon working hard:

Yummy Butterbeer!

Can you tell we enjoyed it…??

Butterbeer will be available to purchase from the bar during our screenings of Harry potter and the Deathly Hallows Part II showing from July 15th… for more information and to watch the trailer CLICK HERE FOR OUR WEBSITE.