Platform Youth Theatre, established in 1998, is a company based in the northern suburbs of Melbourne for 16 to 26 year olds who want to be involved with theatre.
Mission
Our mission is to be the most innovative and inclusive theatre company in Melbourne for people aged 16 to 26.
We want to achieve our mission by:
• Making awesome and unique theatre that topples notions of what ‘youth’ or what ‘community’ theatre is.
• Being a member-driven organisation so members decide what work we make.
• Sharing the love – participants are welcome from all backgrounds and abilities.
• Working with the best artists in town.
• Having a good dose of respect and friendliness in how we work.
Mindset
We work with young people to make theatre – this means young people are involved in all stages of the process, not just as audience members.
In fact, when we use the words ‘young people’ or ‘youth’, this is really just referring to age rather than ability or inspiration.
Everything we do we approach with the attitude if ‘How will this give opportunities and a voice to the young people we work with?’
Projects
So, we’ve got the mission and the mindset, now we just need to create projects so our mission and mindset can run free. Our projects generally include:
• Skills development workshops
• Major performances
• Readings
• Events.
We program our projects on a year-to-year basis. This means that we only know what our program is about a year in advance. We don’t tend to do things on a weekly or term-based calendar. If you want to know what is happening right now, see Current program.
Running a project is not just about putting something theatrical on. To us, it’s about:
• People – collaborating with participants, artists, staff, community and audiences.
• Process – the way in which we run a project.
• Content – what the broad subject matter is and what the story is.
• Form – the way in which we will tell a story or present an idea.
• Presentation – what we present at the end of the project.
• Place – where we hold workshops, development sessions, rehearsals, and where we present the final performance.
• Outcomes – what experiences and skills we hope people will get out of the project.
Other things that pop up
From time to time we will also be asked to help out with events and projects other organisations are running. And this means more ways to get involved.