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Australian Theatre for Young People
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is Australia's flagship youth theatre company and the largest youth theatre in the world. Over 6000 young people aged between three and 26 participate in the company's work across Australia. Nicole Kidman, who began at ATYP as a teenager, is the company's patron. Baz Luhrmann is ATYP's Ambassador. Recent Artistic Directors include David Berthold and Timothy Jones.
Formed in 1963, the company creates opportunities for young people from many kinds of backgrounds, from urban centres and sometimes isolated areas of Australia, to discover and explore their creativity and to develop a fuller awareness and appreciation of themselves, the performing arts and their society.
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This is Australia's, and maybe the world's, largest and most comprehensive workshop program for young people. Up to 45 workshops are offered each week, seven days a week throughout the year, exploring acting, physical theatre, music theatre, design, playwriting, camera performance, circus, clown and many other specialist areas. Special school workshops, complementing this program, reach schools in four states.
ATYP mounts up to eight productions a year. These might be radical versions of classics, new plays by young writers, devised performances, physical theatre, or plays written for the company by leading Australian writers, such as Michael Gow's All Stops Out, Nick Enright's Spurboard, Debra Oswald's Skate and Louis Nowra's Beatrice. These productions have featured in major Festivals such as the 2000 Olympic Arts Festival (Stephen Sewell's version of Aristophanes' Birds), 2002 Sydney Festival (Kinderspiel, a collaboration with Theater an der Parkaue, Germany's largest theatre for children and young people), 2003 Shell Connections festival for the National Theatre, London (Brokenville by Philip Ridley), and 2004 Sydney Festival (The Musicians/Eclipse, a co-production with the National Theatre's Young Company [UK]). Productions have toured regionally, nationally and internationally; and regularly involve many of Australia's leading directors, designers and writers.
In 2001, there were major cultural residencies in the Pilbara region of WA, Walgett in the Far West of NSW, the Upper Hunter of NSW and Tasmania, with some residencies running up to three months and usually in partnership with local organizations. In 2002 atyp journeyed to Albury/Wodonga and Hay/Deniliquin for the first time and returned to Walgett, the Pilbara region of WA and regional Tasmania. In 2003, there were return visits to the Pilbara and the Upper Hunter; a new project in Campbelltown and a regional tour of Debra Oswald's Skate to Hay/Deniliquin. In 2004, atyp returned to the Pilbara and Campbelltown as well as visiting the West Coast of Tasmania and Tennant Creek.
In 2000 and 2001 atyp hosted young artists from 26 youth theatre companies from every state and territory of Australia in Central Australia, first in Alice Springs and then in Glen Helen, for ten days of creative collaboration with each other and artists such as Meryl Tankard, Nick Enright, David Berthold, Deborah Cheetham, Gideon Obarzanek, Lucy Bell and Benedict Andrews. An enhanced version of the National Studio ran in July 2002 and in July 2003, also in Central Australia. In 2004 National Studio took place in December at the Arthur Boyd Centre, “Bundanon” near Nowra in NSW.
In November 2002, as part of its ongoing commitment to young writers, atyp launched the National Young Playwrights' Award - a celebration of the talents of young writers between the ages of 15 and 26. The National Young Playwrights' Award offered a cash prize pool of $5,000, with the winning play produced as part of atyp's 2003 production season. The judges for this award were: Michael Gow (playwright/director-Away, Sweet Phoebe, Europe, On Top of the World), Katherine Thomson (playwright-Diving for Pearls, Navigating), Kate Gaul (director- Belvoir Street, Sydney Theatre Company), Tommy Murphy (playwright-Troy's House, Bendy), and David Berthold (atyp Artistic Director).
Many significant Australian artists have spent formative time at atyp. They include Nicole Kidman (atyp's Patron), Toni Collette, Baz Luhrmann, Michael Gow, Rose Byrne, Aden Young, Tom Long, Felix Williamson, Rupert Reid, Adam Cook, Katherine Thomson, Lisa Hensley and Victoria Longley.