Creative Access Dramaturgy with Kate Lovell

The Egg at Theatre Royal Bath has announced a major year-long arts programme inspired by The Secret Garden, marking the venue’s 20th anniversary and celebrating two decades of transforming theatre for young audiences in Bath and across the UK. The centre piece of the Secret Gardens programme is a disability-led production of the novel, adapted by Tom Wentworth, and around it will be a series of experiences and learning tools aimed at babies, hospital in-patients and school children.

Kate Lovell is a disabled theatre director, playwright and cultural leader with a passion for centring disabled voices in the arts. Kate is delighted to be returning to the Egg as Creative Access Dramaturg on The Secret Gardens programme, having previously worked in a similar role for Wendy: A Peter Pan Story and facilitating a Creative Access Retreat at The Egg in 2023. She is currently Co-Creative Director at Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, where she leads accessible, inclusive programming and supports artists at every stage of their careers.

As Creative Access Dramaturg on The Secret Gardens, what does “access-led dramaturgy” mean to you in practice, and how has it shaped the disability-led reimagining of The Secret Garden?

My work on the project began in 2023, when The Egg invited me to lead an Access Retreat for disabled and non-disabled artists connected to the production. Over several days we created space to explore access in depth, not as a one-off training, but as a shared creative foundation, so that conversations about access could shape the work before writing or design began.

For me, access-led dramaturgy means building the creative process around removing barriers from the outset. It’s about using tools that open the work to as many audiences as possible as an inherent part of storytelling, rather than retrofitting solutions later. Captioning and audio description are vital, but access runs deeper than that. It’s about ensuring disabled artists are shaping the work so lived experience informs the artistic choices.

In this reimagining of The Secret Garden, that has meant a disabled-led creative team, research with disabled young people, and recognising Mary as a neurodivergent character. We’ve also revisited Colin through a contemporary lens, ensuring his journey resonates with young audiences today.

Crucially, it has meant asking who might not be able to access the story in a theatre building. The project has expanded into children’s hospitals, local schools, and work for babies and toddlers, each strand led by specialists in those communities — extending the story beyond the stage.

The programme brings together climate dramaturgy, disability awareness, and youth co-creation. How do you navigate and weave these strands together?

We’ve brought these strands together through shared spaces — workshops and retreats where artists could explore ideas collectively while the work was still forming. Each specialist offered provocations from their perspective, allowing the themes to inform one another rather than sit separately.

A key principle has been recognising that disability justice and climate justice are interconnected. Because the story is told through young people’s eyes, youth voices provide the lens through which everything else is considered, grounding the work in lived experience and future thinking.

 You have been supporting the project since early on through disability awareness training and access support during the recent Artists’ Retreat. How important is it for access conversations to happen at the very start of a long-term creative process like this?

Starting access conversations early allows creative access to be embedded from the beginning, shaping storytelling, design, and process rather than being added later. It encourages teams to ask: how can this production remove barriers, and who might still be excluded?

It’s also important to acknowledge that no production can be fully accessible to everyone. But beginning early creates space to think ambitiously and realistically about what’s possible, and to treat access as a creative driver.

In this project, early conversations helped identify audiences who might not attend the theatre, leading to new commissions and outreach that extend the work into community settings.

The Egg talks about “deep producing” and slowing down as part of a more inclusive and less carbon-fuelled approach. From a dramaturgical perspective, what does slowing down make possible, both artistically and ethically?

The commitment to deep producing, beginning conversations years before opening, allows artists to build trust, develop ideas carefully, and collaborate without pressure or competition. Access becomes part of the creative fabric rather than something negotiated under time constraints.

Slower timelines are also essential for disabled artists, who are often excluded by the pace of traditional theatre-making. Time allows for access needs to be met, research materials to be made usable, and health to be managed without personal cost.

Artistically, slowing down creates space for reflection and risk — decisions can be made because they are exciting, not simply expedient. Ethically, it supports more sustainable ways of working where rest and creativity can coexist.

Looking ahead to the premiere in July 2026, what do you hope children and young people will feel or recognise about themselves in this version of The Secret Garden?

I hope young audiences will see the natural world as a place of possibility, adventure, and care. For disabled and neurodivergent children, I hope there is recognition of aspects of themselves or their lives: in Colin, in Mary, and in the disabled performers themselves.

All children will encounter disabled characters at the centre of the story: making choices, taking risks, arguing, learning, and growing. They are not objects of pity, but fully realised people whose identities include disability without being defined solely by it.

At a time when difference is often framed as something to fear, authentic representation on stage can help normalise disabled lives beyond it. Storytelling shapes how we understand the world and this production offers a vision of inclusion, curiosity, and possibility.

The Secret Garden will be at The Egg from 2 - 26 July theatreroyal.org.uk/your-visit/the-egg/