Youth Music Theatre UK (YMT) has launched a nationwide search for the best actors, singers, dancers, musicians and back stage crew to join the company in 2014. Aspiring young performers, aged 11–21, can book their place for YMT’s 2014 Workshop & Audition Tour online at www.youthmusictheatreuk.org/auditions.
YMT will be auditioning in 22 cities nationwide: London, Cambridge, Southampton, Leeds, Liverpool, Swansea, Manchester, Bristol, Stockton-on-Tees, Sheffield, Reading, Glasgow, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Edinburgh, Nottingham, Inverness, Cardiff, Plymouth and Birmingham and, for the first time, in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Colchester.
Successful auditionees will work with some of the UK’s leading professional directors, composers and choreographers to stage full-scale productions at some of the country’s most respected theatres and arts festivals. They’ll get the chance to learn new skills, make friends and take their first steps in a career in the performing arts. And participants in YMT musicals will be awarded with Trinity Guildhall’s Grade 8 certificates in Musical Theatre.
YMT graduates have gone on to make their mark in the performing arts – in West End musicals, on TV and even in Hollywood movies. Local young people can follow in the footsteps of their recent graduates including Ed Sheeran, The King’s Speech actress Freya Wilson and Charlotte Ritchie (Channel 4’s Fresh Meat).
Many of YMT’s alumni have gone on to drama school and into the profession including: Josh Tonks (The Sound of Music at Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Fiona Finsbury (first cover, Carlotta in the West End production of The Phantom of the Opera), Richard Lowe and Jamie Muscato (National Theatre’s production The Light Princess), James Gant (Lesgles and understudying Javert in Les Miserables), Bradley Jaden (national tour of Ghost the Musical) and Lauren Samuels (Scaramouche in the world arena tour of We Will Rock You). And YMT also has a track record of producing shows – their 2008 show Loserville had a run in the West End of London and was nominated for an Olivier Award for Best New Musical.
Next year’s productions will include the world premiere of Fagin by Lord of the Rings bookwriter Shaun McKenna, the rise to power of Ms Interpreted, Terry Pratchett’s Soul Music, an actor/musician production of Macbeth and five other new works of musical theatre.
Auditions take the form of a musical theatre workshop, a rare chance to be tutored by some of the leading players in British theatre. There will be a two and a half hour session of dance/drama/singing workshops led by a professional director, choreographer and musical director. The team will lead a series of practical and fun activities to help make the most of the auditionees’ time, and to allow them to show the team exactly what their skills are. The audition team includes Matilda and Top Hat associate director Luke Sheppard, Southwark Playhouse director Ellie Jones, musical directors Richard Healey and Derek Barnes and choreographers Vicki Manderson and Yael Loewenstein.
After all the auditions have taken place, YMT allocates the most talented performers into one of eight new productions they’ll be putting on across the UK. Around 250 young people are selected.
YMT is the UK’s national company for music theatre for young people and is one of the National Youth Music Organisations supported by the Department for Education.
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