What's Happening Now?
The senior management team for TakeOver10 have been in place for nearly two months now. They were appointed by the management at York Theatre Royal who they will be shadowing. With all the sucess of last year's festival there was a great deal of interest this year. The board who keep senior mangagement in check have been in place for almost as long and are enjoying overseeing the development of the festival.
However it all began...
A while ago...
In 2008 important people at the Arts Council (the people who look after and support the arts in the UK) decided that one of their aims would be to get more young people involved in the arts and theatre over the next few years...
In December '08
York Theatre Royal applied for and was awarded a funding grant as part of the Arts Council's A Night Less Ordinary Free Theatre Initiative to fulfill this aim. This grant meant that the theatre could give loads of tickets away for free to anyone under 26 who'd signed up for a Free Theatre Pass (click here for a form or pick one up from the box office)!
In February '09
Clever people at York Theatre Royal (led by Artistic Director Damian Cruden) had a rather imaginitve idea of how to get even more young people involved in the theatre. In short... let them run the theatre for a bit!
Thousands of young people see and participate in the theatre's work every year. They know what they want to see, so why not let them programme, market, stage manage and sell a mini season of work?
And why not make all tickets for that mini season free for U26s - no limits, no restrictions, just free tickets for young people to come and see a festival run by and programmed by young people!
In March and April '09
The theatre put the word out and recruited a group of young people to be TakeOver09's Board to steer the festival. This was followed by the beginnings of the Festival Management Team - a group of young people who would shadow and take on the roles of the theatre's senior staff. Between May and September this team grew into an entire staff, to include backstage, front of house and all sorts of other interesting roles. The team planned the festival, programmed it and learnt from the theatre staff until...
In September '09
The TakeOver team well... Took Over!
The Programme will kicked off on 19th September and ran for three weeks with a mix of theatre, music, art and a buzzing atmosphere around the theatre as York is exposed to what we can do!
The TakeOver Festival is all about providing young people with the opportunity to work in a professional environment with the support of the theatre staff on every aspect of work in the theatre.
