Our Mini Winter Festival

Before we rugged up and headed into the winter school holidays, there was a mini theatre festival at ATYP! Over one weekend our theatre was lit up by 18 short plays created and performed by our weekly workshop ensembles. Each week young participants aged K – 12 spend time with one or two industry professionals to develop skills, explore ideas and generate their own short stories. The central focus of these workshops is personal growth – developing the imagination, teamwork and confidence to define an idea and present it for others. Once again I left the weekend caught by surprise at the depth, subtlety and sophistication of so many of the pieces. A huge congratulations to all our young ensemble participants and the professional artists that worked so hard to bring the weekend together. The event was something to be very proud of.

We’ve got a couple of unique productions landing in Studio 1 in the next month that you shouldn’t miss. Canberra Youth Theatre are coming to town with The Verbatim Project, their acclaimed production which connects young people with performers from their grandparents’ generation. This life-affirming production premiered in Canberra last year and received an overwhelming response from audiences of all ages. Combining dance, movement and interviews with young people and retirees from around Canberra, the piece explores the myths associated with being young and aging.

If you haven’t already purchased your tickets for our upcoming production, Dignity Of Risk, get in early. This show is a co-production between ATYP and Shopfront Arts and will be the talking point of our 2017 season. A collection of performers from wildly different backgrounds explore what ‘risk’ means, personally and socially in this devised project. Now deep in rehearsals, the work and it’s looking very exciting. It combines personal stories with beautifully imaginative movement and theatricality. Don’t miss it.

For those of you that need plenty of time to plan, make sure you put a circle on the calendar for the evenings of the 12th September which will be ATYP’s annual Celebrity Play Reading, and the 12th October (just to keep it simple) which will be a Trivia Night fundraiser as we begin to say goodby to our beloved Studio 1. Both events are shaping up to be huge fun featuring some very familiar faces. I’d book now because they will both sell out!

And that sums up July. Have a great winter holiday and we look forward to seeing you at an ATYP event soon.

Until next month,

Fraser.