Eleanor Potter – Volunteering at CYT

Eleanor battling with the CYT photocopier – no mean feat

Every Thursday afternoon, I do work experience at CYT, both in the office and helping out with the Acting Up workshops. Every week is different in the office, sometimes it’s looking at promotional methods for the charity, or it could be writing up newsletters and sending them out to the members. It’s great to work in the CYT office environment because there’s always something happening, whether it be shows or events, it’s great to be surrounded by the exciting energy. Every week from 4-5 o’clock in the afternoon, the Acting Up workshop takes place, which allows young people with disabilities to explore different elements of drama and get involved in various improvisation games. Since taking part in the Young Leaders programme, I now help lead the group, which is a brilliant opportunity and has allowed me to develop my leadership skills and build my confidence in running workshops. By doing work experience with Central Youth Theatre, it’s helped gain an understanding of what goes on behind the scenes and given me an insight into possible career paths within drama and theatre.

I also took part in The Young Leaders programme, which was set up to enable CYT members to learn how to  run drama workshops and lead various theatrical groups. This was a brilliant opportunity for me, as it helped develop my leadership skills and helped me gain knowledge on particular exercises. We also learnt about marketing and youth theatre management, looking at health and safety and different forms of publicising the youth theatre. We took part in various activities, such as hot-seating and tackling problem participants. By learning the structure of workshops and how to manage groups of different ages, it has expanded my skill set and helped develop my understanding of what running workshops entail.