ORCHESTRAS AND CHOIRS

Youth Music Theatre UK

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.

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Introducing... 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.youth-music-theatre.org.uk