British Youth Music Theatre

The BYMT experience is incredibly intense and highly creative with long hours – up to ten hours of rehearsals a day. Your child will be working with industry staff who treat them like professional artists and will expect the same in return. Our projects (courses and productions) are residential, and participants live on-site with creative and pastoral staff.

The word that young people often use to describe a BYMT project is ‘community’ – working together with like-minded people towards a common goal. This kind of environment, plus being away from home, enables them to build powerful, long-lasting friendships and develop their social skills such as team work, leadership, self-discipline and listening whilst building confidence and self-esteem. And of course, their performance skills improve in leaps and bounds with at least 30% of our alumni going on into top level Higher Education training at Drama School or Conservatoire and others taking their skills and BYMT experience into other career areas, both within the creative industries and without.

Working with BYMT will probably be quite different from performance experiences that participants have had in the past. We create new music theatre, so they won’t be doing familiar repertoire that they may have done at school or with their local youth theatre (e.g. Annie, Oliver, West Side Story). The participants are as integral to the development process as the creative team, and will often have opportunities to contribute to lyrics, characters and choreography. Working with BYMT is challenging, and is excellent preparation and experience for those considering a career in theatre.

We have two types of projects that young people can attend; our Productions and our Camps.

PRODUCTIONS

We run six-to-eight brand new productions each year, which makes up our BYMT Season of New Music Theatre. These are two/three-week residential projects which take place during July/August. To see advance details of these shows keep an eye on our Shows page here. Generally, we start posting information about the next year's Productions in January and more will be added through to March as the creative teams are recruited. Check out past Productions here. We audition for these productions throughout the year, online and in-person. Have a look for an audition near you here.

Creating a strong, cohesive company is one of the most important parts of a BYMT project as it is an important skill that lies at the centre of the professional industry and is a crucial part of any young performer’s education. With this in mind, we only cast roles once a production or course has started, so all the participants have an equal chance; inevitably some people receive larger roles than others but everyone is part of a close ensemble.

CAMPS

Our Camps are open to any young person aged 11-17 and offer the same type of experience as the productions (they are residential and involve the creation of new work in an intensive working atmosphere) but young people don't need to audition and they last just one week instead of two or three. For a list of our Camps for this year, please click here.

UPSKILLS CAMP

Our Upskills Camp is for 17-21 year olds and focus on intensive skills building in areas such as Acting Through Song (ATS) and Vocal Technique. Courses are run by current drama school tutors at leading conservatoires and are ideal for audition training either for BYMT auditions or for drama school.

The safety and wellbeing of our young people is paramount here at BYMT. As such, we have several steps to ensure our young people not only have a fun experience, but remain safe:

ADDITIONAL SUPPORT REQUIREMENTS

It is our mission at BYMT to create worthwhile opportunities for young people in theatre, no matter the circumstances. As such, it is imperative that we receive as much information about our participants as possible, in order to provide as supportive and bespoke an experience as we possibly can. This includes, but is not limited to:
Neurodiversity
Physical disability
Mobility aids
Recent injuries
Trauma responses / triggers
Medication
Gender identity
Context of home / school life

While we collect some of this information at the time of audition / acceptance, our doors are always open to discuss anything further, any new developments, or anything you previously may not have thought to mention. Simply put, the more we know about our participants, the better we can support them.

INFORMATION PACKS

We understand how important it is to have as much information as possible when planning for one of our projects. Therefore prior to the project, we provide a detailed Information Pack, which includes:

Details of venues for performances and residential accommodation, with a map and directions
When to arrive and what to bring (and what to leave at home!)
What to wear
Who the staff working on your project will be
Contact details
What to expect and what the show/course will be about

Parents/carers will be given an emergency contact number to use for the duration of the project. This mobile phone is staffed by a member of the pastoral team 24 hours a day. Young people are not allowed to have their mobile phone switched on in the rehearsal room but on arrival at the venue they are informed of break/meal/start & finish times, so you can catch up with them then. Pastoral phones will be switched on one day in advance of the start of the course.

PASTORAL CARE

For each of our projects, we have a dedicated Pastoral Team who look after the welfare of all our young people. These Teams hold vast amounts of experience in working with young people, both with BYMT and elsewhere, and are the first point of call when young people are on their project. They are especially skilled in building a rapport with our young people, and making sure they look after themselves and each other. As the vast majority of our projects are residential, we have a legal obligation to ensure the safety of all young people aged 11 through to 21. For those aged under 16 we are in loco parentis and for those over 16 we still have a duty of care. You can view our Safeguarding Policy here for more information.

INSURANCE

We have Employers’ and Public Liability Insurance through Chubb Insurance. The company does not cover insurance of personal items and assumes no responsibility for damage, loss or theft of personal property on any of our premises. It is advisable to ensure that musical instruments or any other items of value are covered by your household insurance policy. Expensive jewellery, cameras etc. are better left at home!

COVID-19

Although restrictions have been lifted, we still take the welfare of our staff, young people and families seriously. Please read our Covid-19 Charter here for more information.

All our course fees are heavily subsidised by the funding we receive. Furthermore, we operate a Bursary Scheme that offers bursaries of up to 95% of the course fees. Anyone who has a gross household income of up to £40,000 per year is eligible to apply.

The cost of our activities varies depending on the nature of the course. A Camp will cost between £600 - £750 for the week, and Productions cost between £1,550 - £2,000 for two to three weeks. This covers:

Training from excellent professional Creative Team
Care from our Pastoral Team
Residential accommodation
All meals, drinks and snacks
A contribution to theatre costs, marketing and our overheads

We appreciate this is a substantial amount of money and have developed a number of ways of addressing funding requirements:

All course fees can be broken down into smaller instalments across several months, and we are happy to consider longer payment plans if necessary.

We have developed a guide to help young people fundraise from a huge variety of sources - their school, local trusts, Rotary/Lions clubs, local business sponsorship, events and donations from friends and family.

If you have any funding issues, please call the office on 020 8563 7725 and speak to the office. We are always here to provide advice and guidance. Rest assured that nobody will ever be excluded for financial reasons.

CANCELLING OR WITHDRAWING FROM A PROJECT

Please read our Refund and Credit Policy in the Terms and Conditions. We strongly recommend that you take out full insurance that includes cover against the loss of deposit or cancellation charges. Activity Holiday Insurance can be obtained from a variety of companies. Check with your own travel/home insurance providers to see if your current policy covers you already.

Whether you have a question, concern, complaint, or you want to tell us what a great job we’re doing, your feedback enables us to constantly review and improve the services that we provide to young people. Please contact: mail@bymt.org or call 020 8563 7725.