The National Festival of Youth Theatres (NFYT) is the largest gathering of youth theatres in Ireland. The Festival, which will happen from 10-13 June this year, is a unique experience that provides young people with a fantastic opportunity to learn new skills, work with specialist facilitators, and get to know young people from youth theatres across the country.
Dates Announced for the National Festival of Youth Theatres
In 2021, for the second time in Youth Theatre Ireland’s history, the Festival will all happen online.The deadline for expressions of interest is noon on Monday, 22 March.
12 Youth Theatre Ireland affiliated youth theatres will participate in 4 days of online workshops with specialist facilitators and social get-togethers from the 10th to the 13th of June. In the lead up to the festival a Partnership Project for all participating groups will run from April through May. We’re cooking up something very special indeed, so join us from your sitting room / kitchen / back garden this June for a fantastic online theatre adventure.The YTI Youth Board have also announced that the Festival theme for 2021 will be ‘Dreams’.
We all dream. Sometimes at night, sometimes in the middle of the day, sometimes very quietly to ourselves. Dreams are a universal process but a very individual experience. Dreams are goals and ambitions. Whether you dream of going to space or seeing a dinosaur or being on stage with your friends again, dreams are what help us to keep going. Youth Theatre is the stuff of dreams.
To apply for the National Festival of Youth Theatres 2021, complete the online Expression of Interest Form by clicking on this link
Contact eoghan@youththeatre.ie with any questions.
More About NFYT
An online Leader’s Information Day will be held on Saturday, 10 April.
The Festival is open to youth theatre members aged 12+.
Each participating youth theatre must bring a minimum of 6 participants and a maximum of 8 participants.
Each youth theatre must bring two leaders who have been vetted in advance of the Festival. These leaders will be responsible for the welfare of the group and supporting their youth theatre members’ participation. The gender of the leaders should reflect the gender mix in the group (e.g. if you have a mixed group, you should have one male, one female leader). Leaders should be aged over 21. (If there is a situation where a group has a very experienced leader aged over 21 and another leader aged 20, who has demonstrable experience in a leadership role, this may be acceptable subject to certain conditions. Contact Louise on 01-878-1301 for more information).
At least one leader per youth theatre must be available to attend our online Leaders’ Information Day on Saturday,10 April.
How Much Does It Cost?
Youth Theatre Ireland believes that all young people should be able to participate in our programmes so there is no participation fee.
Youth theatres are responsible for providing two leaders to support young people’s participation in this online festival. If your youth theatre faces additional costs to pay leaders for their festival participation, we would encourage you to fundraise for these additional costs or include them within your youth theatre’s budget for the year. It’s important to Youth Theatre Ireland that any costs that are passed on to young people are not presented as a Festival participation fee charged by our organisation. Don’t worry! If your Expression of Interest is successful, we’ll provide you with some fundraising tips.
How Are Groups Selected?
We hope lots of affiliated youth theatres would like to take part in the Festival this year! If we get more than 12 applications, then we will use the following criteria to select participating groups:
We will prioritise youth theatres that have not been to the festival before or have not been in a few years.
We will prioritise youth theatres that have the capacity to participate (e.g., can send 6 to 8 members, provide 2 leaders over the age of 21, complete administration for festival etc.)
We will try to ensure a regional spread of participating youth theatres.
We will try to ensure that there’s a mix of experience amongst the youth theatres and leaders at the festival.
What is the Partnership Project?
Participating youth theatres will take part in a special Partnership Project with another participating youth theatre from 17 April to 24 May.
Participating youth theatres will be paired up with another participating youth theatre and a Youth Theatre Ireland facilitator.
They’ll come together over 3 special workshops to explore the theme of ‘Dreams’, and to generate, refine and record work together.
With their YTI facilitator, they’ll create a short (2/3 min) piece which will be shared during the disco event at the National Festival in a celebration of Youth Theatres and Dreams.
Deadline Details
Youth theatres that have submitted an expression of interest by the deadline on Monday, 22 March at 12pm, will be contacted by Thursday, March 25, to let them know if they will be attending. More information will be provided to participating groups after this date.
Contact eoghan@youththeatre.ie with any questions.
Join us online this summer for the best week ever!