Youth Theatre Arts Scotland are delighted to announce the successful applicants to our Grants for Youth Theatre funding scheme. We received 26 applications and were able to award eight grants, which add up to just under £22,000 of support and investment across the sector.
Grants for Youth Theatre 2022 aimed to provide funding for projects and activities which address local youth theatre access, resource and capacity, workforce or training issues. Funding of between £500 and £3,000 was available, and all members of YTAS, including youth theatre groups, organisations and freelancers, were invited to apply.
Submissions fell into many different categories, including ongoing running costs, provision of free access, additional staff or equipment, training staff and young leaders, costs for a new production or project, costs to provide for a new targeted group (typically for a protected characteristic or characteristic of deprivation), and outreach or collaboration costs.
So, who’s been funded this time, and what are they doing?
As a result of increasing performance venue costs in many rural venues, Borders Youth Theatre (BYT) are bringing together 25 senior participants from across their widespread catchment area to be part of an eight-day performance project during the February school break.
Eden Court Highlands will be running a creative writing project with 14–18-year-old pupils across the Highlands, workshopping and writing a script on the theme of ‘Protest’ that will be part of their Eden Court Youth Theatre showcase in June.
Toonspeak Young People’s Theatre want to invest in training for their Connectors, a team of young people working to capture and share content on Toonspeak’s impact, promote their opportunities and ensure the company are listening to participants’ input.
Overdrive Dance Company are developing a new piece of dance theatre to reduce the stigma and discrimination against mental health issues in young males and promote the importance of support. The work will be performed at Go Dance, a community dance festival hosted at the Theatre Royal Glasgow.
Freelancers Nicholas Barton-Wines & Ryan Hay have been funded for the R&D and early production stages of an ambitious international project based on Shakespeare’s King Lear, in collaboration with Perth Youth Theatre and Kopergeitery in Belgium.
Lyra will be investing in gender inclusion and disability awareness training for their freelancers, as well as using some of the funds to engage a series of guest artists to collaborate with the Young Company in the development of their 2023 production.
Glas(s) Performance are working with a steering group of young people to design the first Youth Arts Symposium in HMP & YOI Polmont. The symposium will take place over two days, including workshops, discussions, and short performances open to all young people in Polmont, as well as sessions for invited guests from both the arts and justice sectors to hear from the young people and discuss how they can continue their engagement in the arts beyond release.
ShowWorks Theatre CIC will be staging a new collaboration performance project linking young people from their weekly workshops in Largs and Glasgow. Their new piece of theatre focusses on the war in Ukraine, with much of the dialogue written by a 13-year-old aspiring playwright within the group.
About this and future rounds of Grants for Youth Theatre
The ambition on show throughout all of the applications to this round of Grants for Youth Theatre was inspiring to read, and as much as we wish we could fund everyone who applied, we did have to choose between some excellent projects. If you’ve been unsuccessful this time, we hope you have success in applications to other funders. If you haven’t applied to the scheme yet, we hope you’ll apply in future. Keep an eye on our social media (#GrantsForYouthTheatre) and newsletters for news of future rounds!
The scheme was made possible through the generous support of Creative Scotland’s Recovery Fund for Cultural Organisations, the Gannochy Trust and MacRobert Trust.
