The GYTC is split into two age groups: 11 – 14 year olds and 15 – 19 year olds but anyone outside these age groups at the time of joining is welcome to contact Colin Snell. Workshop sessions take place normally on Wednesdays, with ten sessions per term, and last for 90 mins. 11- 14 year olds 6.00 – 7.30 pm and 15 – 19 year olds 7.30 pm – 9.00 pm and cover improvisation, scripted and devised work and are designed to encourage solo and collaborative working, creativity, confidence, self-esteem and performance skills. The GYTC is also looking for company members interested in developing their technical and administrative skills and not necessarily interested in being on stage.

Having been formed successfully in September, 2009, the GYTC has made an instant mark with its production of Goldoni’s A Servant to Two Masters playing on the main stage at the Grand before a week’s run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Plans for this coming year include participation in the National Theatre’s Connections programme of new writing, which will be a production of a new piece to be performed in the Lawrence House Studio and also at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, devised piece for the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and, at the invitation of Richard Demarco of the Demarco Foundation, an open-air performance of a Shakespeare play in the grounds of Craigcrook Castle, Edinburgh, in addition to showcasing work throughout the year.

Dates for the Spring Term:

JANUARY:

18th and 25th

FEBRUARY:

1st, 8th, 15th (Venue to be confirmed), 22nd

MARCH:

7th, 14th, 21st, 28th

Payment is £50.00 per term and cheques should be made payable to GYTC and brought to the first session.

Drama workshops are currently being held for membership of the Grand Youth Theatre Company and anyone interested in joining the company for the new term should contact Colin Snell, GYTC, at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, in the first instance or attend the open evening on Wednesday 7th September from 6.00 pm at the Lawrence House Studio Theatre. The GYTC is split into two age groups: 11 – 14 year olds and 15 – 26 year olds but anyone outside these age groups at the time of joining is welcome to contact Colin Snell.

Workshop sessions take place normally on Wednesdays, with ten sessions per term, and last for 90 mins. 11- 14 year olds 6.00 – 7.30pm and 15 – 26 year olds 7.30 pm – 9.00pm and cover improvisation, scripted and devised work and are designed to encourage solo and collaborative working, creativity, confidence, self-esteem and performance skills. The GYTC is also looking for company members interested in developing their technical and administrative skills and not necessarily interested in being on stage.

Having been formed successfully in September, 2009, the GYTC has made an instant mark with its production of Goldoni’s A Servant to Two Masters playing on the main stage at the Grand before a week’s run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2010 and has successfully completed a two week run of Ella Hickson’s Eight at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Plans for this coming year include involvement with the Blackpool Literary Festival, the Whitefield Halloween Festival, participation in the National Theatre’s Connections programme of new writing, which will be a production of a new piece, The Prince of Denmark, to be performed in the Lawrence House Studio and also at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, a devised piece for the 2012 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and a proposed production of Simon Stephens’ Punk Rock.

GYTC director, Colin Snell:

‘There are a number of groups within Blackpool and the Fylde who cater for young people largely up to the age of 16. It is my experience that there are a number of slightly older people who are looking to continue or to develop their drama and performance skills but for whom there is no identifiable group in the area to meet their needs and ambitions It may very well be that they are on a gap year, or recently completed a degree, or looking at changing direction and looking towards drama schools. Membership of GYTC would provide an ideal opportunity for such individuals.

Although GYTC has only been in operation for two years, we have just returned from our second visit to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where we presented Ella Hickson’s award-winning play, EIGHT, a series of monologues focusing on young people’s attitudes in Britain today. New GYTC members will get the opportunity of seeing the company at first hand when the production is seen in the Lawrence House Studio from the 12th – 14th September where all eight monologues will be presented on the same evening. The performances were described as ‘impressive’ by List magazine which reviewed the show.’

GYTC member, Amy Clark, from South Shore, is the first GYTC member to win a place at drama school. In September she will be starting at Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre to commence her training as an actor. She will, no doubt, be followed by a succession of GYTC members.

Term dates:

Wednesday 7th September:
open evening and first session followed by ten weekly sessions each Wednesday.

Payment is £50.00 per term and cheques should be made payable to GYTC and brought to the first session.

Colin Snell
Grand Youth Theatre Company Director
youththeatre@blackpoolgrand.co.uk

A New production by the Grand Youth Theatre Company

Georgia, Aaron and Leon have been friends since they were kids. Now they’re young adults, in their first jobs, and sharing a house in the city with newcomer Lana. It’s been two years since the accident in which Georgia lost the use of her legs, and she’s doing her best to adjust but her boyfriend and friends find the change testing.  Those Legs is an intense, psychological drama that presents the precarious nature of friendship and young love in startling close-up.

