Aberdeen Youth Music Theatre’s junior group is gearing up for its upcoming performances of Lionel Bart’s musical Oliver! at the Tivoli Theatre.
And the company’s director Shirley McGill has reminisced about the many success stories to have passed through AYMT’s ranks in the 32 years since it was founded.
“So many kids have come from Aberdeen and are performing in the West End of London,” she says. “I went down recently to see a play with Mark Rylance in it, and I didn’t realise one of our ex-pupils, Ewan Black, was in it too. Unfortunately he had his understudy on that night, so I didn’t actually see him, but he’s been in Edinburgh performing with the Ralph Fiennes Macbeth production too.”
The Rylance play Black appeared in was last year’s Dr Semmelweis, which opened at Bristol Old Vic and transferred to the West End. Meanwhile, it’s not the only recent hit to feature an AYMT alumnus.
‘Youth theatre is so important’
“Amy Lennox was in Cabaret and she performed onstage at the Olivier Awards, she was one of ours,” says McGill.
“Ailsa Davidson stars in the new Marie Curie musical in London, and she was in Heathers the Musical as the lead. We’ve had two who have done that, Ailsa and Jemma Innes.
“We’ve had a lot of – I call them kids, they’re not kids – going on to a lot of success. When we were down in London we met with the rights holders for a lot of shows, and they told us they’d heard a lot of the people getting the parts down here have come from Aberdeen. It’s amazing.”
McGill, a speech and drama teacher with her own school, and formerly a primary school teacher, is evangelical about the healthy state of youth and amateur theatre in Aberdeen.
‘Finding your tribe’
AYMT was founded in 1992 by dance teacher Karen Berry, alongside Kenny Hossick and Angela Campbell, and McGill – who was taught drama by the late Aberdonian youth theatre pioneer Annie Inglis – came onboard as director two years later. Now she and Hossick run a group which takes students aged from 10 to 19.
“Youth theatre is so important for so much more than just being able to perform,” she says.
“It’s confidence-building, finding your tribe, belonging to a group who have the same interests. Then there’s the responsibility of being in the group and the commitment you have to make, problem-solving onstage if something goes wrong, as well as communication skills, fitness, and really appreciating what everybody else does to pull the show together. Most of the kids go off into other careers, but these are all very much life skills.”
Oliver! is a big production for AYMT
McGill is sad to be missing another local alumnus of AYMT, Danielle Jam, when she appears in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Sunset Song in Aberdeen this week.
Yet the Junior 10-14s group’s production of Oliver! has her full attention, in a show which she hasn’t directed before.
“We were looking for a show that would suit our age range, something with younger children that would suit the older kids as well, to hold their interest,” she says. “Oliver’s turned out really well, because the smaller children are Fagin’s pickpockets, and the older children play the adult parts.
“It’s an interesting show, because the themes are so dark, with abuse, murder, thievery and the way children were treated in the workhouse, but the music is so uplifting, it’s hit after hit. So you’ve got to treat the themes with respect, but we’ve also got to make it a family show. That’s been the challenge, and I’m hopeful we’ve succeeded.”
It’s a big production, with 63 children onstage and a live band. “They look like they’re enjoying it, they’re certainly putting everything into it,” says McGill.
“If you come to the theatre, you can’t help but be impressed by these young people, learning everything they’ve learned, standing on that stage in front of a big audience, and singing and dancing and acting their hearts out, having the time of their life entertaining you. I think it’s worth every penny.”
Oliver!, as performed by Aberdeen Youth Music Theatre, is at the Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen, from May 8 to 11. See aymt.co.uk and aberdeenperformingarts.com for more information.
