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