Bristol Old Vic
Are you passionate about theatre, creativity and working with children, young people and communities? This is an exciting opportunity to begin your career in arts participation while working towards a Level 3 Cultural Learning and Participation Officer Apprenticeship.
As part of Theatre Royal Plymouth's Creative Communities team, you'll gain practical experience supporting and delivering a wide range of creative projects in schools, community settings and across our own programmes. You'll work alongside experienced theatre practitioners and learn through hands-on experience, mentoring, observation, professional training and reflective practice.
No two days are the same, and throughout your apprenticeship you'll have the opportunity to develop your confidence, build new skills and make a real difference through the work you do.
Our Creative Communities team works with children, young people, schools and communities across Plymouth and beyond, creating opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to explore creativity, develop confidence and experience the arts in meaningful ways.
If you're looking to begin a career where no two days are the same and where you can make a real difference through creativity, this apprenticeship is a great place to start.
About the apprenticeship
As part of your employment, you'll complete the Level 3 Cultural Learning and Participation Officer Apprenticeship Standard, delivered by TRP's chosen provider.
Throughout your apprenticeship, you'll work towards achieving the knowledge, skills and behaviours set out within the apprenticeship standard. Your day-to-day role has been designed to give you the opportunity to develop these through practical experience, structured learning and support from experienced colleagues.
The apprenticeship combines workplace learning with dedicated training from the apprenticeship provider, helping you build the skills and confidence needed for a career in cultural learning and participation.
A genuine interest in theatre, drama and working with children, young people and communities.
Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to communicate confidently with a wide range of people, including young people, parents, carers and education professionals.
A willingness to learn and develop your skills in creative facilitation and professional development in your chosen art form
The ability to work both independently and as part of a team.
Good organisational and time management skills.
The ability to take responsibility for your work and meet deadlines.
Good administrative skills and the ability to manage a range of projects at the same time.
A professional, positive and reliable approach.
Flexibility to work occasional evenings and weekends.
Desirable
Experience of arts engagement, i.e. youth theatre, community arts or working in an education setting.
Experience of creating resources to support learning.
Practical knowledge of IT & Office
Fire up your imaginations and discover the world of performance and theatre-making with Theatre Royal Plymouth's Creative Explorers.
During the term, young people will explore new skills and develop their knowledge by engaging with a variety of theatrical conventions, this may include storytelling, devising from stimulus and performance opportunities.
Sessions will begin weekly from 26 Sep – 18 Dec with a break for half term (26 Oct – 01 Nov).
Running time: 90 minutes, 10.30am – 12pm or 12:30pm – 2pm
Cost: £80, bursary places available.
Deaf Theatre Makers is delighted to offer 8 paid placement opportunities for deaf creatives across the UK. Working with our partner organisations, these placements are designed to provide hands on experience within professional theatre settings and help deaf people develop skills, confidence and industry connections.
Whether you are interested in producing, technical theatre, programming, creative development or exploring a career behind the scenes, this is an opportunity to learn directly from experienced theatre professionals.
Successful applicants will receive:
Placements do not need to take place over five consecutive days. Depending on the host organisation and your learning goals, activity may be spread across a project, production or period of time.
(shared placement across both organisations)
This placement offers an introduction to producing, programming and arts management across two very different cultural organisations. You will gain insight into how work is programmed, developed and delivered, while meeting staff from a range of departments.
areas of focus include:
timing: Flexible from August 2026 onwards.
This placement can be tailored to your interests and career goals. Working with staff across the organisation, you will have the opportunity to explore the areas of theatre that interest you most.
potential areas of focus include:
timing: Flexible.
This placement will be hands on and can be shaped around your interests and offers the opportunity to gain experience across a range of departments within a producing theatre, or to focus on one or two areas of interest if that is preferred.
potential areas of focus include:
timing: Flexible.
This placement is ideal for anyone interested in producing, technical theatre and the development of new work.
