productions...

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Taking Breath
February 1999

PYT took part in the BT National Connections project. This collaboration between BT and the Royal National Theatre aimed to create new plays for young people to work on and perform. The chosen play, Taking Breath, confronted topical issues such as the media, drug abuse, the environment and family conflict. The more senior members of PYT worked together, collaborating as a team and broadening their experience of theatre. It was a thought-provoking play providing challenges for all those involved and reaching a more diverse audience than that of musical theatre.

Smile - The Musical
September 1998

Not only smiles but cheers all round as the Petersfield Youth Theatre scored its usual success at the Festival Hall last week with the UK premiere of the musical Smile, the story of a Californian beauty pageant which gave every member of the largely young female cast ample opportunity to display their talent.

As always it was the teamwork and enthusiasm engendered by the director and choreographer Nik Ashton, combined with his imaginative and innovative use of the stage, which made the greatest impression.

With the help of designer Amy Jackson, his handling of the song and dance numbers was masterly, and several stage pictures remain vividly etched in the mind.

Tom Muckley

A Royal Gala - The Albert Hall
May 1998

Petersfield Youth Theatre was selected to take part in a Royal Gala Charity performance at the Royal Albert Hall in aid of the Cancer Research Campaign. Ninety PYT members joined a cast of one thousand including some professional performers. They perfomed Smile from the Marvin Hamlisch musical of the same name, and Tomorrow from Annie. PYT member Charlotte Alldridge, aged 11 years, sang the solo accompanied by a supporting cast of two hundred.

Alice in Wonderland
December 1997

Alice in Wonderland's famously colourful characters came alive in a visual feast of Christmas entertainment at Petersfield Festival Hall.

Lewis Carroll's imagery was captured to the full in Petersfield Youth Theatre's most vivid all-singing all-dancing spectacular yet. Style was to the fore as scene after scene of this topsy-turvy world was played out by a cast of 94 bounding about in glorious costumes, ranging from can-can girls (a broadway addition to the original) through the peppery spoons of the Duchess's cook to the court's pack of cards.

The energetic production, directed and choreographed by Nik Ashton, provided a host of cameos to capture the lunacy of Wonderland.

Sara Hadwin

Annie
October 1996

Petersfield Youth Theatre's production of Annie packed the Festival Hall last week and doubtless would have continued to do so if further performances had been possible.

Allison Howarth's direction, in Nik Hill's ingenious, yet basically simple setting, was of the highest class.

Each member of the huge cast was completely at home and assured on the stage, and that definitely includes the butler and the dog!

Musical director David Rudling played his part too, his bare arm rising from time to time through a small opening in the covered part to give leads and to ensure the musical ensemble was fully in place.

Ann Pinhey

Mr. Quigley's Revenge
July 1996

Simon Brett on working with Petersfield Youth Theatre on Mr. Quigley's Revenge:

I was impressed from the start by how professionally the group approached the project. Though probably none of the adults involved - and certainly none of the children - earned their livings from theatre work, their standards were high enough to put many professional concerns to shame.

No detail was left to chance. Each problem - casting, setting, costume design, lighting, publicity - was approached with the same good sense and pragmatism. And yet, amidst all the hard work, the production never lost its sense of fun. For the younger members of the cast - many of whom were having their first taste of the theatre - it was clearly a very exciting experience.

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