About the Youth Theatre Together Event

Our aim at Youth Theatre Together was to collectively articulate the key priorities for a new national development agency for youth theatre.

We knew that in order to do this, we had to create a programme in which the people who lead and take part in youth theatres had space to talk as experts. We wanted it to be led - as youth theatre always is - through creativity and collaboration.

We threw out the tired conventions of conferences in which a few ‘experts’ speak on panels and everyone else listens. We designed workshops in dance, zine-making, spoken word, improvisation and devising, to create space for everyone to think and talk about the future of youth theatre. We invited the people who normally get asked to speak at conferences to become ‘Listeners’: to listen the conversations and take detailed notes.

We invited five current or very recent youth theatre members to be our paid Artists-in-Residence. They presented provocations and responses to open and close the event, and contributed to all the workshops and discussions.

As themes emerged in the making and conversations, we created open discussion groups to explore them in more depth and refine them into potential priorities for the new national body.

Access was key to the event. We provided accommodation and travel expenses for everyone who needed it. We had a dedicated Access, Wellbeing and Equity team ensuring everyone’s access and other needs were met.

100% of participants said their access needs were met, and 98.5% said they felt safe and comfortable throughout the event.

More than 150 people came, representing more than 90 organisations and every region of the country. The demand was so high we could have easily doubled this number if capacity and budget had allowed.