The placement will be linked to a festival taking place at Sheffield Theatres, offering the opportunity to observe and support activity during a busy period of theatre making.
areas of focus include:
timing: Applicants should be available for activity taking place between 28th September and 10th October 2026.
Join us this summer to create a brand-new piece of theatre at Tobacco Factory Theatres.
Designed for people aged 11–13,, this exciting week-long course invites young creatives to collaborate, experiment and bring their ideas to life.
Working with a friendly team of experienced theatre practitioners, young people will spend five days developing an original performance from scratch. Together we’ll devise scenes, create characters, write scripts, design sets and build props — all while developing performance skills through games and practical exercises.
The week will culminate in a performance in our professional Factory Theatre on Friday 21 August 2026 at 4pm.
This is a brilliant opportunity for young people interested in drama and theatre-making to get creative, have fun and collaborate on a performance.
Whether you’re a theatre fanatic or interested in trying something new, we’d love to welcome you to Summer School 2026!
WHAT TO EXPECT
Working with a professional creative team, you will rehearse here at the theatre each day. The sessions will be full of creative games, practical exercises, and theatre-making activities, where you will work as an ensemble to create a new piece of theatre. Bring your ideas, enthusiasm, and energy!
The Summer School will include:
Join us this summer to create a brand-new piece of theatre at Tobacco Factory Theatres.
Designed for people aged 14–18, this exciting week-long course invites young creatives to collaborate, experiment and bring their ideas to life.
Working with a friendly team of experienced theatre practitioners, young people will spend five days developing an original performance from scratch. Together we’ll devise scenes, create characters, write scripts, design sets and build props — all while developing performance skills through games and practical exercises.
The week will culminate in a performance in our professional Factory Theatre on Friday 21 August 2026 at 4pm.
This is a brilliant opportunity for young people interested in drama and theatre-making to get creative, have fun and collaborate on a performance.
Whether you’re a theatre fanatic or interested in trying something new, we’d love to welcome you to Summer School 2026!
WHAT TO EXPECT
Working with a professional creative team, you will rehearse here at the theatre each day. The sessions will be full of creative games, practical exercises, and theatre-making activities, where you will work as an ensemble to create a new piece of theatre. Bring your ideas, enthusiasm, and energy!
The Summer School will include:
Join us for a week of drama games, storytelling and prop-making at Tobacco Factory Theatres!
Designed for children aged 8-10, this exciting week-long course invites young people to develop their drama skills through games, imaginative play, role-play, and storytelling.
Guided by a friendly creative team of experienced theatre practitioners, children will work together to invent their own characters, create scenes, explore imaginary worlds and design their own props and costumes.
The days will be fun, playful and imaginative, with a range of creative, physical and craft activities.
Join us on the final day, Friday 14th August at 3.30pm for an informal performance of what we’ve explored throughout the week.
WHAT TO EXPECT
As it’s summer, we will also take a daily trip to the local park for fresh air and outdoor games!
Join us for a week of drama games, storytelling and prop-making at Tobacco Factory Theatres!
Designed for children aged 5-7, this exciting week-long course invites young people to develop their drama skills through games, imaginative play, role-play, and storytelling.
Guided by a friendly creative team of experienced theatre practitioners, children will work together to invent their own characters, create scenes, explore imaginary worlds and design their own props and costumes.
The days will be fun, playful and imaginative, with a range of creative, physical and craft activities.
Join us on the final day, Friday 14th August at 3.30pm for an informal performance of what we’ve explored throughout the week.
WHAT TO EXPECT
As it’s summer, we will also take a daily trip to the local park for fresh air and outdoor games!
Test Org
We are a fearless collective of disabled and non-disabled musicians: a platform that pushes the boundaries of music-making to create art with passion and purpose.
With a diverse ensemble led by the remarkable vision of our artistic director Charles Hazlewood, our performances are a fusion of emotion, innovation, and intrepid artistry. Behind the scenes, we focus on developing careers, building confidence, and fostering collaboration to inspire a fierce ambition and excellence that matches our artistic programme.