This production is part of the National Theatre in London’s prestigious Connections programme, which shines a nurturing spotlight on young theatre talent across the UK. BAFTA winning British writer Noel Clarke is just one of ten playwrights who have been specially commissioned by the NT to produce inspirational new works for participating groups to perform.

Grand Youth Theatre Company Director, Colin Snell, said: “Those Legs provides great challenges for the GYTC in terms of theme, content and language; it is a small cast play that will extend and develop the skills of the actors and focuses on relationships and the subject of disability and corresponding issues.

“Having been part of the Connections programme for some ten years, the opportunity to work on new writing aimed specifically at the young is excitingly unique and provides audiences with a potent theatrical experience. The National is committed to working with new writers and young people and this scheme, which embraces over three hundred young companies nationally, is a celebration of youth theatre at its very best.”

(SUITABLE FOR 16+ YEARS)

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The National Theatre Connections programme
London’s National Theatre has commissioned ten thrilling new plays for young people from some of the most exciting writers they know in a nationwide celebration of young theatre talent at theatres across the UK.
The Connections programme gives theatre groups the chance to stage a brand new play, written for actors aged 13-19, in their home venue and at a regional festival with other Connections companies. They support with advice on choosing the script and on staging the play and with an intensive weekend’s training for the directors of each young company. The directors of all participating groups attended a workshop at the National Theatre in November with the writer of their selected play and a facilitating director for that particular workshop.
The plays in the 2011 Connections portfolio offer a huge variety of stories and styles to ignite the imagination of young casts and creative teams. The writers commissioned by the NT have worked with young people across the country and beyond – from the Shetland Isles to Devon, from Wiltshire to Manhattan – to create plays which respond to young people’s ideas and concerns, and extend their view of the world. Themes are both teenage and universal –ambition, dashed hopes, fear and confidence, loyalty and betrayal. These new plays embrace a huge range for their inspiration: they plunder classics and imagine the future.
The regional Connections partner for GYTC is the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal and the area showcase is in May. The GYTC will perform Those Legs on the final day of the festival – Saturday 7th May. The regional showcase allows all participating groups to perform their productions to a wider audience and each production is assessed by a National Theatre selector.
For further information please visit: http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/newconnections

Presented By: Grand Youth Theatre Company

Booking information

Box Office 01253 290190 or click here to book online.

Adult £7.00, Child £6.00

Interested in joining the company for the new term? Then contact Colin Snell, GYTC, at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool, in the first instance or attend the first workshop on Tuesday 14th September at the Lawrence House Studio Theatre.

The GYTC is split into two age groups: 11 – 14 year olds and 15 – 19 year olds but anyone outside these age groups at the time of joining is welcome to contact Colin Snell. Workshop sessions take place normally on Wednesdays, with ten sessions per term, and last for 90 mins. 11- 14 year olds 6.00 – 7.30 pm and 15 – 19 year olds 7.30 pm – 9.00 pm and cover improvisation, scripted and devised work and are designed to encourage solo and collaborative working, creativity, confidence, self-esteem and performance skills. The GYTC is also looking for company members interested in developing their technical and administrative skills and not necessarily interested in being on stage.

Having been formed successfully in September, 2009, the GYTC has made an instant mark with its production of Goldoni’s A Servant to Two Masters playing on the main stage at the Grand before a week’s run at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Plans for this coming year include participation in the National Theatre’s Connections programme of new writing, which will be a production of a new piece to be performed in the Lawrence House Studio and also at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, devised piece for the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and, at the invitation of Richard Demarco of the Demarco Foundation, an open-air performance of a Shakespeare play in the grounds of Craigcrook Castle, Edinburgh, in addition to showcasing work throughout the year.

Dates for the Autumn Term:

Tuesday 14th September
Wednesday 29th September
Wednesday 6th October
Wednesday 13th October
Wednesday 27th October
Wednesday 3rd November
Wednesday 10th November
Wednesday 17th November
Wednesday 24th November
Wednesday 1st December

Payment is £50.00 per term and cheques should be made payable to GYTC and brought to the first session.

The Grand Youth Theatre Company is set to grace the Grand Theatre, Blackpool’s main stage for the very first time with Lee Hall’s revised working of the hilarious 18th century commedia A Servant to Two Masters on Thursday 15th July.

