creating adventures with young people in Newbridge, Ireland since 1996
There are many ways to become involved - from joining a project to suppporting one. Read on for details ...
Bored? Wish there was something to do?
Become a member of Kildare Youth Theatre. Membership costs €50 for a full year from this September on and entitles you take part in any of our projects for young people. You have to be aged 10 to 25 (different classes and workshops have separate age groups).
For information about all of our programmes, click here.
If you are an adult with some spare time and a set of skills we could benefit from why not contact us to volunteer? We often need people to do the following:
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stage manage shows
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gather props and costume items for shows
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car-pool for transporting young people to shows and events
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design posters and publicity fliers
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construct stage-set items (like a box with wheels, or a portable bed-unit, or a doorframe, etc)
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take broken and bulky items to the county rubbish tip in Kilcullen
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organise a fundraiser (eg, 70s Night, Raffle, Table Quiz, etc)
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supervise an Open Mic Night and be a “judge” offering constructive but positive feedback
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maintain and check aspects of the building (eg light-bulbs, doorbell, computer problems, flooring, etc)
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maintain interior (eg, painting walls/doors/windows, etc)
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and a host of other skills and jobs.
Sponsor a Young Person!
INVEST IN YOUTH
If you would like to help us run the entire project, or to sponsor a special project of your own, why not become an investor in young people?
Since 1993, we have worked closely with over 10,000 teenagers and young adults; launched the careers of celebrated actors, film-makers and theatre directors; staged over 90 new works; and brought hundreds of international visitors and collaborators to Newbridge to work with us. In late 2013 we were featured on TV3’s Ireland AM as the county’s local heroes.
We do this without regular core funding or a full-time staff, relying on volunteers and a dedicated team of professional artists, educators and youth workers. We do however, attract project funding from the HSE, Kildare County Council, the EU and the Arts Council for specific, short-term projects and so we are able to pay local artists to work for a short period with our young people.
Crooked House is unique in Europe as vibrant centre for exceptionally high quality youth arts, and as such, it is studied by universities in the USA, Ireland, the UK and Europe. We host students on research placements twice a year. It is unique because we use theatre making to develop positive, life enhancing skills in young people.The research from these universities has shown that young people, who feel depressed or suicidal, have completely changed their attitudes and mind-sets through long-term engagement with our work. We are very proud of this.
In 2014 we are asking Newbridge to invest in our young people. Help them take the first step into this career – a career usually reserved only for those who can afford it, and who are mostly from the bigger cities in Ireland. Your donation will us to create a new generation of cultural ambassadors from Newbridge and Kildare.
Representing Kildare on the world stage
We always feel that Crooked House is your local theatre company. It has Newbridge at its heart, and acts as a cultural ambassador for the town.
Our actors have gone on to star in the West End, on BBC, in major feature films and TV series. People who started with us include Damien Molony (BBC3’s Being Human, Ripper Street and numerous West End plays), Steve Gunn (Fair City, Titanic, The Mario Rosenstock Show), Jill Bradbury (an IFTA nominee for Best Actress), Steven Wilson (currently in London National Theatre’s Richard II), Eric Higgins (currently in major TV show The Vikings), and Keith Burke (recently in US TV drama The Borgias). In addition, we host large exchanges of over 70 young people in Newbridge every year, bringing a much needed boost to the local economy.