Charlie Hughes
- Oct 13, 2022
- 7 min read

What's Coming Up In Our 2022-23 Season

It's that time of year again. Kildare Youth Theatre and Crooked House are excited to announce our packed schedule that we have planned for our 2022-23 season, which runs from September to the middle of Summer of 2023.

Check out the extensive list of productions, short and long-term projects, and special programmes we have going on this season below.

Some projects have their own specific applications form, but a general application form can be found here.

A Doll's House by Henrik Ibsen

Directed by Mary Linehan

A Doll’s House is a renowned play, first staged 143 years ago in Norway in 1879. It centres on the role of Nora. She has secretly broken the law in order to do the emotionally right thing (to save her husband’s life). If he finds out about it, he is morally bound to consider her a criminal. If she stays quiet she is open to blackmail. In either position her family will be destroyed and her marriage will be ended. How she resolves it is by doing the unthinkable. She leaves.

A Doll's House is a play-text that is prescribed material for study by students in the Irish secondary school system in the Leaving Certificate English course (at both Higher and Ordinary Levels) in June 2023 (as The Main Text). Therefore this production also offers an educational benefit to both performers and viewers.

Rehearsals for A Doll's House take place on Tuesday and Friday nights from 18:30 - 21:00, and on Sundays from 14:00 - 16:00.

A Doll's House will be performed Tuesday and Wednesday January 17-18th 2023 at the Riverbank Arts Centre.

Auditions have closed for this production. However, all members of Kildare Youth Theatre should keep a look at their emails regarding new roles opening up, as well as when tickets go on sale.

William Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'

Directed by Peter Hussey

Hamlet was written around 1600, over 400 years ago. In one of Shakespeare's most renowned tragedies, the ghost of the King of Denmark tells his son Hamlet to avenge his murder by killing the new king, Hamlet's uncle. Hamlet feigns madness, contemplates life and death, and seeks revenge. His uncle, fearing for his life, also devises plots to kill Hamlet. The play is one of the Western World’s highest achievements in art, exploring fundamentalism, the clash between classical and Christian values, and what it means to be human.

Hamlet is a play-text that is prescribed material for study by students in the Irish secondary school system in the Leaving Certificate English course (at both Higher and Ordinary Levels) in June 2023 (as The Classical Text). Therefore this production also offers an educational benefit to both performers and viewers.

Rehearsals for Hamlet take place on Wednesdays from 18:00 - 20:30 and Sunday's from 13:00 - 16:00, attendance dependant on specific scenes.

Auditions have closed for this production. However, all members of Kildare Youth Theatre should keep a look at their emails regarding new roles opening up, as well as when tickets go on sale.

Hamlet will be performed five times over May 2023, from May 2nd - 4th with additional Matinée performances on the 3rd and 4th.

For more, check out our full edited video from our 2019 production of Hamlet .

National Theatre's 'Connections Festival'

Directed by Oğuzhan Şahin

Since 2002 Kildare Youth Theatre has taken part in this festival of youth theatres run by the UK

National Theatre (NT) in London. Each year the NT commissions ten new plays from established writers and offers them to over 300 youth theatres and schools around Britain and Ireland to perform. Kildare Youth Theatre has performed over 30 of the new plays since 2002, including brand new work by Mark Ravenhill, Enda Walsh, Lisa McGee, Denis Kelly, Jon Fosse, and Nancy Harris.

Every July, just ten of the 300+ youth theatres are selected to perform their play in the South

Bank in London’s West End and four times, KYT has been selected to stage their play in The National Theatre (in 2003, 2008, 2015 and 2019).

Rehearsals for this year's chosen Connections Play will take place on Sundays from 16:00 - 19:00.

Auditions have closed for this production. However, all members of Kildare Youth Theatre should keep a look at their emails regarding new roles opening up, and for roles regarding backstage production as well as when tickets go on sale.

This season's Connections Play will be performed from March 30th - April 1st 2023 at the Riverbank Arts Centre, where feedback will be given by a representative of the National Theatre (UK). Then, it will be performed again in the Lyric Theatre Belfast in late April, where it will be again evaluated by a NT representative. If chosen, the production may be performed in London in the Summer of 2023.

The Indigo Collective

Facilitated by Peter Hussey. Associate work from Petro Rusanienko (theatre and film), and Ola Al Mamlouk (film maker).

The Indigo Collective is a new film and theatre-making project for LGBTQI+ young

people, people of all genders, and their allies and friends. It is for young people aged 15 to 25.

We will meet once per week to develop a performance ensemble. The ensemble will create

pieces of theatre and a short film that will be staged and shown in June 2023. The theatre

pieces and the film will reflect the experiences, concerns and opinions of LGBTQI+ people and

their allies/friends.

