News – £1.8m for youth theatre

Youth theatre provision across England is being mapped out at the start of a three-year project designed to invest £1.8m in the sector. The Young Peoples Participatory Theatre Programme, which is being run by Arts Council England, will attempt to raise awareness of youth theatre activity nationally, encourage good practice and foster relations between youth theatre participants and professional theatre organisations.
The mapping process, now being undertaken with assistance from the Theatrical Management Association and the National Association of Youth Theatres, is designed to establish a baseline of activity for the project to build upon. The project, which has been funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sports Strategic Commissioning Fund, will formally launch in the autumn, possibly with an international conference, and is likely to establish funding initiatives for the sector. A National Youth Theatre Advisory Council made up of twenty to thirty young people aged 1125 is being formed and will advise the project over its three-year lifespan.