Youth Theatre News

News from the Director

Another busy month has passed, seeing a major application submitted to the Lottery Young Peoples Fund, the conclusion of the North West Development Programme in its current form, a new role developed, created and advertised for NAYT and, preparations stepped up for this years Workshop Weekend to be held in the Stratford Cultural Quarter in East London in a couple of weeks time. Planning has also begun in earnest for BYTF 2006 which we hope will be the best ever. We always say that, but it seems to work.

At Workshop Weekend 2006 we will be undertaking a consultation with delegates that will form the basis of a debate into what we understand as quality within our work quality of theatre performance and the process that develops it; quality of development and the strategies needed to fulfil an ambitious, national programme of research and activity; quality of support, training and guidance for practitioners, artists, managers and organisations; and how we, as a diverse, multi faceted sector can work together to take a lead on what we understand as quality and how we see our work being developed, liberated and more controversially, regulated in the future. It is almost certainly true to say that the sector itself understands its own needs better than anyone else, so it will be up to us to begin to draw up a future development plan that will support all of our needs in this respect NAYT cannot achieve this on its own, and whilst we push hard for a cohesive strategy, we hope there will be many opportunities along the way for you to have your say and tell us, who in turn can tell those powers that have influence over our working and wider lives, what you think, what you need, and what you want.

Once Workshop Weekend has passed, we will continue this consultation on a regional and national basis and within a wide range of methods, you can always let us know what you feel through our new online forum please do use this to develop your thoughts and share your feelings, and please look out for the new regional web forums we will be developing shortly.

Thats all for now. If you are coming to Workshop Weekend we will look forward to seeing you there. If not, we will hope to see you soon. Take very good care in whatever you are doing.