Workshops for the Indigo Collective take place every Friday from 19:00 - 21:00 starting Friday 21st October.

The work produced by the Indigo Collective will be staged in Newbridge as part of Pride Month 2023 in Riverbank on 6th June, and for an international youth exchange called ‘Prism’ to be held in Ireland.

The plan will be to then stage the play during summer 2023, in small theatres in Kilcullen, Prosperous, Athy, Ballitore, Kildare and Monasterevin.

Applications have closed for this workshop, however we encourage all members aged 15-25 to check their emails regularly to see if any places have opened up.

The Anemoia Project

Facilitated by Peter Hussey. Associate work from Sebastian Harcombe (theatre-maker) and Mustafa Kayabasi (theatre-maker).

The Anemoia Project will bring together 10 -16 participants. It will suit mostly young men although it is open to young women too and people of all genders. We encourage participants to apply who have migrant origins or be from ethnically diverse backgrounds, and others will be interested in physical performance. They will be joined by 4 young artists from different cultures who are living in Ireland. They will work together to devise a piece of theatre 60 minutes long.

This project is funded by the Young Ensembles Scheme of the Arts Council of Ireland.

The new work will explore the themes of:

(1) making masculinities (what is means to be male / a man)

(2) belonging to more than one culture.

It aims to explore the question “How do we merge our non-Irish heritage with our lived Irish experience to broaden the definition of Irishness?” The young artists and ensemble will have masterclasses and

workshops throughout the project with established older artists. They will act as mentors for the younger artists.

There will be an emphasis on, and training in, physicality and movement, as well as in devising scenes and moments. We will also explore verbatim technique through various methods taught by UK theatre maker and actor trainer Sebastian Harcombe.

Workshops will be every Sunday from 16:30 - 18:30 in Crooked House, starting Sunday, 9th October.

The work will travel to the For / With / By Festival of Youth Theatre in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, in the UK in July 2023. It will also, hopefully, travel to other destinations abroad.

Applications for this project have closed, however we invite all our members, especially those male, aged 16-30, and those from non-Irish backgrounds (although the project is open to all) to check their emails for new places in the project.

Dréimire

Facilitated by Peter Hussey. Associate work from Jerry Iwu (Acting Coach), Georgina Kakoudaki (Acting Coach), Sebastian Harcombe (Acting Coach), and Rob Salmon (Acting Coach).

Visit the Dréimire website here.

The Dréimire Project is a unique Crooked House Theatre Company initiative open to Kildare Youth Theatre members, and others, which offers intensive support to young actors who wish to study theatre

abroad.

The process of auditioning for a place at a recognised drama school is quite arduous. Some schools can have between 3,500 and 6,000 young people aged 17 to 25 (approximately) audition for one of 16 (or 27) places on their BA in Acting.

The Dréimire programme consists of:

(1) a Young Actor’s School on Saturday mornings;

(2) Individual weekly monologue work with an Acting Coach online;

(3) Participation in 4 workshops with The Lir Academy in Dublin.

The Dréimire programme is intended for those from socioeconomically challenged or disadvantaged communities; young people living in rural communities; ethnic minorities; Eastern European; black, Asian or Philippine young people; anyone from the Global South living in Ireland; and any member of Kildare Youth Theatre.

Crooked House and the Dréimire Project have successfully helped young people gain places in the world’s top university acting degrees in RADA (London), Central (London), The Lir Academy (Dublin), LAMDA (London), Guildhall (London), Bristol Old Vic (Bristol), Rose Bruford (London) and onto several PLC courses in Ireland.

The Dréimire Young Actors School runs on Saturday from 10:00 - 14:00 every Saturday.

Applications are still OPEN until October 31st: If you are interested in and serious about auditioning for acting training, then you need to be on this programme. Those still in school should consider it part of their Leaving Cert (in Acting) and give it the same time and importance. Fill out this Google Form. It is free of charge.

Find out more at: www.dreimireproject.ie.

Filmmaking Project

Facilitated by: Sancar Çalışkan, Mirna Alhelo, Ola Al Mamlouk, and Mohammad Farajalla (ESC Volunteers)

This programme is suitable for any young person aged 14 to 20 who wants to learn about

filmmaking. (For younger members aged 11 to 14 there will be special, occasional workshops in

mid-term breaks and holidays for which you can sign up closer to the time). It will be participially

suitable for anyone who wants to go create a portfolio or gain experience before going to a PLC or third level college for film making or editing courses.

The programme will introduce participants to filming and editing, before moving on to assisting the group to create their own shots, scenes and eventually films.

The group will learn how to document workshops and shows, and how to record interviews and make short documentary films. Towards the end of the year they will collaborate to make a creative short movie.

Applications for the Filmmaking Project remain OPEN. Fill in this form before Friday, 14th October. The project aims to begin on 26th October.