Well, what a year it’s been for NAYD!!! A National Youth Theatre Production
at the Peacock, rehearsed readings of five scripts by new writers at the
ARK, Young Critics Programme at the Galway Arts Festival and as part of the
Ulster Bank Theatre Festival, three new plays in commission for youth
theatres, a mentoring programme with Fishamble Theatre Company, Centre Stage
+10, two new ArtsTrains in January and October, a new website, new logo, new
Intermission and the list goes on…….Are you exhausted reading? Well
imagine how we all feel as the year ends…… tired but exhilarated and
certainly contented that we achieved loads and worked hard for youth theatre
in Ireland.
But, never ones to sit back and relax on our laurels, we already gearing up
for 2008. We’ve our annual planning day on the December 7th when we will
plan the next twelve months…roll on 2008, NAYD has some surprises in
store!!
In the meantime, wishing all youth theatre members,  youth theatre leaders and our
many friends a Happy Christmas and good fortune in 2008.

Orlaith

Census week is nearly upon us (Sat 24th- Fri 30th Nov). Youth Theatres should have received their Census Packs in the post. The pack may have looked quite daunting when you removed it from the envelope. Don’t worry. Rhona has spent many hours making sure it is as user-friendly and self-explanatory as possible. Most of the questions require only a “tick the box” response. We have also included space for logging 20 activities probably way more than any youth theatre will undertake during the week. Those of you who are in production have to do a bit more work!

Basically we want you to tell us everything that happens in your youth theatre during the week: workshops, meetings, trips to shows, rehearsals etc. We want to know it all!

We are looking for slightly more information on artistic activities including a description of any workshops that took place.

So why are we asking you to fill out a Census questionnaire?

Census week is part of our Centre Stage +10 research. We want to capture where youth theatre is at in Ireland in 2007. What are the successes? How can it be improved? What are the major difficulties you face in running your group? What kind of supports and programmes do you need to help you in your work?

We want to know how many young people are benefitting from participation in youth theatre and how many people are involved in running them.

Once we have gathered the information, we will have reliable statistics that we can present to funders and policy-makers to advocate for increased allocation of funding and resources on your behalf.

The findings will be published so that youth theatres can use them when they are making their case for support and applying for funding.

We all know the work that youth theatre does is really beneficial both to the young people directly involved and the wider community. Centre Stage +10 is about proving it!

Rhona is more than happy to answer any questions you may have related to the Census questionnaire. You can e-mail her at rhona@nayd.ie or call her on 01-8781301.

Questionnaires should be returned by Monday 10th December.