Confusion abounds in Carlo Goldoni’s comedy of disguise, deception, love and longing as servant Truffaldino who, in trying to fill both his wallet and his stomach, attempts to hold down two jobs and please all. Truffaldino says: ‘I get double the pay, and two suppers. Streamlined efficiency, a sort of downsizing of the service economy. If they’d thought it up, it’d be called innovation.’

Lee Hall, well known for his original play Spoonface Steinberg and his adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mr Puntilla and his Man Mutti, has expertly brought up to date A Servant To Two Masters with which Goldoni broke with commedia dell’arte tradition and wrote down the script for his comedians.

The GYTC will serve up an evening of fun and frolics in Lee’s translation of this classic of farces now set in the 1960s. Grand Youth Theatre Company Director, Colin Snell, said: “The GYTC’s first production is a piece full of energy and vitality which will suit the group admirably. By way of preparation the company has already had a workshop on commedia dell’arte and will be applying their knowledge and skills to the piece. It is very much a challenging production, requiring a physicality and pace which their youthfulness will give it.”

The Grand Youth Theatre Company will premiere at Blackpool’s Grand Theatre on Thursday 15th July with an hilarious adaptation of Carlo Goldini’s classic farce A Servant To Two Masters at 7pm. All seats £8.50.

Call the Grand Theatre Box Office on 01253 290190, click on www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk or visit the Grand Theatre information sales point in the Houndshill Shopping Centre for bookings and further information.

A new term begins for the Grand Youth Theatre Company on Wednesday 21st April.

Start times are as follows
6.00pm for 11 – 14year olds
8.00pm for 15 – 19year olds

GYTC dates for the new terms are:

Summer Term: April 21st and 28th, 
May 5th
, 12th
, 19th and 26th May.

Half Term: June 9th
, 16th
, 23rd
 and 30th June

Potential new members are invited to contact Colin Snell regarding membership of the GYTC youththeatre@blackpoolgrand.co.uk

The Grand Theatre is delighted to be working with GYTC Director Colin Snell to deliver exciting opportunities for young people to engage with a wide range of theatre arts through the new Youth Theatre Company.

Sessions run weekly in three terms through the school year, and are arranged into two aged bands – 11 to 14 year olds and 15 to 19s.

This powerful play with music is a romp through the bubble-gum years of teenage life. Angela and Maxine, both sixteen, attack life with laughter and excitement.

Besotted with Madonna they truant from school, form a band, attempt to write songs – and live out their adolescent dreams of becoming famous.

Meanwhile Angela’s mother Viv is distraught after her husband leaves her for another woman. She struggles to come to terms with herself and her daughter. A volatile but loving relationship develops as the two grow to appreciate each other’s different needs: hope, sex, ambition, despair and most of all love.

Presented by In Yer Space

The Grand Theatre, Blackpool
Wed 31Mar to Fri 2Apr
Box Office 01253 290190 or book online www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk

This new website (gytc.co.uk) is a collaboration between the Grand Theatre, Blackpool and the GYTC. Managed and edited by the GYTC members with the assistance of the Grand Theatre’s eCommerce and Design Manager. The gytc.co.uk website will deliver updates on special events, ongoing projects, announcements, plans for the future, Grand Theatre productions and exclusive interviews with stars from stage, screen and back stage.

The Grand Theatre is delighted to be working with GYTC Director Colin Snell to deliver exciting opportunities for young people to engage with a wide range of theatre arts through the new Youth Theatre Company.

Sessions run weekly in three terms through the school year, and are arranged into two aged bands – 11 to 14 year olds and 15 to 19s.

The sessions cover a broad range of theatrical activity, the company looks for young people to embrace the ethos of forming a Theatre Company at the Grand. This will involve technical theatre; marketing and promotion; theatrical design as well as performance.

Sessions will run for 90 minutes on Wednesday evenings and cost £50 per term.

GYTC dates for the new term are: Summer Term: April 21st, April 28th, May 5th, May 12th, May 19th, May 26th, HALF TERM, June 9th, June 16th, June 23rd, June 30th. GYTC members are required to make payment for each new term on the first day of each term (cheques for £50.00 should be made payable to the Grand Theatre, Blackpool).

To join the GYTC contact Colin Snell, Grand Youth Theatre Company for membership details.
Email youththeatre@blackpoolgrand.co.uk

Blackpool’s Grand Theatre announces sensational new shows for 2010 including Dirk Benedict as super sleuth Lt Columbo and the return of opera with La Bohème and The Marriage of Figaro

Visit Blackpool’s beautiful Grand Theatre and you will experience everything from opera, plays, comedies, musicals, murder mysteries and contemporary drama to fun children’s shows and of course pantomime!

