YOUNG COMPANY

Young Company offers students aged 13 to 19 an opportunity to create a new play and perform it in front of an audience. Led by a professional director and instructor, students work together to develop and improvise scenes, shape stories and create a play together. There are no registration fees. Young Company members enjoy seeing plays at the Blyth Festival, meeting members of the Company and presenting five performances of their play.

In 2010, the Blyth Festival Young Company is joining forces with one of Canada’s brightest aspiring young artists. Britta Johnson, now in her first year at the University of Toronto, took Stratford by storm in 2009 with her original musical Big Box Story, written, composed and directed by this wunderkind while in her final year of high school. 

So what’s she dreaming up for our intrepid Young Company? Johnson is currently working on a show that revolves around people in a small town who want to put themselves on the map—literally and figuratively. They decide that the only way to get the world’s attention is to set a new world record. The problem is they don’t know what record they can tackle. The play addresses our peculiar need to gain attention through instant fame.

Realizing Young Dreams - Blyth Alumni

• Severn Thompson - In 2010, Severn can be seen in The Cherry Orchard at the Shaw Festival, where she has several seasons of leading roles under her belt. Severn has also performed for two seasons at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival.  
• Geoffrey Armour - A Goderich native, Geoff has completed his training at George Brown theatre school and plans to study next in Paris.
• Kendra Fry - Kendra learned the professional ropes as a stage manager.  She is now the General Manager at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto.
• Sam & Sarrah Sholdice - this brother and sister team from Clinton cut their teeth on The Outdoor Donnellys and have been rock solid members of the Blyth Festival since.
• Lisa Hood - a recent graduate of the University of Toronto/Sheridan is the new GM at Goderich's Livery Theatre