Play-in-a-Week project looking for cast (From York Press)

Play-in-a-Week project looking for cast

10:16am Friday 25th May 2012 in Theatre

UPSTAGE Centre Youth Theatre is seeking a cast for its half-term Play-in-a-Week project in York next month.

“In the past 15 months, these week-long projects have become a fixture of our programme at 41 Monkgate, bringing to the fore the young participants’ imagination and humour, as the cast create a new piece of theatre from scratch over a week,” says Upstage trustee Robbie Swale.

“Previous Play-in-a-Week projects have included mime artists, Scottish kings, murderous bearded ladies, very strange wigs and – last October – the whole building being transformed into a decidedly scary haunted house.”

The director of that Haunted House project, Mel Cook, is returning to Upstage to direct the latest Play-in-a-Week activity from June 4 to 8.

Mel is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and former teacher at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London. She was assistant director at the Royal Shakespeare Company and has worked at Shakespeare’s Globe, the Young Vic and Hampstead Theatre.

Last summer, she led the first Shakespeare-in-Two-Weeks project at Upstage, where the participants staged A Midsummer Night’s Dream only ten days after starting rehearsals. She will be in charge of a second such Shakespeare project this summer, this time in July.

Play-in-a-Week is open to anyone aged eight to 21 and no previous experience is necessary; only the willingness to have fun.

“Probably the best thing about these projects is that the young people’s imaginations are allowed to go wild, almost inevitably with hilarious consequences – except possibly the Haunted House, which was actually quite frightening,” says Robbie.

This June’s project will be devised from scratch, based on the ideas and imagination of those involved. The participants will gather from 9am to 4pm each day, concluding with a free performance in the Studio Theatre at 41 Monkgate on the Friday evening.

• For more information on both projects, and to register for either one, visit upstagecentre.org.uk

Robbie Swale can provide further details on 01904 674675 or via email at robbie@upstagecentre.org.uk