Youth Music Theatre UK
Youth Music Theatre: UK provides inspiring residential music theatre projects for young people across the country, as well as a range of innovative outreach projects. In 2008, YMT: UK premieres nine new musicals and seven Studio workshops, working with over 1200 young people.
Introducing Jon Bromwich - Executive Producer, Youth Music Theatre: UK
"Being in the company is not necessarily about making them great performers. It’s about giving them an extra set of tools they can use in their lives beyond this."
Jon Bromwich has been Executive Producer of Youth Music Theatre: UK since 2003. He has a background in theatre, having spent a decade touring the UK as a Company Manager and Producer, and a further eight years running his own tour management company.
“Youth Music Theatre: UK was set up by a group of us who wanted to create a company developing musical theatre with young people from a wide range of backgrounds. We wanted to create something which was much more accessible and genuinely national, but also a company that was good enough to perform in the West End and could lead the very best performers into careers in the profession. So, as well as auditioning for the most talented performers every year and producing eight new shows, we also run an open access, mixed-ability programme called The Studio; about half of the young people involved in it are referred by agencies – they could be refugees, young carers, young people at risk of offending or those leaving care.
One of the things that makes us special is that we don’t require young people to have a pre-existing skills level. Some of the young people have had extensive training for many years, but then we also had one boy turning up for an audition in Northern Ireland who had never been inside a theatre before – but he had this amazing voice. He was cast in a show right there and then.
Being in the company is not necessarily about making them great performers. It’s about giving them an extra set of tools they can use in their lives beyond this, even if that’s at a job interview in two years’ time. We do talk to parents who say it has changed their son or daughter’s life. And I know that for some youngsters we are another family, a lifeline into something outside their worlds. But then we also get a lot of young people who want to be in Wicked – they think they can make a fortune through stardom but the reality is quite the reverse! Unless they are very talented we don’t push them in the direction of musical theatre as a profession because it’s very hard to make a living from it.
The residential courses are very high intensity. They start at 9.30 in the morning and we work until 9.30 at night – and then they are up until 1am writing lyrics while the staff are telling them to go to bed! I know many young people leave our courses able to do things they couldn’t do before. I think it can be a genuinely lifechanging experience.”
Case Study: Olenka Drapan, 20 (YMT:UK)
Olenka Drapan has been with Youth Music Theatre: UK for four years and now looks after the company’s MySpace page so that members can keep in touch. She is currently at university in Northumbria.
“My teachers at school had always said I should go into acting and I liked the idea of combining that with singing. I wanted to move around and express myself rather than just standing still singing.
“I’ve been involved in Youth Music Theatre: UK since the beginning and I absolutely love it. The teachers and directors have been brilliant and I have learnt so much from the company. Plus I’ve made most of my best friends there.
“The opportunities it gives you are huge, I’ve performed at the House of Commons and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. A lot of the work is devised by the cast members - we’ll put together storylines and lyrics, so it’s not just learning a script. Everyone has their own input. That makes it more personal which is really nice.
“Everyone seems to be on the same level and wants to do their best and everyone lets everyone else speak. And the company really listens to new ideas; I don’t think there are many companies like that. It can be intimidating at first because there are such talented people, but after a while people just want to work harder to prove themselves. Any performance is only as strong as the weakest member.
“I think Youth Music Theatre teaches a lot of life skills, like teamwork, especially because you are devising theatre with other people’s ideas. It has definitely changed me personality-wise. Some of the things we did were really quite emotional and brought out the things you think you should improve on. A lot of people went back and built relationships with friends they’d lost or better relationships with their parents. A lot of people have changed for the better.
“I’m hoping to go on an exchange programme to Canada next year and then go into teaching. I would love to be a performer but it’s such a difficult industry to get into, you have to be prepared to be told ‘no’. I’ve been teaching children from the age of four for about three years and a lot of my ideas have come from Youth Music Theatre. I don’t think I would have had the confidence to teach without it.”
Visit the official website for Youth Music Theatre: UK
www.youthmusictheatreuk.org
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