A huge part of the story

Last week we welcomed 15 year old Bianca to London Bubble for her work experience. After sitting in on a number of our evening drama classes and the technical rehearsal for our latest intergenerational production Hopelessly De-Voted she asked me if she could join one of our weekly drama groups. I said absolutely, she’d be more than welcome, and she is now planning to join our youth theatre group later this month and our next intergenerational project when it starts in earnest in the summer. For us, this is exactly the sort of thing that we hope will come out of offering work experience and volunteering opportunities to people of all ages – longer-lasting connections with volunteers who bring as much energy and commitment to Bubble as we offer to them.

Volunteer roles ranged from research to interviewing, helping out at our touring road show, joining our community company and even making fresh biscuits

As I am sure many other small-scale arts organisations would agree, supporting volunteers can be a time and energy-consuming process, but it can reap huge benefits and provide more than much-needed extra resources for our work. During its 40+ year history, Bubble has found ways to resilience in the face of adversity many times. What we have come to realise is that one of the best ways of staying resilient is to build on the support from our local community who champion our work and challenge us to do more and do it better.

A good example was our 2013 intergenerational project ‘From Docks to Desktops’ which explored the subject of work in our local area of Bermondsey, Rotherhithe and Deptford. A mammoth task in anyone’s book and we needed a lot of help to bring this large performance project to fruition. As always, we decided to involve a range of people (aged 10 years and over) as volunteers. Volunteer roles ranged from research to interviewing, helping out at our touring road show, joining our community company and even making fresh biscuits during the performances which we handed out to an expectant audience at the end. This is not to mention the 40 people who we interviewed about their working lives in the area. In total, 143 volunteers got involved during the 14 month project, 30% of whom had not encountered us before. Quite simply, we could not have done the project without them.

Many of our volunteers would not describe themselves as theatre-makers, but for us everyone involved along the way contributes to the process of theatre-making. Jodie, who volunteered as an interviewer with us on From Docks to Desktops and then went on to join our intergenerational community company, was a total newcomer to the theatre-making experience. Reflecting on her experience, she told us: “I’ve never been involved with theatre before so it’s all new to me – and Bubble has its own way of collective creating. I really like the feeling that everyone is contributing to the piece and that the process of making it is a journey with an unknown destination. It feels like all these encounters and conversations with people along the way, whether they are recorded or not, add to the story somehow.”

Our volunteers are a huge part of our story. Just like Bianca aspiring to join our youth theatre having spent a week with us, some of the most rewarding aspects of our projects are when volunteers’ relationships with us spill over into other aspects of our work. Sylvie, who we interviewed for From Docks to Desktops about her job at the Peak Freans factory, has since joined our Wednesday afternoon Tea Break Theatre group.

For us volunteering is about the long haul, not simply about offering opportunities but about connecting with people who can help us and who will bring a wealth of experience and enthusiasm. As I write this, Gloria, who joined us on work experience last summer has just popped by to say hello and to ask how she can join our 16+ Young Theatre Makers training programme later in the year. I have a feeling she will be helping us make theatre with and for our community for some time to come.

Lucy Bradshaw is Senior Administrator of London Bubble Theatre Company.
www.londonbubble.org.uk