THE inaugural York Musical Theatre Company Stage Experience for 11 to 18 year olds will be held from August 19 to September 1 at the John Cooper Studio Theatre @41 Monkgate, York.

This summer stage school has been launched by YMTC to provide two weeks of tuition and workshops in singing, acting and dancing, leading to five performances of the teenage musical 13: the only Broadway musical to have a cast made up entirely of teenagers.

Production director Richard Bainbridge will lead the tuition, assisted by musical director John Atkin and choreographer Luke Redhead. The school will start with a first music rehearsal on Saturday, July 14, before the full experience begins on August 19.

Young performers are invited to register to audition by Saturday (March 10) and audition workshops will be held on Sunday, March 18, at Manor School’s Hive Theatre, from 10am to 5pm.

All applicants must attend at 10am and be available for the whole day should they reach the final stage. To find out more about the YMTC Stage Experience fee and to sign up for auditions, visit membermojo.co.uk/seauditions.

Richard Bainbridge is excited to set the new project in motion. "We used to have a youth section of the company, performing main musicals for us, and we’ve worked a lot with young people recently in shows such as When The Lights Go On Again and more recently Annie," he says.

"We were really keen to give young people the opportunity to learn some musical theatre skills over the summer and hopefully nurture some of them into future YMTC performers.

"Some of our young people who started with YMTC have gone on to professional careers in theatre, film and television and we know how invaluable amateur stage experience can be to anybody wanting to perform on stage as a career. We can’t wait to meet all the young people and put them through their paces."