Youth Acting Company: A New Opportunity
Youth Acting Company members attend their first table reading for Romeo + Juliet. Photo by UnityMike, Michael Hendrickson.
In Fall 2019, the conservatory launched the Youth Acting Company (YAC). The company, comprised of students between the ages of 12 and 19, was created to give young, capable actors performance opportunities throughout the year. Actors are selected for the YAC by invitation only, and students rehearse for three performances a year in the fall, winter and spring. In addition, students must attend two or more rehearsals per week while in session and must be enrolled in at least two conservatory classes.
performed in June. In October 2019, company members debuted in Roald Dahl’s The Witches, a Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA) show directed by Sharon Hart, an instructor in the conservatory since its opening in 2017. As Hart describes, “experimenting with different styles of acting outside of the classroom is immensely valuable for theatre students and contributes to a holistic approach of learning from doing. TYA is a presentational style of theatre that draws upon a different set of performance skills.” The YAC members had the chance to put these skills to the test as they visited and performed “The entire artistic for three different schools in the team pushes us and Worcester area, in addition to two public performances of the show exposes us to things at The Hanover Theatre. For many we wouldn’t find YAC members, this was their first anywhere else.” experience performing in the TYA style and touring a show.
The YAC allows actors to perform more frequently than they might at school and exposes them to multiple directors and styles of theatre. “Our conservatory focuses on training and educating students in the arts, but we also understand how important performance opportunities are in order to put that training into practice,” says Meghan Montaner, director of education at the theatre and conservatory. “Together with our Youth Summer Program, YAC students are exposed to four different directing styles in three or more spaces in a single year. It’s a rare experience for a local teen and certainly pushes them to grow and adapt.” To date, the YAC has presented two productions and is currently rehearsing for a third to be page 10
According to YAC member Denali Herbert, taking part in a traveling production was a new and exciting opportunity. “One of my favorite experiences I have had in YAC was during The Witches. I have never experienced a touring production and hadn’t known how fun it could be performing in new and different places,” says Herbert. “I especially loved the excitement of each audience and watching their enjoyment as we performed.”
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