Image credit: Chelsey Cliff

Young Company City is a project which involves Bristol Old Vic practitioners delivering free weekly drama sessions to schools and community groups across Bristol. Young Company City aims to reach young people who have never been to Bristol Old Vic before or engaged in theatre or drama. This project will be delivered annually, and we will aim to reach a minimum of eight groups each year.

Year Four

The focus of 2024's Young Company City will be the new musical Starter For Ten based on the novel by David Nicholls, with book and lyrics by Emma Hall and Charlie Parham, score and lyrics by Hatty Carman and Tom Rasmussen, and direction by Charlie Parham. The sessions will centre around themes of growing up/coming of age/rites of passage. The groups will perform their pieces to family and friends at Bristol Old Vic on Sunday 28th April 2024.

We are working with:

Bristol Hospital Education Service
City Academy
Knowle DGE
Bridge Learning Campus
Briarwood school
Cotham school
Trinity Academy
Spark Theatre Makers from City of Bristol College
The Ranch, Southmead Development Trust
Felix Road Adventure Playground
Threefold
St Anne's House

Year Three

The focus of 2023's Young Company City was Bristol Old Vic’s Christmas production The Nutcracker written by Tom Morris and directed by Lee Lyford, with music by Gwyneth Herbert. The sessions centred around themes of imagination, family in crisis, change, empathy and time. The groups performed their pieces to family and friends at Bristol Old Vic on Saturday 8th July.

We have worked with:

Bristol Hospital Education Service
City Academy
Knowle DGE
Orchard School
Spark Theatre Makers from City of Bristol College
St Paul's Adventure Playground
Trinity Academy
St Werburghs Community Centre
The Ranch, Southmead Development Trust
Felix Road Adventure Playground

Year Two

In 2022, schools and community groups involved in YCC are working towards a performance at Bristol Old Vic in July. The stimulus for the weekly drama sessions is Wonder Boy, a new play written by Ross Willis and directed by Sally Cookson, which premiered at Bristol Old Vic in March 2022. The groups looked at the themes of friendship, superheroes, bullying and communication which informed their devised pieces and was performed on the Main Stage on Friday 8th July.

We worked with:

Briarwood School
City Academy
Hartcliffe and Withywood
Knowle DGE
Merchants' Academy
Orchard School
Somali Youth Group in Association with St George's
Spark Theatre Makers from City of Bristol College
St Paul's Adventure Playground
Trinity Academy

Year One

In its first year (2021), Bristol Old Vic and Bristol City Council worked together to reach young people across Bristol and to explore how they felt about their city. Bringing the Bristol City Council’s Belonging strategy to life, this project enabled young people to discuss, explore, communicate and create, using Belonging as a stimulus.

Between March and July 2021, a series of workshops were delivered with young people in schools, community spaces and at Bristol Old Vic. The sessions gave the young people an introduction to theatre making, devising, collaborating, and they worked towards a sharing at the end of the term.

‘Belonging in Bristol’ is a film made alongside the workshops, to document the process and to reach a wider audience.

Bristol Met Academy
Care leavers
City Academy
Merchants' Academy
Orchard School
Spark Theatre Makers from City of Bristol College
Stomping Ground
St Paul's Adventure Playground
Trinity Academy