History
Since 1994 Crooked House ran occasional workshops and short programmes for teenagers, usually for 6 weeks or during 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 school 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 Festival in May 1997.
Growth
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 Shakespeare to devised and contemporary theatre. There are weekly workshops for different age groups, international exchanges and projects, and film-making and creative writing workshops.
Regular Workshops
While workshops have always run on week-nights, from September 2026 they will run on Saturdays. There are 3 regular workshops.
Oberon is for 11 to 13 year olds. This is from 12.00pm to 2.00pm
Touchstone is for 14 to 16 year olds. It runs from 2.15pm to 4.15pm.
Caliban is for 17 to 19 year olds, running from 4.30pm to 6.30pm.
The workshop programme begins annually in September and concludes in June. There is a break of two weeks at Christmas and again in Easter each year.
Performances
In addition to regular workshops members can sign up to take part in two annual productions. One is a new play from the NT Connections programme run by the National Theatre of Britian. The other is our annual Shakespearean production. Staged in late April or early May in Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge. Rehearsals for these are not at the same time as the regular workshops. They are separate projects, usually rehearsing on a week night and on Sundays.
Once-off projects
These include international youth theatre exchanges (where a group is selected to create a small, devised performance on a theme and bring it to another country to explore the ide in a week of workshops and collaboration with other young people of the same age); projects with Youth Theatre Ireland (such as Young Critics Programme or the National Festival); and occasional projects like Cruinniú nan Óg or LGBTQIA+ workshops. There are leadership development projects for older teens and young adults.
How to join
Membership of Kildare Youth Theatre is free and open to everyone aged 11 to 19. There is no waiting list as young people can join all year round. In order to join, young people and their parents/guardians must complete this form:
🔗 https://docs.google.com/forms/d/19RAXg27Gt3B1ongHRk7u28vbVXNU9r1X1DA5rh1dm3A
When completed, please email Yakup Bas, the Artistic Director of Kildare Youth Theatre.
Kildare Youth Theatre Online
There is a website that gives further information about Kildare Youth Theatre. You can access it here:
🌐 www.kildareyouththeatre.com
You can also check some videos and projects on our YouTube page
Our Instagram page is full of recent content.
Information Handbook
Here is a copy of our most recent Information Handbook. It contains details for the current youth theatre programme.
