Phone – 01938 554899 / 0781 772 1106

e-mail – mytheatre@fsmail.net or penny@penny100.plus.com

We are transposing the action of the play from ancient Greece to 1930s New York, and have been working closely to knit together the various characters and aspects.  Our highly stylized version is by turns darkly humourous and subversively savage, a truly ensemble piece of theatre which is perhaps not suitable for very young children.

January 28th brings Keith and Ed back to Welshpool to lead two stage combat workshops – one unarmed which will include hair pulling, face slapping and stomach punching!  The other, for those aged 16 and over, will be an armed workshop and will focus on specific weaponry.

Rehearsals are already under way for Aristophanes’ The Clouds which will be performed by the senior group on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st March.  Following on from our visit to the RSC workshop Lucy and I decided it would be interesting to put the group through their paces in a truly ensemble piece of work, and we look forward to showing off the results of all the hard work just before Easter.  Watch this space for details of how to book and performance times.

Two weeks later we have been invited to raise funds at Tesco in Welshpool by face painting and bag packing, so do come along and have a chat and lend us your support if you are in the town on that day.

Also in the pipeline for the summer are a street theatre event by invitation of Welshpool Town Council, as well as a repeat of last year’s court room drama and a visit to Crowther Hall to perform some of the scenes from last year’s production of Constable Jones’ Journal.

Not to be left out, the Juniors and Intermediates will be providing entertainment for young people in the form of Tales from the Arabian Nights, hopefully to be performed in July.  It is quite a while since either of these groups were given the opportunity to have their own show and we are hoping to make it an extravaganza with the aid of some extra funding – watch this space!

You will notice that we now have an interactive website, and your comments and posts will be most welcome.  Please feel free to add any photos or videos that you feel are appropriate, and make sure that anybody who has an interest in either joining or fundraising on behalf of MYT knows where we are.

Penny Jones – Creative and Administrative Director – 17th January 2012

Eleven members of the senior group performed their take on A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the woodland at Powis Castle on 3rd and 4th September.

It was titled ‘A Dream in the Wild Wood’ and took place as the summer project performance, rehearsed intensively over a period of ten days, and performed to an audience total in excess of 300.

It was also the final project by the three year 13 members who are now going forward to work or university, and who we will all miss greatly. Many thanks to Ginny Graham who came back as a co-director, and to all the help from committee members and parents, James for the tent and John for being such a marvellous ‘gofer’! As always, well done to the actors who brought such skill and enthusiasm to the whole project’

Penny Jones, Director 

MYT Committee

On Monday 18th April we held our 12 hour sponsored improvisation fundraising event at the Corn Exchange, Welshpool Town Hall. Nineteen members of MYT attended from both senior and intermediate groups, and my thanks go out to them all for their enthusiasm and dedication. Their efforts will help to keep the cost of weekly sessions to a minimum, as well as enabling us to subsidise various projects and events.

The day was a huge success, and many friends and parents dropped in to see what we were getting up to at various times throughout the twelve hours. The idea of a sponsored improvisation was suggested by members of the senior group, and hopefully it is just the first of many fundraising events in the near future. Other ideas that have been suggested are supermarket bag-packing, a promise auction, murder mystery evening and even a dance-a-thon! Watch this space for details of when and where the next fundraiser will be. We would like to thank Welshpool Town Council for their generosity in letting us use the premises without charge, and also for their support over the years.

MYT Committee

On Saturday 12th February Montgomeryshire Youth Theatre performed some of the scenes from their upcoming production of Constable Jones’ Journal as street theatre.

Constable Jones’ Journal is a play that has been devised and written by the Senior group of MYT, and tells broadly of local attitudes when The Montgomeryshire Constabulary was established in 1841. Constable Jones really did exist and had to tackle all types of crime – from a stolen boar to the body of the bargeman who was found dead in the lock at Crowther Hall in Pool Quay – and record his activities daily in a police journal. 
Some of the characters, places and events are taken from real life, but most of them have, for the sake of artistic licence, come straight from the imaginations of the actors and directors! These include a steamy affair between a cowman and a scullery maid, a public house full of bawdy drunkards, a scene of domestic violence and ……… a murder……!! But don’t let that fool you – the characters and situations are mainly humorous and entertaining.

Penny Jones, Director

The Meeting received the Trustees’ Annual Report and Accounts for the year 01/09/09 to 31/08/10 and elected trustees and youth theatre representatives for the coming year.

Annual Report 09-10 

Addrodiad Blynyddol 09-010 

Accounts 09-10

After 28 years, leaving will inevitably leave a huge gap in my life (Wednesday evenings will never be the same…) but I have over a quarter of a century of vivid memories of all the work we created together, the friendship of so many past – and present – members, the fun we have had, and the knowledge that Montgomeryshire Youth Theatre is still thriving and giving scores of young people unique experiences of comradeship and creativity.

I’m sending you all my good wishes and hopes for the future.
Ginny Graham

Production pictures can be seen on the Peer Gynt page and a review by Chris Kinsey can be found on the Powys Arts Forum website.

Not yet exhausted by their work on the major production, many members of the intermediate group joined some of the juniors for a “Play in a Weekend” in May. Working on the theme of “time”, they created a vivid and varied half-hour play, ending with an accomplished performance to a large audience of families and friends. Sorry – we didn’t take any pics of that – we were all much too busy!

Workshops for senior and junior groups finish at half-term, although the indominitable juniors (working with Penny Jones) will continue until the end of term, moving their meeting time to 5.00 on Wednesday nights.

And towards the end of term, and during the summer holidays, a select group of seniors will work with Ginny on a summer project (title still under wraps), which they hope to take on a short tour in early September. More details later.