Theatre Royal Plymouth TR2 struggles to recruit due to skills shortage

Sophie Reed has been making costumes for several shows

Bosses of a theatre workshop say they are struggling to find staff to construct scenery and sets because of a skills shortage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

People with the right skills moved to other jobs after the lockdowns, said Brendan Cusack, head of Theatre Royal Plymouth's TR2 workshop.

He said many people have moved into film, TV and the building trade.

TR2 employs 25 people to design and build sets for theatres globally.

The business said it had grown its turnover from £350,000 a year to more than £2m during the last decade.

The team is managing to retain current staff by training them on the job

However, Mr Cusack said finding people with a range of practical manufacturing skills had been difficult after the pandemic.

"When lockdown happened a lot of people went over to other areas," he said.

"Film and TV in this country now is absolutely massive. A lot of people went across to those areas and transferred into the building trade too.

"Finding the right level skill in carpentry and steel fabrication, even before starting to think about scenic art and prop making, is now quite tricky."

The team is managing to retain current staff by training them on the job.

'Well-rounded'

Ruben Dartnell has been constructing sets at TR2 for almost two years and his latest project has been making a steel staircase for an opera at Glyndebourne, East Sussex.

He said: "My first 12 months I spent in the wood shop, then in assembly, now I'm moving into steel fabrication. They really like to make sure we are well-rounded."

The theatre is considering offering a new scenic constructors apprenticeship in the future.

Sophie Reed, who is part of the wardrobe department, said: "There's such a variety of shows we work on, plus co-productions and we also have community project, which are so different to touring productions because the scale is so different."

On Friday, the theatre is holding a careers in theatre panel discussion as part of the BBC's Bring the Drama Festival.