Australian Theatre for Young People.
In Q1 2023 we conducted interviews with our youth arts partners. Below is a summary of ATYP’s programs as told through the interview with Fraser Corfield.
Who are ATYP?
Australian Theatre for Young People (ATYP) is the national youth theatre company.
They exist to connect young people with the professional theatre industry locally, regionally and nationally.
The company was founded in 1963.
Australian Theatre for Young People specialises in integrating professional theatre practice with supportive youth theatre process.
They work with all levels of the arts industry, from the most celebrated national companies to the smallest youth theatres.
Their work supports young people from their first theatre experience to their first professional production.”
Source: https://atyp.com.au/
Programs and How They Work?
School Holiday Workshops
ATYP’s school holiday workshops: ATYP runs a number of different school holiday workshops for school aged young people. These range in length of time and age groups.
Weekly Drama Classes
ATYP’s weekly drama classes: ATYP runs weekly drama classes for school aged young people, these run across school semesters.
Productions
ATYP’s productions: ATYP runs productions of plays and theatre works with young people, where they participate in rehearsals and performances. Often these young people are pursuing professional acting.
The 21st century skills and capabilities that young people develop
Cultural and civic literacy:
Fraser references that people who participate in the arts/ performing arts are more likely to vote, volunteer for community organisations and get involved in civic activity.
Fraser Corfield (Artistic Director & CEO): “there's a lot of evidence around the work we're doing building cultural and civic literacy. Young people that participate in the arts and participate in the performing arts in particular are far more likely to vote, they're more likely to volunteer for community organisations, they're more likely to get involved in civic activity.”
Critical thinking
Creativity
Communication
Collaboration
Fraser Corfield: “I've also felt over the years that one of the most significant elements of youth arts work is the relationship that is established between an effective youth arts facilitator and participants… it really is generally an attitude of mutual respect in that context that we don't often see in an educational context… In a youth arts context there is an expectation from day one that the tutor or facilitator will bring into that room an initial respect for the young people and a preparedness to identify specifically the qualities and skills of that young person that may or may not make them unique, or that may or may not benefit them in growth, and work collaboratively to support and enhance that. So I think there's something about the philosophy that's involved within youth arts practice that's particular or at least is part of the reason why it's nurturing confidence, it's nurturing sense of collaboration. It's nurturing curiosity.
Curiosity
Fraser Corfield: “So if you do something and everyone laughs or everyone cheers, regardless of what the tutor says, you've had an affirmation that something you've done has resonated. So there's something in that which is around curiosity.”
Initiative
Persistence/ Grit (Fraser articulates this as “resilience” in order to draw in a mental health framework)
Some questions Fraser thought demonstrated the achievement of “resilience” within a performance context: Can you take a note? Can you cope with change in circumstance within your performance and how do you adapt to that? Are you able to reflect openly on what’s happened and take that on board and change what you’re doing?
These are the kinds of questions/metrics tutors would need to be primed with to be able to assess this within a performance context
Adaptability
Fraser Corfield: “One of the elements about performance that comes in from the beginning is around self-reflection and accepting feedback for positive growth. So from your very first performance workshop, you'll be set a challenge to do a thing, you will do that thing and then your tutor will, with you and the class, talk about what elements of that thing were good, what elements of that thing were not as effective as others and how to move forward… we talk about taking direction. If you cannot take direction, you cannot perform… So within that you get this sense of persistence, grit, adaptability.”
Leadership
Social & cultural awareness
Young people’s pathways beyond ATYP
Fraser Corfield:
“Because everything at the moment for young people in particular, one of the biggest shifts we're seeing is around…. There's genuine fear now around employment, around jobs, around ‘am I investing my time in something that's gonna be worthwhile for me for this reason or that reason?’ And I think the investment for a lot of young people in theatre and performance isn't really about getting a job out at the end of it at all. Of course they put it in their recreational and personal growth bag of, ‘if it goes well, it'll be a fun thing which will also build my self-esteem which might help me in life in general’.”
“So there's always a struggle to get late teens, early 20s, into programs. And by the time they're late teen, early 20, they're really often only enrolling in drama or performing arts activities if they either were involved in it when they were younger and just enjoy continuing it as recreation in the same way that people do sport, or that that it’s their commitment and that they harbour a desire to work professionally within that context. So, the microcreds may be something that offers a value to the arts experience that it doesn't currently have.”
“So when you graduate from performing arts, particularly… You are frequently not seen as having real world skills, and one of the things that is interesting about this is that it means that anyone working out of one of the major drama institutions, as well as having that piece of paper saying they're graduated of QUT or NAIDA a WAAPA or VCA, if they walk into some organisation that offers microcreds, they should immediately pick up a range of all the microcreds relevant to collaboration, creativity, commitment… and if the piece of paper that says they're a trained actor is completely useless to them in terms of applying for any job basically, outside of acting, then that series of competencies can be more useful to them.”