Merry Christmas From ATYP

Fire up those Summer songs about snow and sleigh bells… and bring on the fat man in the velour suit, it’s Christmas! The ATYP team are as happy as a dog with two tails, we’ve started wrapping up 2017 and are almost ready to pop it in the attic alongside the programs of years gone by.

That’s not to say we’ve slowed down at all! Rob and Claudene have been choreographing a small celebratory dance after an epic weekend of Ensemble performances, Jane is in Perth with the team from Barking Gecko for the last of the national Fresh Ink play readings, Resident Writer Tasnim is frantically finishing her full-length commission before its reading next week, Rowan is locking down the Melbourne auditions for our schools touring program Monologues Now in January, I’m preparing for one last dash overseas to speak at the International Youth Theatre Workshop in Taiwan at the end of next week, we’re in the process of casting Intersection: Chrysalis our first show of 2018 at Griffin Theatre … and the rest of the team are trying to get all the bits and pieces cleaned up and packed away before we turn the lights off and head to the beach.

While we’re all excited to be saying hi to Santa, there is some sadness. Some of our much loved team are leaving us for new adventures. Production Manager Lauren Makin has been kidnapped by the City of Sydney and forced to run major events. Sia’s secret sister and our Marketing and Development Coordinator Bonnie Leigh-dodds, is heading back to Melbourne to add colour and panache to the team at Next Wave. Lastly, the woman who puts the “play” in “playwright”, Tasnim Hossain, finishes her year as our Resident Writer. We’re going to miss them all.

To all the exceptional young people that have lit up our workshops, residencies, programs and productions with energy and laughter we hope you have a wonderful Christmas. To our parents and professional artists we hope you get the chance to put your feet up and celebrate the successes of another year. That’s all from ATYP for 2017.

We look forward to seeing you in the New Year for another action packed year at ATYP

Merry Christmas
Fraser