This year it will be 10 years since I first went to CYT. So jealous was I of all the international tours my friends from school were going on, I had to join!
When I was thinking of what to write about my time at CYT I wasn’t too sure which specific things I should pick out. Was there one tour or show, one person or memory I should focus on? Not really. Because looking back on it all CYT has always been a collection of things, hundreds of memories formed over a decade that add up to perhaps (definitely!) the best youth theatre in the world.
CYT will always be: that first costume fitting, chats around the vending machine, learning games that seemed to have no rules, making others laugh with improv and stepping out on stage with my friends. Watching the Alps fly by on a train through Austria, the time our show got rained off, eating ice cream everywhere we went, the brown boots I wore as Alan-A-Dale and the oral history interviews with virtually every older person in Wolverhampton.
After a spell at University, Jane coaxed me back to the office, although it didn’t take too much persuasion… It was then that I realised just how much hard work went into running such an incredible organisation and under Jane’s guidance I found myself a regular fixture in the office – I even had a desk that was mine three days of the week!
From this period you can add the following memories to the list above: writing more funding bids than you can dream of, eating boxes and boxes of French Fancies, networking like a pro at every meeting in the city, stocking the fridge with milk, laughing at/with Jane daily, getting lost in a Montreal suburb and learning (albeit slowly) to be an adult. It was hard work, but I’d found a job that was really rewarding.
This is quickly turning into a ramble, so let’s sum things up. The biggest secret that you might not know is that CYT isn’t a youth theatre; it’s actually a whole lot more. From employment projects to exhibitions, international tours to providing apprenticeships, CYT is a vital community resource for young and old alike. It’s respected literally all over the world and it’s time it got its place at the heart of the city. Long may it continue and thrive! Let everyone have a jumble of memories just like mine, because there isn’t anything better than looking back and thinking, ‘I was part of that’.
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