Roscommon County Youth Theatre is holding an open day on September 13 from 2.30-4.30pm in Roscommon Arts Centre. Membership is open to everyone aged 14 to 22 who wants to learn more about theatre and make new friends. Youth Theatre offers a huge variety of theatre-related activities including weekly workshops, trips to the theatre, and an opportunity to take part in national youth theatre events.
2009 was an exciting year for Roscommon County Youth Theatre, with the launch of a new series of specialist workshops where highly acclaimed theatre professionals visited Roscommon to do a two-hour workshop with the members.
The group also took several trips to the theatre where they saw The New Electric Ballroom in the Backstage Theatre, Longford, The Good Father at Roscommon Arts Centre, and The Seagull at the Peacock, Dublin.
Aside from weekly workshops, trips to the theatre, and workshops with specialists, RCYT members also engage on a national level through projects like the Young Critics programme and the National Youth Theatre. These are both projects of the National Association of Youth Drama, an organisation supporting the development of youth theatre in Ireland.
The young critics programme gives youth theatre members a chance to work with professional theatre critic, Karen Fricker, and to participate in a public event as part of Dublin Theatre Festival where the Young Critics Panel articulate their views on a number of productions. This year, Rhys Reynolds and Blaithin Cox are the Roscommon representatives on the programme and they will be speaking at the Project Arts Centre in Dublin on October 4.
RCYT member Diarmuid Woods was treading the boards at the Peacock in Dublin last week in Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, directed by Wayne Jordan. Earlier this year, the National Association of Youth Drama held open auditions for young people from youth theatres around the country, and Diarmuid was one of the actors selected for the show, which ran from August 24-29.
Diarmuid is not the first member of RCYT to be cast in a National Youth Theatre show. In 2006 Laurence Cole and Stephanie Hudson both performed in The Caucasian Chalk Circle by Berthold Brecht.
For more information on Roscommon County Youth Theatre or to enquire about the open day, phone Roscommon County Arts Office on (090 ) 6632541, email [email protected], or just come along at 2.30pm on September 13!
