About Next Stage Youth:

Launched in the same year as the parent company, Next Stage Youth has been in existence since 1994. Next Stage tutors and actors have coached over 500 youngsters, preparing many for performances, auditions and competitions. Indeed, some of our talented young actors have gone on from Next Stage Youth to train for the professional theatre.

The emphasis is always on friendship, teamwork, support and a professional grounding in theatre arts. In any year members of Next Stage Youth have the chance to work on devised theatre, competition entries in the Mid-Somerset Drama Festival in March, and a full-scale production in The Mission Theatre. There are no auditions, anyone between 11 and 18 is welcome and Next Stage has a policy of using talented youngsters whenever possible in adult productions.

Next Stage Youth runs for ten-week terms (£100 per term), with each session on a Sunday from 4.30 – 6 pm at The Mission Theatre.

Next Stage Youth enrolment for the Autumn term is on Sunday October 3rd,
between 5 and 6.30pm at The Mission Theatre.

For any queries or to sign up, please call Ann Garner on 01225 428600 or email (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

What goes on at NSY?

As well as the regular weekly sessions with Next Stage tutors, students also have the chance of attending professionally led workshops. All aspects of stagecraft and dramatic presentation are explored.

Next Stage Youth regularly enters local competitions and presents public showings of its work. All members competed in the 109th annual Mid-Somerset Drama Festival, and we were delighted to receive two cups for first place, two entries in second place and one in third place in the three different age categories. Click here for a full report on the results, and photographs of our entries.

In July 2010 NSY completed a brilliant two cast production of Sparkleshark at The Mission Theatre, Bath, and are now looking forward to performing Daisy Pulls It Off in August this year with three different casts.

Youngsters are also invited to take roles alongside adults in Next Stage’s programme of challenging productions staged by the company’s ‘seniors’. The latest such productions have been The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at The Mission Theatre in October 2009 and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in July 2010.

Click here to read an article and view pictures of Next Stage Youth’s collaboration with Spanish teenagers. After seeing a production of Sparkleshark, pupils from Madrid on a Summer School in Bath met the Youth cast and then attended a theatre workshop led by Next Stage actors in which cast members and the Spanish teenagers explored some of the universal issues raised by the play.