What. A. Summer.
This June, July and September we brought nearly 300 young people, freelancers and youth theatre leaders together in eight unique Get-Togethers all across the country. In Sheffield, Reading, Liverpool, Plymouth, London, Colchester, Birmingham and Newcastle, we heard from youth theatre people about what they need most.
We talked about access, opportunity, travel, pathways, creative development, connectivity, communication, education and so much more. We started to see connections forming between people and groups: a taste of a future in which youth theatres everywhere work together to support young people’s creativity and leadership. Click here to read more from, Kai, aged 17, who shares their experience of the Liverpool Get-Together.
Our Get-Togethers represent the final part of a two-year research and consultation process that has involved more than 1,000 people from more than 500 youth theatres:
It started with the Youth Theatre Census in 2024 - a huge national survey of more than 400 youth theatres that provided insight into what youth theatres are doing and what they need.
It continued with our event for 150 youth theatre people at Contact Theatre in Manchester in 2025, where we creatively and collectively developed six priority areas for our sector.
We set up the youth theatre map - so that everyone can find a youth theatre near them.
And then the Get-Togethers - an extraordinary national exercise in listening and connection.
Which brings us to the next step. We are now ready to put everything we’ve learned into one big plan for the future of youth theatre:
This autumn, we will begin to write the first Youth Theatre Together Strategy, informed by the hundreds of voices we’ve heard over the last two years.
We will set up Youth Theatre Together as an organisation in its own right.
We will start to fundraise to deliver our aims.
The new organisation will be up and running by April 2027, and hopefully much sooner.
As we do this, we will share our progress and our ideas through regular online Get-Togethers, for anyone involved in youth theatre to attend, feed in and learn more.
The next online Get-Together will take place in November and we’ll share the details soon!
Get-Together attendees told us:
“This felt so important and helped to demystify the false idea that we can't all work together as arts organisations and artists. This gave me hope for improvement and change. “
“I loved getting to meet and learn from the other youth theatres. It was also really cool to do the activities with my youth theatre leader because normally she's the one telling us to do that kinda stuff, and it was interesting to see how she does it and learn from her in a different way.”
“One of the biggest takeaways for us was the opportunity to hear different perspectives and share experiences. The workshop has already prompted some significant reflection around one of our biggest annual programmes…it's encouraged us to think more deeply about what inclusive practice looks like within that project.”
“I feel very hopeful; Youth Theatre Together is EXACTLY what we need in our sector - It truly values youth voices.”
If you have been part of any of our activities over the last two years - thank you for your input and ideas. If you have not, we look forward to connecting with you soon.
The future of youth theatre is bright!
Get-Together Photography courtesy of: Zbigniew Kotkiewicz, Will Green, Tyler Whiting
