The Radcliffe Trust proudly supports the National Theatre (NT) as it trains apprentices in Scenic Art. Apprentices are learning craft skills from specialist Scenic Artists and gaining a professional qualification while earning a living wage.
Apprentices Lily Cleaver and Jade Boycott joined the National Theatre’s Scenic Art Team in May 2025, in their backstage workshops on the South Bank. Their course is a mixture of on-the-job learning and development at the NT and week-long training periods at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art).
Lily said “Working on the job whilst learning and gaining a qualification has been fantastic and being surrounded by industry professionals, I have learnt so much! Just from working within a workshop environment has improved my skills tremendously, making me a professional and trained future employee. The biggest way my apprenticeship has opened career pathways is the people! You have the opportunity to meet so many lovely people from so many different departments, with an extraordinary range of knowledge. Understanding these individuals’ roles and how each team works together has not only made me even more appreciative of the industry I get to work in, but a more well-rounded employee.”
Jade said “I believe this apprenticeship will be crucial in opening career pathways that would have been much more uncertain without it. My lifelong dream of working at Pinewood Studios now feels far more achievable, thanks to the practical skills, industry knowledge, and professional connections I will gain through this apprenticeship.”
Across their first year as apprentices, they have developed skills to create a variety of effects for stage sets and scenery. Scenic painting requires working on a huge scale, creating depth and the illusion that a set is lived-in and real. The techniques needed for the set of each production vary, and Lily and Jade have learned skills from poly-carving to portraiture, sign writing and creating faux stained glass and worked on sets from a life-size recreation of a North London terraced house in End to a dilapidated gothic manor for The Authenticator.
Both apprentices enjoyed painting a 30-metre backdrop for the National Theatre’s Autumn 2025 production of Hamlet. This huge mural was stretched across the entire set of Hamlet’s palace at Elsinore, depicting battle scenes, a manor house and a forest – with the figures of past Hamlets at the National Theatre hidden amongst the figures.
“The Radcliffe Trust’s support for our Scenic Artist Apprenticeship has enabled this training to take place, supporting routes into craft careers for these amazing young people.”
– National Theatre