Why work with young people?
They're very receptive, they have no fear, and they will work and learn material at an incredibly fast pace. They don't have any preconceptions about the way a show should be put on, so you can throw anything at them and they'll try and succeed at making it work. Often that's why a lot of our creative staff like working on our shows, as they can try out all sorts of new and creative ideas and the young people will always be up for it.
On a lot of our projects, young people will contribute to the show. I remember a production we did a few years ago called the Trojan Women, which follows women travelling from Syria and Turkey to Britain via the migrant camps in Calais. The kids made up this incredibly satirical song using headlines from the Daily Mail, commenting on the harsh environment that Theresa May was creating in the country with regard to immigration. It was very powerful.
What can a young person gain from being part of BYMT or any other musical theatre ensemble?
I was speaking to a group of kids at Exeter College the other week and telling them how even if you don't go into theatre, the sort of skills young people learn from being a part of BYMT are the skills they will use throughout their life. Every time they meet people for the first time at a party, or when they have a job interview, they can use that confidence in everything.
It's also a very intense experience. All the shows are based around residential courses with young people living away from home, and rehearsals starting at nine in the morning and finishing at nine at night. Even now Ed Sheeran stays in touch with people from his course in 2007 as they're very strong relationships and make for instant connections.
All of BYMT's repertoire is newly commissioned musicals. What is it about new material that young people find so exciting?
It encourages young people to start thinking more about their characters in the wider context of the play, as they're part of creating that material for the first time. If you ask young people to perform older material, Like Guys and Dolls or Les Misérables, for example, they will go off and listen to it on YouTube and try and copy the performance, which means you're not getting the authentic voice of the young person. Those classic shows are aimed at performers who have years of experience as singers, which young people often don't. You want to choose productions that will show off young people's ability; productions that have been created with them in mind.
Original productions can also make for cross-curricular education. In one of our shows, The Accidental Time Traveller – which follows a character who time-travels from 1815 to 2015 – the 13-14-year-old performers were learning so much about the history of regency England: the clothes that people wore, and even the way they used to carry themselves, walk and speak.
Are there any particularly inspiring stories?
A dad once said to me, ‘Callum has been here for three years and he's done three projects and I've watched him grow from a boy to a man through your productions.’ You're always seeing that, especially if you're seeing the same teenagers year after year – you really see them grow emotionally. Being a part of BYMT builds a certain amount of resilience and allows young people to withstand the disappointment of not getting exactly what they want.
To find out more about BYMT and upcoming auditions visit https://britishyouthmusictheatre.org