Just announced! Lieutenant Columbo is back on the case at Blackpool’s Grand from Tuesday 11th May to Saturday 15th May! Dirk Benedict (The A Team, Battlestar Galactica) stars as the iconic shambling sleuth alongside Patrick Ryecart in Prescription: Murder – the first case ever written for Columbo and the original stage play which became the pilot episode for the legendary TV series. Psychiatrist Roy Fleming is celebrating his wedding anniversary when he is called away with a female patient. On returning he has to soothe his angry wife with a vacation, but Fleming’s wife is soon found dead and Lt Columbo is called in to investigate. It isn’t long before the seeds of doubt are planted in his mind. Just one more thing…

Also just announced is the welcome return of opera to Blackpool’s Grand Theatre with Co-Opera Company bringing Puccini’s La Bohème on Friday 12th November and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro on Saturday 13th November. Whether this is your first taste of Puccini’s masterpiece or you are a connoisseur of his tragic yet beautiful opera, you will adore this celebration of all things youthful. William Relton’s inspired direction takes you on a heart-breaking journey, while Puccini’s glorious melodies echo the innocence and petulance, the passion and despair, the optimism and loss which are the potent ingredients in this classic tale of love. Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro has often been referred to as one of the three perfect ‘popular’ operas. Its heady mix of comedy and pathos, lust and love, betrayal and social intrigue is every bit as powerful and relevant today as it was in the 18th century.

Add to that the hilarious holiday camp antics of Hi-de-Hi starring original TV cast members Barry Howard and Nikki Kelly; the magical musical adaptation of the best-selling picture book The Gruffalo; a fabulous new stage production of TV’s hugely successful social comedy Keeping Up Appearances with an all-star cast to be announced; fizztickling family fun with Roald Dahl’s George’s Marvellous Medicine; a wonderful whistle-stop tour of the greatest tap dance moments in show business history with Tap Dance Fever and the delightful domestic comedy Wife Begins at Forty starring Vicki Michelle, Mark Curry, Anita Graham, Trevor Bannister, Brian Godfrey and Damian Hunt which opens at Blackpool’s Grand prior to its national tour!

And a spectacular season of one night stands with the musical rock theatre spectacular Vampire’s Rock starring Steve Steinman; the Hairy Bikers Big Night Out with Simon King and Dave Myers cooking up a storm live on stage; celebrity psychic Sally Morgan back by popular demand direct from her new smash hit TV series Psychic Sally: On The Road; feathers, Frank Sinatra and fabulous big band swing with One Night in Vegas and the brand new singing and dancing stage family show The Little Big Club starring Barney, Bob the Builder, Angelina Ballerina, Pingu, Fifi Forget-me-Not and Fireman Sam.

Blackpool’s Grand also welcomes back Blackpool Operatic Players with the marvellous musical love story Mack and Mabel; Blackpool & Fylde Light Opera Company with Disney’s enchanting Beauty and the Beast; nostalgic pleasure and madcap mayhem with Dad’s Army Marches On starring Leslie Grantham (EastEnders’ Dirty Den) as Pte Walker in commemoration of Veterans’ Week 2010; UK Productions with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s barnstorming musical Oklahoma! starring West End legend Marti Webb and Mark Evans (BBC’s Your Country Needs You) and Ian Dickens Productions with the comedy thriller Murdered to Death starring Graham Cole (The Bill) and Sandra Dickinson (Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) and darkly hilarious Nightfright starring Paul Opacic (Emmerdale, Bad Girls) and Ben Roberts (The Bill).

And you can’t forget the Grand Theatre’s fantastic family pantomime. On no you can’t!Aladdin This year’s fun-filled panto is jam-packed with music, dance, laughter, fabulous costumes and lavish sets and will star the hilarious Steve Royle (BBC Radio Lancashire) as Wishee Washee with a full star line–up to be announced.

There really is something for everyone! And there’s much more on offer in the brand new brochure available to pick up at the Grand Theatre Box Office now or online at www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk

Grand Theatre General Manager and Chief Executive, Neil Thomson, said: “Welcome to the Grand’s exciting show line-up for 2010. We are especially pleased to see the return of local firm F Parkinson Ltd as one of our sponsors, who helped us bring the Woman In Black back to our theatre and to hear opera in the Grand again with Co-Opera’s La Bohème and Marriage of Figaro – a new and dynamic company. The Grand is your community theatre and we look forward to seeing you here soon!”

For full 2010 show information and bookings please call the Grand Theatre Box Office on 01253 290190, click on the website www.blackpoolgrand.co.uk or visit the Grand Theatre information sales point in the Houndshill Shopping Centre.