Watford Palace Theatre, in partnership with Hertfordshire County Council Children Schools and Families, runs the Hertfordshire County Youth Theatre.  Our March production of A Vampire Story was chosen to be performed at the National Theatre as part of their New Connections festival. 

The Guardian's Lyn Gardner on HCYT's production: "A clever mix of guile and innocence... extremely entertaining."

Working with young people and teachers from across the county, HCYT offers training and performance opportunities with professional practitioners.   There are 2 productions a year for 13 to 18 year olds as well as master classes and new writing projects. 

Young Production Crew
If you are interested in technical theatre or stage management and are 14+ our backstage youth theatre is for you. The team meets on a project by project basis forming the technical crew for our youth productions.

We notify HCC schools when auditions for our productions are coming up.  We audition in schools around the county and at Watford Palace Theatre.

If you are interested in joining either for performance or production opportunities, download the HCYT Application form by clicking the link below and send it back to us or contact learning@watfordpalacetheatre.co.uk for more information.

Feedback from the participants:   "Being part of the whole thing and feeling like a real actor was the most enjoyable thing because it doesn't happen every day! I felt like I’d won a competition. The most important thing I learnt from this project was that a theatre shapes our society just as much as school does." 

"I was impressed with the professionalism from both the technical and performance based aspects of the show. I think it demonstrates how well the Hertfordshire County Youth Theatre is run and is a good basis on learning how to cope and behave in theatre of the highest level."

 You don’t have to be part of a Youth Theatre already to participate.  Hertfordshire County Youth Theatre is open to young people aged 13 to 18 years, currently attending an HCC funded school or college.

The next HCYT production will be Tom Stoppard's Dogg's Hamlet, Cahoot's Macbeth, which will be performed on 31st October and 1st November 2008.  Tickets can be booked through our box office.