Formerly Theatrecraft Youth Unlimited
Changing, but not going anywhere!
Sam Dolan
Theatre Youth Unleashed – is the new name for what was Theatrecraft Youth Unlimited. With it, Andrew Davies and I will spearhead new directions for the group into the future. Joanne Watt, having wonderfully operated Theatrecraft Youth Unlimited since 2008, will be stepping away as we split from The Victorian Drama League.
I really have to thank Joanne Watt for all of the backbreaking work she has done over these 14 years. She has built an incredible program that has gone through so much change and keeps people coming back.The powerhouse of it all, she has provided so much opportunity for young people not only in Victoria but in various other parts of Australia too!
And the teams she has created to make it all happen are nothing short of brilliant. Jo has created networks upon networks and made an incredible impact in the lives of so many people and I can’t thank her enough for it all. Although, her stepping away doesn’t mean she’s rid of it. I’ll be bugging her with, “How do we…”, questions for a long time still.
I’d also love to thank The Victorian Drama League for hosting such a great platform, and providing all the support that made our camps and workshops happen. The work you do is phenomenal.
My first drama camp with TYU was in 2017 performing Love and Information by Caryl Churchill, as a recipient of the Nicky McFarlane Bequest – an experience I am forever grateful for. Being led by such brilliant directors and working with like-minded theatre-types really solidified that this is the work I want to do. All I had really done in theatre was pantomime and musicals – the pickings that many regional kids get.
However, the camp brought so much potential into frame. I saw what else we could do when we get our creative minds together. Now having completed study, and facilitated some of these camps myself, I’m excited to be able to offer that opportunity to others.
Andy and I plan to continue with performance projects, and workshop camps like we have in the past. They are a brilliant format for bringing young people together and are great for us to do in well-spaced points throughout a year. But we’re also planning to reach out to regional centers across the state to see if they might host us over a weekend so we can target specific areas and make friends there and establish ourselves as a presence state-wide. Generating word of mouth feedback and bringing what we offer to them, we may get more people to join us on our larger camps, getting more minds in the room, and more skills to participants.
We also are working on facilitating camps and workshops that are not limited to youth. If there is the interest for us to run sessions for those who don’t fit in the youth bracket, but still don’t have ways to develop skills further, we’d love to hold that space.
For now, we have our Mansfield Project, with new and old faces to TYU. In a way this is a great test for us to establish ourselves in a new area. And from there, an Easter school holiday project at Allambee Camp.
If you have any questions, thoughts, ideas, requests, or otherwise, my contact number is 0429237419 and our new email is theatreyouthunleashed@gmail.com
We’d love to hear from you and get new projects underway.
Sam Dolan
Theatre Youth Unleashed