Young and Hungry Arts Trust

Young and Hungry Arts Trust is a New Zealand based youth theatre initiative. They have held festivals of plays, commissioned playwrights, toured New Zealand and helped along the careers of many New Zealand actors, writers, designers and directors. The first event was a festival held in 1994 at BATS Theatre.

Background

The first ideas for Young and Hungry came from BATS Theatre in Wellington after the director Guy Boyce commissioned four plays in 1993 for a youth audience.[1] The format of the festival was to commission plays, and then putting experienced directors and production crew with a mentored cast and crew with a 16 - 25 age range culminating with a festival season at BATS Theatre. The first festival was held in 1994.[2][3] It continued to be an annual programme with a festival at BATS until 2000 where the programme expanded to Auckland at the Basement Theatre and added an Ambassadors programme with Auckland Theatre Company to support engagement with youth for longer than the rehearsal period and season.[1] The focus has always been to support learning about theatre for young people through application.[4]

Playmarket published a volume in 2010, Three Plays - Young & Hungry with plays: queen b, by Pip Hall; Exchange by Lauren Jackson; and Urban Hymns by Mīria George.[5][6]

Productions

Some notable productions presented at the annual festivals include in RPM (2008), written by Dave Armstrong, directed by Leo Gene Peters,[7] in 2009 three plays, Oyster by Vivienne Plumb, directed by Rachel More, Sit On It, by Georgina Titheridge, directed by Lyndee-Jane Rutherford and Urban Hymns by Mīria George, directed by Fiona Truelove and The 21st Narcissus (2015) by Sam Brooks.[8]

Past playwrights commissioned include Jackie Van Beek, Victor Rodger, Jo Randerson, Jean Betts, Danny Mulheron, Arthur Meek, Hone Kouka, Helen Varley Jamieson, Gary Henderson, Pip Hall, and Briar Grace-Smith.[7]

Current productions take the form of a tour to high schools curated from extracts of New Zealand plays. The 2021 tour was called Whaddarya? and includes parts of plays by Stephen Sinclair, Hone Kouka, Renée, Craig Thane, Greg McGee, Sam Brooks, and Albert Belz. This concept was previously produced by EnsembleImpact who handed it over to Young and Hungry.[9]

References
  1. "Our Backstory". Young & Hungry. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  2. "Young and Hungry". BATS Theatre. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  3. "Young & Hungry: It's a state of mind..." Scoop News. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  4. "Board Members". The Big Idea. 9 November 2018. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  5. "Three Plays - Young & Hungry". The Big Idea. 14 January 2011. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  6. "Three plays : Young & Hungry / [Pip Hall, Lauren Jackson and Miria George]". National Library of New Zealand. 1 January 2010. Archived from the original on 22 October 2021. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
  7. "RPM :: Young and Hungry Arts Trust – NZ Youth Theatre". National Library of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  8. "A Fine Balance; Young and Hungry 2015". The Lumière Reader. 12 October 2015. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
  9. Smythe, John (4 July 2021). "WHADDARYA? - Affirms the inestimable value of our performing arts". TheatreView. Archived from the original on 8 October 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
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