Announcing 2023 at ATYP
Welcome to November. It’s the month we start to see the end in sight for the slightly ridiculous year that 2022 has been and look forward to the new opportunities that 2023 will bring.
In 2023 ATYP is celebrating a birthday. Australia’s oldest theatre company will be 60 years young! So we’ve decided to take a very different approach to our programming. Rather than launch a season, we will release our major productions one event at a time. We’ve got some big shows locked in, from an international co-production and a national tour to the return of a crowd favourite. It’s going to be a year of party invitations.
The first major production for 2023 is the theatrical love child of an awesome house party and serious political movement, The Resistance. From the brilliant mind of theatre-maker Kip Chapman, this production takes the audience on an interactive journey into community, hope, hilarity, and activism, navigated by four young people determined to change the world. Co-produced with Auckland Theatre Company, The Resistance is a little different from your average night out at the theatre.
This World Premiere production is the perfect launch to ATYP’s 60th year. Yes, Australia’s oldest youth theatre company is 60 years young.
But before 2022 is done, we still have some events to celebrate as we close in on Christmas. I’m writing this introduction from Darwin where I’m about to join four fabulous young playwrights to rehearse and stage their 30-minute Fresh Ink readings. From here we will travel to Brisbane, Sydney, and Hobart showcasing the next cohort of Australian playwrights.
Meanwhile back in the Rebel Theatre, there are young artists taking over the building. This weekend on the 5th and 6th of November we are proud to host Whispers & Roars, a Festival of new voices, new sounds and emerging artists from one of Australia’s leading companies dedicated to supporting the voices of young women, The House that Dan Built. Then the following Friday on the 11th of November is the inaugural Youth Advisory Board Scratch Night, a showcase of exceptional young talent developed and curated by ATYP’s YABbies. It’s back-to-back weekends of fresh ideas, new talent and the joy of creativity.
For anyone who hasn’t yet seen the powerful adaptation of Favel Parrett’s iconic Australian novel Past the Shallows, get in quick. The season must end this week. This critically acclaimed production has performed for over 3,000 students in Sydney and Hobart and has been stunning and captivating general audiences.
And just in case you thought that was a lot of performance on the horizon, don’t forget George Kemp’s award-winning play Shack receives its World Premiere opening on the 25th of November (after two COVID setbacks). Set in the freezing wasteland of the Antarctic, a rather poorly planned school excursion takes a tense turn when the group get separated from their teachers and find themselves stuck in a hut in a snowstorm. Tense, funny, and filled with one-liners that lodge in your brain, this is the perfect theatrical ending to a wild and stormy year.
We look forward to seeing you at an ATYP event soon.
Fraser