This is a play which spans 100 years of the history of the Derbyshire Miners’ Holiday camp. It has a cast of 10 professional actors; a community company of 20 and (if that wasn’t enough) a brass band. It dives through history and family stories. Through world changing events and events that change our character’s worlds. It is about family and love and community and union. And it is epic.
As an artist and director, I am lucky enough to call Derby Theatre my home theatre. I grew up performing in youth theatre shows here, now I have the privilege of being an associate artist and directing two of the theatre’s youth theatre groups. When, in my early twenties, I first started asking the question ‘How do I become an artist?’, it was Sarah Brigham who made time to sit down with me to have a cup of tea and talk about making theatre. And now, it is Sarah who I’m lucky enough to be working alongside as assistant director on Welfare.
I love shows which put local communities at the heart of the story and Welfare is born from that. It is built on the stories gifted to us by our communities; through bus trips to Skegness; through projects with young people and through people saying ‘oh I know someone who went there’. All these woven together by a writer (Abi Zakarian) and the brilliant creative team, alongside a community chorus, to make this show really magical.
On our first day of rehearsals, we spoke with Sandra and Maureen, both of whom went to the holiday camp when they were children. We asked them questions about the memories of being there. They shared stories with us, many of which had us in stitches. The week at the camp was the ‘best week of your life’ and it became clear quite how much the holiday camp meant and still means to those lucky enough to have gone.
I was asked to write something about the first week of rehearsals and I have to admit I am cheating. To come clean, it is only day two of rehearsals when I am writing this. There is so much to this play that means that even after two days of rehearsals we have been on an exciting journey.
The rehearsal room is already so full; full of brilliant creatives; full of questions; full of dancing and laughter and heart. In our first rehearsal with our community actors, we explored staging the journey through the Second World War and learnt how to do the dance to The Hustle, all in one evening. We’ve read through the script; rehearsed with the brilliant Derwent Brass; had sessions with a vocal coach and learnt to Lindy Hop. We have researched the history of the 100 years that WELFARE spans, including histories we might not have been told before, LGBTQ+ histories, histories of black miners and stories of sanctuary for refugees.
At the end of our chat we asked Sandra and Maureen what they hoped to get from seeing the show. They spoke of the sheer amount of fun that they had at the camp and instructed us that it needed to be a really good night out. It is only day two of rehearsals and I can say honestly that this show is going to be just that. Like I said, epic.