Guest Blog Post – Former Member Joe Hancock

Writing about CYT is always hard. CYT saved my life.

Anyone who spent any real time there knows exactly what it is about. Anybody who hasn’t will never quite understand. You may have gone to a youth theatre too, but it wasn’t the same. Did you perform in Latvia and the Austrian mountains? No. Did you stage new work of ever increasing ambition, culminating in a week long festival with youth theatres from all across Europe? No. Did you ever do a sponsored reading of the bible as a fundraiser? No.

I don’t know what attracted me to CYT. My parents aren’t arty and I didn’t do any Drama at school. But I told my Mom at fourteen that I wanted to join a youth theatre, and she found one in Sedgely. I called them and they said they would call me back, and they never did. I’ve never been more glad, as my Mom found another later one- and this was CYT.

The first show I did was a pantomime (The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb) and I played ‘The Shadow’ (dah-dah-daaaaah). Over the next four years, I did ten or so shows from panto to commedia dell’arte, scripted or devised. We performed across Europe, in London, at Buckland Hall in Wales, and in Wolverhampton. The things I learnt have served me ever since, from the rehearsal process, to notes after a show, to turning up on stage at the right time. I met my best friends, most of whom I seem unable to shake off to this day.

CYT made me realise that there were people my age who were the same as me. I always felt like an outsider at school, and CYT introduced me to people who liked the same things I liked, and also liked a whole load of things I’d never heard of and introduced me to. CYT made trying and taking risks cool, instead of something you were laughed at for doing.

I now work as a theatre director full time, and the training I got at CYT remains the most important I’ve ever received. I’ve recently finished as Director-in-Residence at Eton College, have my fifth show going up to the Edinburgh festival and am an Assistant Director on a new show at the Old Vic. It’s a total dream job, and none of it would have happened without CYT.

I struggle to comprehend CYT’s struggle for funding and support. Jane has an MBE for her outstanding work, and still the struggle goes on. The only thing I can think of is that the people in power don’t understand. They weren’t there. Maybe we should get them to do a show. Get them to spend a weekend at Buckland playing Kick the Can. Because whether you have an interest in theatre or the arts or not, everyone should go to CYT. It is my family. I’ll never really leave. I’ve never felt more like I belonged, and as a teenager, that is a pretty special thing.

Joe Hancock