About

Since 1994 Crooked House ran occasional workshops and short programmes for teenagers, usually for 6 weeks or duirng holiday periods. In 1996 we decided to run a more formal, long-term project called Kildare Youth Theatre (since there was no other youth theatre in the county at the time). It was launched in Newbridge in October 1996 with 14 young people (including teenagers Brenda Donohue who played a leading role in Waking the Feminists movement in 2015, and LIam Geraghty who became an award-winning audio producer of podcasts and radio for RTE and others). Kildare Youth Theatre @ Crooked House ran on Wednesdays after schools with workshops led by theatre-maker Anne Mekitarian with Peter Hussey as Artistic Director. Their first play was 'Over The Wall' - a socio-political fable by James Saunders, staged during Newbridge's Bealtaine Festiavl in May 1997.

 

Since then it has grown into one of the country's largest youth theatres with over 150 members aged between 11 and 22. Kildare Youth Theatre stages several productions per year, ranging from Shakepeare to devised and contemporary theatre. There are weekly workshops for different age groups, international exchanges and projects, and film-making and creative writing workshops. 

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Kildare Youth Theatre has its own website which can be visited here or by copying www.kildareyouththeatre.com into your browser.