Cardiff's leading musical youth theatre /young people's theatre group

This is the page especially for our younger members:

The Unknown YoYos

Members of our group are aged 8-13, and new members are always welcome to apply.

** Want to go straight to the rehearsal schedule? **

We meet on a Tuesday evening, 7.00-8.30pm at Roath Church House (need a map?), and we do a mixture of games, singing and acting exercises. Everyone is welcome, whether or not they have performance experience. All we ask is that members attend regularly, once they've made a commitment to joining the group.

We have a limited number of places in the YoYos, and are currently full, but we are always happy to add names to our waiting list: please contact us if you'd like to add your name to our list - we're taking names now for spaces in September.

We also put on shows - sometimes, some or all of the YoYos are involved in productions with the main, older group too - but we also do shows which are just for our own members.

The sessions are run by one of our experienced directors, Lon David, who is often helped by one of the members of the main group.

At the moment

We're currently on our summer break, but will be starting up again in September. We currently have a few vacancies for the new term: if you're interested in joining us, contact us to let us know. Places are limited, so you'd be advised to reserve your place for September by contacting us as soon as possible.

Auditions

We don't hold auditions in the YoYos.

We do some workshops, and we try some scenes from the play with different people in different parts, then Lon, the director, chooses people for the roles.

History

We've already done two full shows:

Rose and the Wicked Wolfee! (March 2008)
How to Eat Like a Child (February 2007)

Click on the links to find out more about the shows, and to see the photos from them. The photos on this page are taken from the shows and there are lots more YoYo photos scattered about the website.

Also, the YoYos joined the main group for our special Christmas concert in December 2008 - A Christmas Cracker. There are some photos on the page too, and show YoYo members in rehearsal. They sang and danced in a number of the songs as part of the whole company.

Three of our more experienced members had small parts in the main company play in July 2008, The Oedipus Plays. We also worked on Hiawyn Oram's play The Good Time Boys which we presented to parents and family in March 2009.

In July 2009, the group performed A Typical YoYos Session which gave parents and families a chance to see the kinds of things the group get up to at our weekly sessions, when we're not rehearsing a show.

And in June 2010, we did a full promenade performance of A Midsummer Night's (Little) Dream - a reduced version of the Shakespeare, but with all the characters and many of the original lines. We couldn't fit too big an audience into the hall, so we had to restrict it to parents only.

Our other news is that in 2010, two of our members have been chosen to be the representatives for Wales at the first ever World Children's Theatre Ensemble, which will be held in London in September. Well done, girls!

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While we can't promise to involve YoYos in all main company productions, we try to do so where we feel it's appropriate, to give YoYos as wide an experience as possible. Two of our current members will be involved in the main company's latest production, a newly commissioned musical Life, Actually, which will be performed in July 2010. See the Next Shows page for more information.

We also try to involve YoYos in the main company where possible as we like to encourage a real company atmosphere across all parts of The Unknown Theatre Company.

If you'd like to come along and find out more about us, we'd be delighted to meet you. Please contact us and let us know when you're coming!

Rehearsal Schedule
chart is liable to change. Latest update 14 July 2010.

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