An Interview with Julia from Shire Stories by Worcester Theatres

30 April 2026

Shire Stories is a literary department project launched by Worcester Theatres and Crave Arts with funding from Arts Council England. Shire Stories’ mission is to uncover unique perspectives from underrepresented communities, and nurture talent through a combination of dynamic workshops and personalised feedback from professional script readers and dramaturgs. The Worcester Theatres team caught up with Julia (Intern Facilitator) to discuss her first few months at Shire Stories, the script submission process, and the collaborative workshops with The Monday Night Club, a charity in Worcester supporting people with learning difficulties or autism to try new activities whilst making new friends.

Shire Stories have been curating workshops for The Monday Night Club for the past few months, tell us how that has been?

I’ve found the workshops to be a great environment to learn how to adapt facilitation to ensure sessions are accessible for everyone. It’s been a valuable experience in making a creative writing space less daunting, and more comfortable and shaped to suit what attendees are interested in exploring each week.

It’s been lovely to see the progress made through The Monday Night Club workshops with Shire Stories. At the start of the 10-week sessions, some participants would often follow the lead of others, but through time have grown in confidence and were putting their own ideas forward without seeking permission or guidance from somebody else.

Tell us about The Monday Night Club showcase at the end of April!

The showcase will take place on Saturday 25 April, and it will feature a collection of scenes devised and created by the workshop attendees. Over the 10 workshop sessions, we’ve made a list of everyone’s favourite places, people, celebrities and songs. Each week we create a scene, for example, being with their favourite person or listening to their favourite song and introduce a small problem or twist. It is all quite light hearted and humorous for everyone taking part, we want our workshops to be fun as well as inspiring.

The deadline for script submissions for the spring showcase has now ended, can you tell us about how the process went?

I loved getting to read all the scripts and put all my notes together. We had a last-minute wave of scripts come in, which I think is quite common, as people tend to submit as close as possible to a deadline, making last-minute amends! It has been really great to have such a variety of stories from the scripts we are reading. I feel like people have focused on things that feel authentic to themselves and their lives, or have created entirely different worlds, and it’s great that no one’s story has been the exact same. 

Are there any kind of stories or voices that you didn’t expect from the Shire Stories script submissions?

There is a decline in female voices in playwriting, especially from women in their 50s and 60s. We’ve had a few scripts from women in that age group, and I have found them to be really empowering and insightful. The Shire Stories script submission process has given women a voice and a platform to not feel invisible as they get older. We want everyone to feel included at Shire Stories and feel that it is never too late to pursue your writing and playwriting goals if it’s what you really want to pursue. 

What else have you been up to?

Our team did a one-to-one writing session with a writer recently. I really enjoyed doing that, it was great to hear about the writer’s perspective on why they had written certain parts of their script and the story as a whole. It was inspiring to see Steve (Crave Arts Co-Director and Shire Stories Facilitator) guide the session and jump in to say, ‘Ooh I really like this, but if you did this, maybe this could happen’. It’s very constructive and when reading other people’s work you learn a lot about your own work too, through working at Shire Stories and hearing different people's perspectives.

Shire Stories is a great resource for local writers that reside in the Midlands, why do you think stories from the Midlands are unique?

There’s a narrative that you need to be in a big city such as Manchester or London to seek out big opportunities as a creative and thrive, which is a shame because there is so much talent all over the UK. It’s really nice to have something like Shire Stories specifically for people in Worcester. We strive to make our workshops accessible and online where we can. It’s really nice to be providing a platform and an opportunity for local writers to bring their voices to the forefront and be heard.

There are a lot of Shire Stories workshops coming up, what would you say to someone thinking of attending a workshop but is maybe a bit nervous?

I would say you’ve got nothing to lose because you’ll be in a room full of friendly, like-minded people, and it is an opportunity to grow. If you’re a little uncomfortable turning up in person, then there are some online workshops, so you have the option to take part from the comfort of your own home.

Someone once told me that if you put yourself in a position where you can learn, you’ll feel productive and good, and that you should always be striving to learn something new. So hopefully our workshop attendees learn something new and have a positive experience. Our workshops are around an hour or two long, so why not come along? You have nothing to lose!

Interview with Julia Bentley (Intern Facilitator at Shire Stories), conducted by Sarah Abbott (Press and Communications Officer at Worcester Theatres) and Kacey Palmer (University of Worcester student). Find out more about Shire Stories by visiting the Worcester Theatres website, and check out upcoming Shire Stories workshops on our What's On Page!