After auditioning young hopefuls in Inverness, Dundee, Stirling, Edinburgh and Glasgow, Scottish Youth Theatre has unveiled the 20 talented young people who will form the 2019 National Ensemble – and three young theatre makers from Edinburgh have made the final line up.
Stanley Treshansky (16), Fraser Kelsey (18) and Michael Black (22) applied along with 110 other young people to join the 2019 national company and they met their fellow company members for the first time last weekend.
Launched in 2017, the Scottish Youth Theatre National Ensemble is a company made up of young people aged 16 – 25 who have displayed great potential as theatre makers. Theexperience lasts a year and participants will collaborate with professional theatre practitioners including lead artist Brian Ferguson to develop their skills. In the summer, they will work intensively for 5 weeks to devise a new piece of work which they will tour across Scotland in July.
Stanley explained his surprise on receiving his acceptance email: “Becoming a part of next year’s Ensemble is huge for me, even after re-reading the results email I still couldn’t believe It! It’s such a big and exciting step towards my goal of an acting career.”
18 year old Fraser added: “There’s lots to be excited for but I’m particularly looking forward to immersing myself in new ideas of theatre.”
Creating a new piece of work attracted 22 year old Michael to apply. He explained: “What I’m looking forward to most is the chance to devise something from scratch. It is so exciting as it’s very rare to receive this level of support from the industry towards new work”.
SYT’s Creative Producer Mahri Reilly said: “Selecting the 2019 company was an inspirational but challenging process; there were so many promising candidates that it was really difficult to whittle the company down to 20.
“All three performers showed an enormous amount of potential and we can’t wait to see how they develop as an artist and contribute to the 2019 company. Watch this space!”
Scottish Youth Theatre are currently raising funds for the summer tour and anyone interested in sponsoring or donating are encouraged to get in touch by emailing Creative Producer Mahri Reilly mahri@scottishyouththeatre.org
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