Young people age 16 – 21 who are interested in pursuing a career in theatre should check out our Young Creatives group.
Our ethos is centred on the idea of working as an ensemble – everything we create is made in collaboration with the young people, and our experienced team of facilitators. This leads to creating work that is relevant, engaging and innovative. Our classes help young people to develop their creativity and performance skills, explore themes that speak to them, and devise new work to share with friends, family and the public.
Sessions are fun, welcoming and inclusive. Young people with or without performance experience are welcome, all they need is a desire to get involved and work creatively. Our values, created in collaboration with our groups, are encapsulated by “RISC”: Respect, Inclusivity, Safety and Creativity.
(The teachers) take care of you. You feel like you really don’t have to really hide yourself, you can just be yourself here, there’s no judging or anything.
Northcott Young Company Participant
NYC Classes
Booking for our classes at St Sidwell’s Point and the Barnfield Theatre is now open. Please contact Youth Development Producer Jacob Blackburn if you have any questions.
email JacobNYC Infants (age 5 – 7)
10 – 11.15am at the Cygnet Theatre
£100
Sessions are playful, imaginative, experimental and fun, and are designed to stimulate creative play with lots of games, teamwork, skills building, and loads of fun. We use our bodies and voices to learn how to tell stories to each other and with each other. The emphasis is not on performance at this age, but we do sometimes put together small shows for sharing.
Please note that parents do not stay in the sessions.
Book now
NYC Juniors 1 (age 7 – 9)
11.30am – 1pm at the Cygnet Theatre
£100
We build on existing skills and creativity and begin to explore different ways we can perform together. Sessions are designed to develop creativity with games, teamwork, skills building and loads of fun. We further explore using bodies and voices to learn how to tell stories and to turn them into exciting theatre. The emphasis is not only on performance at this age, but in allowing young people to develop their creativity and curiosity in a safe and fun environment.
Please note that parents do not stay in the sessions.
Book nowNYC Juniors 2 (age 9 – 12)
10am – 12pm at the Barnfield Theatre, Clifford Room
£125
This group has been running since 2017 and was one of our first classes launched.
Sessions for Juniors 2 are more geared towards creating work together. Still exploring how we use different skills and ideas, we prioritise the learning, development and creativity of our young people. At this stage, we begin to introduce what it means to work as an ensemble – an idea that runs throughout all our classes – and how we can create collaboratively.
Sold out
NYC Seniors 1 & 2 (Age 13 – 16)
at the Barnfield Theatre, Clifford Room
£125
Our Seniors groups are both for young people aged 13 – 16. Also launched in 2017, these groups started as part of our original offer.
This is where young people really start to be challenged through our work together. We have loads of fun and we work hard. Creating work as a company is still at the heart of the group, with the young people being supported by our team of facilitators to explore their own ideas in a safe and fun environment.
More Opportunities for Young People
Performance projects are a natural extension of our NYC Saturday Classes, with older participants (12+ years) invited to audition for a fully-realised theatre production on the Northcott stage, typically with rehearsals during school holidays.
Performance Projects encapsulate our NYC ethos, with participants working creatively and generously, sharing ideas and making work in collaboration, developing their understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Recent projects have included a new version of Rime of the Ancient Mariner (2017), Into The Light, a response to W.H. Auden’s poem September 1 1939 (2018), an adaptation of The Family Tree by Mal Peet (2019), and UNLOCKed, which encompasses Tomorrow, a short film reflecting on participants’ experience of lockdown, I Am Rose, live performances inspired by this film (2020), and farcical TV studio comedy Studio on the 3rd Floor (2023).
It creates a real sense of community and you always feel welcome no matter where you’ve come from.
Northcott Young Company participant
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Our specialised programmes transform the lives of young people in Devon, supporting their creativity and helping them to explore and understand issues that are relevant to them. Please support us to continue this vital work.