Youth Theatre Company headed to India

Urban Myth Theatre of Youth, based in Adelaide, is packing its bags and heading off to Mumbai India for the 2009 Thespo Theatre Festival.

After a smash hit season of The Pirates’ Ship (based on Gillian Rubenstein’s children’s book) in Adelaide, the company of seven young actors with the Artistic Director Glenn Hayden and General Manager Jo Coventry are heading off on a three week adventure of theatre presenting and making.

“This is a perfect example of cultural and artistic exchange and it has all been a ‘right place, right time’ situation,” Glenn Hayden said.

“In 2007 Urban Myth presented a youth developed and created adaptation of Orwell’s 1984 for the Adelaide Fringe. I happen to notice five Indian audience members and decided to find out what brought them to the daytime performance of the show. It turned out that they were a part of a touring production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream from India and also very heavily involved in youth theatre in Mumbai, in particular the Thespo Festival.

“After a long and excited conversation we had locked down an invite to the festival and the rest is history. We fortunately also had the
expertise of Sydney based children’s theatre company Monkey Baa to tap into for the script development… another coup for artistic exchange!”

Urban Myth will be in Mumbai for three weeks performing at the Prithvi Theatre and The Experimental Theatre in Mumbai and is looking to gain some performances in schools. Part of the mission will also be to create a site-specific piece with Urban Myth and Theatre Bombay
members.

“We will also be running and attending skills sharing workshops and several creative developments to flesh out a three year plan for the creation of an international co-production,” Hayden said.