A new year, a new decade, and a whole host of new theatre opportunities to get yourself involved in. I can’t help but to think that a lot of the times fantastic opportunities come and go without even people knowing about them. When I was researching my January Theatre Opportunities highlights I found a series of great opportunities that literally had a day left to apply for – why aren’t they posted more on the internet, I wondered? Why haven’t I heard of them at all? How many other people miss out because they simply don’t find out about these opportunities?

Enough of the questions, here are some of my picks for January that are worth a look over for getting more actively involved in theatre.

National Youth Theatre Auditions – This organisation is truly up there with some of the best for young people who want to get involved in theatre. Whilst I have never been actively involved in NYT, their involvement in theatre sends ripples through any theatrically minded person. With a proven track record of supporting and promoting the talent of young people, it’s a wonder why any budding young thespian is not queuing up around the corner to audition.

The application date has been extended to 28th January, and with a ‘no previous experience needed’ approach to auditions anyone can get a shot at being part of nationally recognised youth theatre.

National Youth Theatre Website

Performance Innovations – A project designed to give “entrepreneurial skills and develop innovative and enterprising practice with performing arts practitioners.” This is a course aimed at graduates from performing arts courses, to enroll on the ‘Performance Innovations’ course to give a boost to your understanding of developing work, promoting it, and exploring ways of development. What makes this course so unique is that it is grounded from a practical perspective – you will create performances and work within the course, but also learn what to do with this beyond and in the ‘real world’.

Are you seeking a successful career in the Performing Arts? Are you thinking of setting up a company or similar? Then Performance Innovations might be for you.

I can’t quite do what this course does much justice, so I advise you to actually read about the course yourself here.

If it sounds like something as a graduate you are interested in – then they are holding a seminar/information event on the 18th January at the London Metropolitian University. All the details can be found on their website.

International Youth Arts Festival Submissions – Working with the Rose Theatre in Kingston this festival promotes the arts in all it’s forms coming from the younger generations. It’s great to see a festival dedicated to putting the lime light to those people who are going to be the next theatre makers and essentially our future of arts. The festival running in July 2010 is a week long, at the Rose Theatre and is sure to be a hit this summer.

Applications are open until 31st January to take part in the festival. If you’re between 0-25 years old and have a performance / event / creative flair you can apply to be part of the festival. They are also accepting applications from adults with work based for young people. There really is no restrictions for applications, and they welcome all arts related performers/performances or arts producers/managers.

Pleasance Scratch – The Pleasance Theatre possibly best known for their comedy work at the Edinburgh Festival is slowly gaining a reputation for their work in contemporary theatre and dance. Last year they were part of the SUSPENSE Festival, the first London puppetry festival in 25 years, and later in 2010 they will be the venue of choice for the Cloud Dance Festival a thrice-yearly contemporary dance platform for new and emerging dance companies. Now the Pleasance Theatre are launching a Scratch night for new and established theatre companies to try out their devised work.

Scratch nights are a great way to experiment with new work in front of an audience who understand that what they are seeing is a work in progress. Feedback is sometimes provided, so it’s a great opportunity to get involved from an audiences point of view too.

If you’re interested in performing at the Pleasance Scratch then email cassandra@pleasance.co.uk with a brief outline of the work (20 minutes worth).

Internships – A quick look at the Internships available for this month in theatre

BAC – Comms Intern – 11th January
Oval House Theatre – Theatre Intern – 8th January
Tara Arts – Press and Marketing Intern – 15th January

If you know of any other opportunities you feel are worth a mention then please either give me an email for future posts, or just leave a comment below.