About Play with Paraorchestra
Play with Paraorchestra is an opportunity for young musicians, who identify as disabled, have special educational needs, or have access requirements to experience playing on a Paraorchestra project. Over the course of a two-day workshop in October 2026 a small group of young musicians will explore a range of musical styles, with a blend of acoustic and electronic sound worlds, working alongside professional Paraorchestra musicians.
Play with Paraorchestra is a creatively ambitious project for young musicians. It offers the same exciting, collaborative, person-centred way of working as on all Paraorchestra shows, this time for young musicians aged 12 - 17 who are considering a career in music.
All participants on the project must attend with a parent, guardian or carer.
Are you, or is someone you know, a talented, adventurous young musician who wants to experience playing with Paraorchestra? We are looking for six young musicians who either identify as disabled, have special educational needs, or access requirements, and can thrive working in a collaborative environment. They must demonstrate a creative spark, a passion and commitment to playing live music.
You don’t need to formally identify as disabled, for example you might be Deaf or have a hearing impairment, or you might be Autistic or be neurodivergent. At Paraorchestra we don’t work with musicians on the basis of a formal diagnosis, we use the Social Model of Disability to guide our work.
If you are a musician aged 12 - 17, considering a career in the music sector, who has access requirements or works best in an environment with additional support in place then Play with Paraorchestra is for you.
Young musicians applying for this opportunity should be playing at a Grade 5 standard (or equivalent) in musical ability, theoretical understanding, and technical capability. Participants do not need to have achieved a formal Grade 5 qualification to apply for Play with Paraorchestra. We are using the Grade 5 level of musicianship as a guide for young musicians to emphasise the level of musical skill we are looking for from the participants taking part in this project.
Play with Paraorchestra is our version of a ‘side-by-side’ project, where participants will have the opportunity to sit next to professional Paraorchestra musicians and work through set repertoire in a workshop format. The activity itself will be led by Paraorchestra Assistant Music Directors Siobhan Clough and Rylan Gleave. Paraorchestra Artistic Director Charles Hazlewood will lead a session during the two days. The project will culminate in a sharing on the second day for a small invited audience.
This will be an opportunity for young musicians to experience Paraorchestra’s creatively ambitious work and person-centred approach to access, exploring new commissions alongside pre-existing repertoire. The chosen pieces will be arranged in an open score format, meaning that whatever instrument you might play, whether that be an acoustic orchestral instrument or a more modern electronic instrument, there will be a part that works for you and the level that you are playing at.
Over the course of the two days, we will explore a commission written by Liam Taylor-West, a reimagined version of Straylight by Rylan Gleave (first performed by Paraorchestra during The Anatomy of the Orchestra - Drone Refractions, 2024) and some warm up pieces from the CoMA open score repertoire list. All parts will range in difficulty, with some parts being easier to play than others. Part selection and distribution will be made by our Assistant Music Directors to suit the musicians selected with their instrument and musical capabilities in mind.
Successful candidates invited to take part in Play with Paraorchestra will be asked to:
During the Play with Paraorchestra in-person workshops each day will involve:
To apply to take part in Play with Paraorchestra you will need to complete a short application form. This can either be typed or answered with recorded or filmed responses. The application form questions are listed below so you can plan your answers. Each answer has a suggested word limit of 300 words or 2.5 minutes speaking time.
The Play with Paraorchestra application form can be found here.
If you are applying with a video application, please fill out your main details on the application form (https://forms.gle/hVmrJA2SSKrdyiddA) and include a link to your video application in the space provided.
You can share your video in any of the following ways:
We will then shortlist the applications and invite a small number of young musicians to take part in Play with Paraorchestra with us.
Please note the capacity for participants on this project is small, six young musicians, this is to ensure we can deliver this creatively ambitious project with the level of access and person-centred support that is central to our way of working on all Paraorchestra projects. We anticipate we will get more applications that we have spaces for and so unfortunately not everyone who applies will be offered a place on the project. We recognise this can be disheartening, but where possible we will try and provide some feedback on applications and signpost you to alternative opportunities for young musicians.
