50 years of youth theatre to be celebrated
A festival celebrating youth theatre is set to take place this summer.
Coventry’s Belgrade Theatre will present All Our Tomorrows next month, celebrating 50 years since its youth theatre programme was established.
The festival will showcase a variety of work from some of the UK’s up and coming young theatre-makers and performers, both at the Belgrade’s B2 auditorium and Shop Front Theatre.
Throughout this week-long festival, pre-professional and early stage companies from Coventry and beyond will take to the stage including Belgrade’s own Young Company and Senior Youth Theatre.
2017 marks the 50 years since the Belgrade Community & Education Company introduced its first youth theatre group. Since then the Belgrade’s Youth Theatre programme has grown into a broad-reaching programme including five in-house youth groups and two outreach youth theatres, for ages 8 to 25.
During its 50 year history, the Belgrade’s Youth Theatre has nurtured and developed emerging young talent that has gone on to have successful careers in the theatre industry, including actor Clive Owen.
All Our Tomorrows will build on the success of the Belgrade’s 2015 July Festival of theatre created by and for young people, as part of the theatre’s Inspiring Curiosity celebrations.
Justine Themen, associate director of the Community & Education Company said “At the Belgrade we offer a very broad participatory programme, open to all but targeting those communities traditionally less engaged with theatre.
“The All Our Tomorrows festival aims to support some of these young people to make a supported step into the profession by sharing their own work and meeting with other young emerging artists from across the UK, from the North East to the South West.
“We are delighted also to be hosting emerging companies from both the city’s universities working to support them to maintain their lives within the city.”
The festival will see the revival of the Belgrade Young Company production Rise, which played on the B2 stage earlier this year and features a young cast of all-female performers. Also performing as part of the festival, Gateway Youth Dance Company and Phoenix Academy NE will present Quantum Leap, which showcases four short works from its repertoire created by some of our country’s leading choreographers.
Coventry-based theatre company Keychain will present their modern, urban love story Shine My Nine and surreal humour, physical theatre and original music will be combined as Clown Funeral, formed by Warwick University graduates, take to the stage with their production of The Murderer.
All Our Tomorrows runs at the Belgrade Theatre from Tuesday 11 to Sunday 16 July, 2017.
