Like all theatre companies, Canberra Youth Theatre didn't have a good year in coronavirus-plagued 2020.
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But some activities continued, especially online, and, artistic director Luke Rogers says, "We survived."
One show in 2020 was postponed from May until October. Rogers is hoping 2021 will be, like that show's title, Normal.
He says this year's program is ''exciting and very strong".
There are three major shows planned, two of which will be in the Courtyard Studio at the Canberra Theatre.
Scheduled for May is Morgan Rose's Little Girls Alone in the Woods, to be directed by Rogers. This recent Australian adaptation of Euripides' The Bacchae, viewed through a contemporary feminist lens, is set in an town where girls keep disappearing and nobody knows how or why.
Rogers says the play is about the pressures placed on youth as well as "the urgency that young people have about wanting to be heard and their voices taken seriously".
He says "it's a really challenging and exciting piece for teenagers" and one of its main ideas in exploring society is that "there is another way of doing things".
In July, CYT in collaboration with The Street Theatre will present, at The Street, Queensland company The Good Room's I've Been Meaning to Ask You. This touring production is created at each location with young people aged nine to 13 under the supervision of a team led by director Daniel Evans.
"It's unique. The young people ask questions they've always wanted to know the answers to and adults anonymously respond. Then the kids perform another response."
Rogers describes it as "a combination of a rock eisteddfod and a TED talk". Although there's no music, there's a lot of energy and video as well as live components, integrated into a conversation-starting performance.
"It's a revealing one-hour tell-all."
The third show's title is a mouthful. Michael Costi's Two Twenty Somethings Decide Never To Be Stressed About Anything Ever Again. Ever is another recent Australian play that will be directed by Rogers and staged in the Courtyard Studio. The two characters are a young couple burdened with concerns who decide to stop worrying and live the ideal millennial lifestyle. But expectations and problems are hard to shake and getting things right is a challenge. Rogers says the play is "a hilarious comedy and very much a bit of a cathartic response to the year that was 2020", even though it was written before that.
"It's a satire about the little anxieties in our lives that accumulate into something of an existential crisis. We need a laugh."
Aimed at young adults is the Resident Artists program that provides training and creative development opportunities. Applications close at 5pm on March 1, 2021.
Rogers says a big thing this year is the Emerge Company, a training and development program for early-career theatre makers aged from 18 to 25. Industry professionals will mentor participants to develop their creative skills and gain the tools and networks to build a sustainable career in the arts. Applications for the Emerge Company close at 6pm on February 24, 2021.
This will be the second year of the Emerging Playwright Commission - done over Zoom last year, live this year - which offers a $16,000 commission to an emerging young playwright or writing team to create a full-length work that brings young voices and stories to the stage. Applications open in February. The Young Playwrights Program - for playwrights aged 18 to 25 looking to develop their skills - will be open for applications later in the year.
For more information on CYT activities: canberrayouththeatre.com.au.